anta Claus is coming to downtown Detroit a bit early this year with presents for boys and girls -- as well as adults.

The big man in red will be part of a new 10-day holiday festival taking place at Campus Martius Park .

The inaugural Christmas Wonderfest  – from Nov. 18 through Nov. 27 – will begin with downtown Detroit's annual tree lighting and continue with Santa Claus, carnival rides, art, shopping and a Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden for adults.

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Campus Martius is to be the site of a 10-day holiday event this season.

Christmas Wonderfest -- shopping, art, food, beer, a carousel, Ferris wheel and Santa -- is scheduled to take place Nov. 18 through Thanksgiving weekend .

"Detroit needs this," said Mark Loeb of Integrity  Shows, who is producing the festival with Detroit 300 Conservancy. "These Christmas markets are in every major city around the world ... they're beautiful and they're wonderful.

"I remember going to downtown Detroit for Christmas. It was wonderful. We need people going back to downtown Detroit to shop," Loeb added.

Loeb said the event will cost about $150,000 to put on and that he's raised $80,000-$90,000 from sponsorships and booth rentals. The Detroit Conservancy, which manages Campus Martius park, is making non-cash donations, as are Compuware and Quicken Loans.

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DETROIT — The magic of Detroit Christmas past is what event organizer Mark Loeb is trying to bring back with the city’s newest festival, the nine-day Christmas WonderFest, running Nov. 18-27.

From the time he was 7 or 8 years old, Loeb, 51, remembers where Christmas magic happened — and it was not the North Pole for his Ann Arbor-based family. It was downtown Detroit. As for many families at the time, the holiday tradition was an excursion to Hudson’s Department store, the Christmas mecca of its day.

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