Christmas Markets Disappointment

[Insomnibrat]

So this year I decided to take myself off to the Manchester Christmas Markets for the day, in the interests of making myself feel festive. The last time I did this was probably 8 years ago and generally got a lovely warm glow from the whole experience.

I've come away feeling really 'meh' about it.... I expect mulled wine to be expensive, but £9 a cup!?! And no hopes of wandering around the markets, cosily huddled up, sipping it whilst perusing the stalls, no, I was bruskly told by a security guard to 'get back behind the fence', no drinking outside the hut. Oh.

I also noticed that a lot of the original craft stalls are all food and drink now, a good 70/30% spit in favour of food, and the stalls selling crafts were repeated every 5 or six cabins along, like they were all franchises, selling exactly the same goods.

It seems to have lost it's soul, somehow.

Anyone else been left slightly cold by the Markets this year?

Agreed. The Christmas spirit has been sadly eluding me this year (due mainly to being 39 weeks pregnant I think) so DH and I went to the Nottingham Christmas market last week to try and feel festive.
It was absolute horse shit. Stalls were full of tat, no atmosphere at all.

Markets in towns usually disappointing, but the thing that irritates me more is venues, that are usually free to visit (looking at my local museums gardens) which charge for you to visit AND charge tge vendors a load to be there. The first few years it ran it was incredibly popular, particularly with locals, now they charge and locals vote with their feet. And since it's bitter today with the forecast of snow, I can't see many travelling to get here. (Went last night with school choir, so didn't pay and can confirm that amongst the genuine crafters, there was a load of mass produced shite)

It's like the cost of a high street shop. There is a lot of greed spoiling these things

I loved the York markets, but I think I went on a particular weekend when there was also a craft market in town. Manchester was pretty awful apart for the stall selling the drink that involved rum and burning sugar on a spit. Don't ask me what it was or how I got home that evening.

Christmas markets totally go in the box of 'things that sound great on paper but are always a disappointment in real life'.

Also I'm getting old and it's good to have something that was "better in my day" to be nostalgic about

DH is German and we have been to several in Germany over the years
He hates the UK ones and I have to say I agree to a certain extent. They really aren’t the same. I suppose it’s like Disneyland vs Disneyland Paris, Ok if you don’t know any better.
The Manchester one is very crowded and seems to centre around alcohol and the Leeds one just looks a bit sad. We don’t bother any more unless we can get to Germany - favourites are Nuremberg and Freiburg
I know a lot of people do enjoy them though

DD and I went to Prague last weekend specifically for the Christmas Markets. Was a bit of a let down - very crushed in the main market, and the same products on almost every stall.

Loved Prague though - would like to go when it is less busy.

I am very Scrooge about the Frankfurt market in Birmingham. We used to go years ago when it first started for a beer and a sausage. Now it’s just in the way. I wish they’d get rid and do something new.

I agree they have got so generic and expensive. Funnily enough though the only one I found anything good in was Manchester, last year they had a stall selling candles made in Carlisle or somewhere like that - not at all German but very nice all the same!

Some things I'm willing to accept if it's good stuff with some atmosphere like it being crowded and more expensive than a supermarket. Now I'm questioning if it's worth it.

York is getting ruined. Maybe because from spring to autumn I live just 12 miles away and so go too often, I don’t know.

Too many people. Too many shops closing. Too many stag and hen parties.
It’s quaint, old fashioned charm isn’t the same and on the day we visited the Christmas market we saw a dozen coaches parked up waiting to take the punters home again.

I hope they felt it was worth fighting through the crush.
There also doesn’t seem to be the diversity of street entertainment that there used to be either.
Not that it’s their fault, but same as everywhere, there’s worryingly more homeless people on the street and a soup kitchen has opened up outside one of the more expensive tea rooms.

This year I found myself outside Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. It is free to get in, so having time to spare my husband and I walked towards the entrance. Then I remembered when we visited a couple of years ago when most of it just seemed about getting as much money out of you as possible and there was nothing magical about the environment. So we decided not to go in, but to walk in the park instead. I don't blame the sellers as the rents are so high but £5 for a small bag of chips or a hotdog, I don't think so. And £9 for mulled wine in Manchester!l

The York market 'sheds' each cost £8k... for a four week period? Plus the stall holders need to pay for accommodation etc. No wonder it's overpriced.

I've been to the Lincoln one twice - this year & last. That was lovely, but it has lots of 'extras' - the cathedral (with tea and mince pies in the Chapter House), the Xmas wreath festival in one of the churches, and some makers markets where you are actually looking at stuff made by the people selling it. Last year there was also a medieval market which was brilliant.

Lincoln has the advantage of being set in the old city centre which is itself absolutely beautiful and just made for Christmas.

The main drag of rows of stalls and beer tents was pretty meh though.

Walked past the Nottingham one this week (I work there) and it looked awful.

the Edinburgh one has been shit for years...we used to go down to do ice skating with the children, bag some mulled wine and then poke about the stalls

One year one of the stalls was selling the EXACT same christmas decorations that I had already purchased in Lidl for a third of the price!!

The York market 'sheds' each cost £8k... for a four week period? Plus the stall holders need to pay for accommodation etc. No wonder it's overpriced

I never went to the sheds - there were stalls in the open and also in some civic buildings that were more arty and less 'tatty'. The sheds just reminded me of generic non-Christmassy markets.

We have a market in a local village and it is everything it should be. Local craftspeople selling unique and thoughtful, well priced gifts. There are willow weavers, knitters, crocheters and wood turners, a chap with a forge, confectioners, cheese makers, lovely food stalls all grouped together and so on. Carols, mulled wine, friendly people. It seems that making it into a big thing where the focus is on crowds and cash is the problem. Here it's talented independents and lots of festive cheer. It is the start of Christmas for me.

Christmas markets = peak capitalism.

I love the idea of a Christmas market but feel the same, they are just full of imported tat at inflated prices. There’s a few stalls with handmade items but it definitely seems to be less and less.

Agree about Manchester and Birmingham. The Cardiff one is actual craft, usually sold by the person who made it. I hope it stays like this and not follow the trend to tat from China

Where did you see mulled wine for £9, I only saw it for £4.50 plus mug deposit. I agree about them being meh though. The best thing we saw at Manchester was a German salami stall and Dutch cheese doing some unusual flavours.

British Christmas markets are just never going to live up to the hype. 'European' Christmas is so much better.
Save your money and go to Germany for the real thing! Have been to Cologne and Aachen and Munich. Also the Easter markets (yes!) in Vienna.

I kniw someone who goes around collecting abandoned mugs for the deposit. They make good money

The nicest ones I think are the small one or two day ones run in local village halls, churches etc. There was a lovely one in one of southwark cathedral’s spaces a couple of weeks which was refreshingly individual. The sheds of shit get worse each year. You can perhaps fine five out of a hundred sheds which sell anything unusually/lovely. The rest of them just repack the ‘crafts’ you could get in any tourist shop/Aldi or pound shop etc.