Christmas toppers pop up at Morrisons in Littlehampton as a surprise from the knit and natter group

Alison Whitburn, the store's community champion, launched the Woolly Wednesdays knit and natter group in the store café in March last year.

Crafters meet every Wednesday, 10am to midday, in the Morrisons café to learn new skills, meet new people, relax and chat and have a drink, with members taking along along their current woolly project.

This week, the knit and natter ladies surprised Alison with a fabulous Christmas display in the car park, having secretly made lots of lovely toppers for the bollards.

Father Christmas, The Grinch, a reindeer, an elf and a penguin all made a sudden appearance on Thursday, November 30, and Alison said it was a super surprise.

"What can I say?" she said. "My amazing knit and natter ladies have surprised me by making Christmas knitted toppers for the car park. They look amazing and the children’s faces at 3 o'clock! It was so lovely to see their smiles and even hugging Grinch.

"They turned up without my knowledge and set up the surprise. I couldn’t believe it - reindeers, Santa and even the Grinch!

"The children that were walking past them after school were all smiling at them and having photos with them. The knit and natter ladies were quite emotional seeing the children getting so much pleasure from them."

More of the group's work will be on show on Saturday, with lots of items of knitting and crochet on sale to raise money for Together for Short Lives, with all the store's donations going to Chestnut Tree House children's hospice.