Christmas markets are crap !

[KittyCatsby]

There I've said it . Over the years I've been to a few ( Bath , Chester , York , Lincoln , Edinburgh , Manchester , Harrogate )
Never found one that have lived up to expectation. Mostly selling over priced rubbish , atmosphere almost zero , can hardly get to see the stalls as over crowded , kids miserable etc etc .
Anyone else feel the same ?

YANBU the Manchester used to ok when it was stallholders who came over from
europe with genuine craft items but it’s got too big and is largely mass produced tatt
now. I actively boycott the Edinburgh one due to the company behind it (and it’s the same over priced rubbish every year).

Bring plenty of £££

I'd add county shows and country fairs too, OP.

Never seen a stall with anything on it I’d be willing to part with cash for. It’s just crowds shuffling around the tat, getting in each other’s way and paying £9 for a hot dog. No thanks.

I went to one in 2019 that had a lot of sheds selling toffee vodka, all had samples to taste.....that was a good day. 😆

The closest one to me is Bath, that is the worst one. All the stalls are so crammed together that it is impossible to see anything. Avoid that one at all costs.

Freiburg?

I completely agree OP
My hometown Bath, comes to a standstill when the Christmas market begins too

@Hoppinggreen that’s the one! Beautiful town.

The Birmingham one only has the same 6 stalls on repeat. It felt like walking through a scooby doo episode.

I used to live and work in Bath and originally the stalls were all the local independent shops that rented out the huts but it became too expensive like £4/5k for a week expensive. None of the local business could afford that so the same old imports appeared instead. Working in the pub right on the door stop of the sheds was absolute hell. Everyone in a bad mood because it was so busy in the crowds.

The one in Barcelona was much more atmospheric than UK ones. Surrounded by beautiful old buildings, sparkly lights and with traditional Catalonian decorations and food.

I live in Manchester and hate them. It's cheap tat at ridiculous prices.
The city is full of people dawdling about not looking where they are going which is annoying when you just want to walk to work/home/ Tesco

Got it in one.
Went to Lincoln Christmas Market one year..never again. Couldn’t get near the stalls, got swept along by the crowds, DH didn’t dare let go of my hand in case I got crushed, he’s tall and spotted a pub over everyone’s heads so pulled me along and into it. Never been so glad to sit down with a beer.

Chatsworth market is lovely

I only go for the different flavours of gluhwein.
In the day. Sometimes alone 😂

But agree totally. They sell the same tat year after year. But gluhwein is lovely.

Depends which ones you go to, surely - I love a good Christmas market!
Love the Leeds German Christkindelmarkt, hope it's back on this year as don't think it's been on since Covid hit 😥

Perhaps they are going mainly for the Christmas Market because that’s what excites them the most even though they do other things whilst there.

Does It really matter?

Exactly! I can’t for the life of me work out why people pay thousands to fight for a sun bed to lay on next to a pool for a week, without once venturing out to see any of the country they are in. But I accept everyone is different.

The smell of the Manchester one can be revolting too near the food, sort of fairy ground hot dog stand meets decomposing body!

Fair ground not fairy ground!

Mostly. If I can't go to a genuine original-style one in e.g. Germany to get some things that are a bit different - not likely this year!! - I don't bother, well not to make a special trip of it.

Some are okay though, in the UK. I went to the one in Cardiff a while ago pre-pandemic while there to watch a show, and there were nice little businesses selling genuinely good handcrafted small batch foods, soaps, paintings, knitwear etc. and the food stalls were lovely. These were in lots of little huts which were put in place throught the pedestrianised bit of the city centre, and I believe the businesses rotated so not the same every day or was it week? (And the Winter Wonderland fair was also fun.)

Yeah they're shit but probably no worse than a lot of markets where there's handmade stuff and food & drink. Massively overpriced and stuff you could get in a supermarket for a fraction of the price

When we lived in Bath I never ventured into town between 26th Nov and 15th Dec apart from to get to my office. I did all my shopping post 15th Dec and online- it was hell

@Hoppinggreen my H says Baden Baden was lovely too

Overpriced absolute shite. The one where I live used to be really good until someone else took it over. Absolutely crap, the same thing sold over and over again, and overpriced Lidl sausages and watered down alcohol.

They've all become commercialised now, and instead of selling hand-produced crafts, it's all mass produced, made in China shite. You can buy it on Aliexpress for a fraction of what it is costing at a market. If I am forking out a small fortune for something, then I would rather buy it direct from the person who made it.

I tried to go to Baths once. Literally couldn't get to a single stall, kids were getting trampled on, and we stupidly thought we'd be able to find a nice little cafe to eat lunch in. Fat chance, we ended up queuing for 45 minutes for a takeaway sandwich.