Christmas markets - am I the Grinch?

[MrsCampbellBlack]

My local town is in the middle of christmas market season - oh so jolly. Or in my opinion a load of overpriced tat blocking the streets.

So am I the grinch or do others loathe them too?

They always look so lovely and there's always a lovely aroma of mulled wine. I go along with high hopes of finding some nice gifts and it's always a load of overpriced tat.

YANBU. Nobody needs any of that stuff anyway. It's all in the way and the food stalls are just ewww.

Ooh forgot the hot wine and roasted chestnuts. Bleurgh.

I love wandering through the Christmas Street markets and rarely buy anything! , but I lap up the atmosphere.

Oh good - I'm not the only one. There's one stall selling wooden ties - I kid you not. I pity the poor sod who has that to open on christmas morning.

I always have a firm grip on my handbag and purse in those sort of places too.

I love the Christmas market in theory cos I think it's going to make me feel all nice and Christmassy.

In reality it's rows and rows of home made over priced 'jewellery'/ photos frames with beads stuck on... made by bored looking women.

Yes rather like a Mary Howard Christmas Fair - lots of posh women with their posh hobby companies.

Full of festive spirit me.

I spent about 5 minutes today in our local one. Handmade clay gnomes. The jewellery looked pretty.

I have been to some that are good.

The one in our city at the moment is shit. Its call a 'victorian market'. There is nothing victorian at all the only decent stall was a stall where you can get hand carved things like stools and rocking horses.

Everything else is tat that people are trying to pass off as 'home made' the food is either tapa, 'cuban street food' or pies.

Not really victorian.

Its pointless.

In the past, I was always really disappointed because I could never find anything to buy. Last year, I went with no intention of shopping and just looked around and drank mulled wine. It made me very Christmassy.

Full of tat with lukewarm Gluhwine. No thanks.

I usually insist on heading to a nice pub after 5 minutes or so.

I'm spending the day at ours tomorrow helping out with the local greyhound rescue stall.

I'll let you know tomorrow evening whether or not you are yabu or not :o

I always feel Grinch like for wandering through the proliferation of sheds with a firm grip on my hand bag and rarely a purchase.

Wooden tie?
Over priced itchy knitted kids clothes?
Paint by numbers artistic en-devours of the middle classes?

No thanks, 85% Amazon this year with smattering of NotOnTheHighStreet.

But I do need a cheap shed.....

I like them because they brighten up the city centre but I no longer buy anything from them after paying £5 for two chocolate covered strawberries on a stick.

Ours is lovely and on the lawn at City Hall, so not blocking anything.

I'm in Belfast. I especially like looking the tat things brought by the nuns.

This is what I have to look forward to next Thursday. The sights, sounds and smells of Christmas. I have promised DS2. It will be torturous and Victorian apparently..........

That wasn't Liverpool was it Tess. Because DS2 had the same, wobbling round with a big skewer and a paper plate covered in chocolate.

No, it was Manchester Sparkling but I think they are all just one big company. That's why you can take the gluhwein mugs back to any stall to get your deposit back.

They all seem to sell the same stuff! Wolly hats and gloves made in Nepal, hand made soaps made god knows where, a sweet stall with rip off priced confectionary jewellery, those silly muppet hats, hot dog stands, mulled 'wine' and roast chestnut stands etc. Do the same companies have one in every city? I do like them, I want a bit of individuality though.

Nothing says Christmas like a skewered Strawberry Tess.

Clearly all the Victorians were walking around with them

And toffee apples, Sparkling.

Oh yes Lady. Ye olde Christmas Toffee Apple. And perhaps Ye olde Christmas Hot Dog to start.