Why are Christmas events in the UK so lame?

[SaturdayGiraffe]

Location after location I read the reviews, some happy, most upset and cross about having spent so much money for variations on:

• mud
• disinterested staff
• cold hot chocolate
• overpriced food
• low quality food
• cheap decorations
• short light trails
• bad parking
• expensive
• sad reindeer
• grotty grottos

etc etc

It's all so depressing! Families are spending so much money on a couple of hours entertainment, and being fleeced. Do other countries do it better?

It’s not cold enough anymore. To really enjoy scams activities the weather needs to be Christmassy rather than autumny.

I think we rely too much on 'stuff' where Christmas is concerned.

I once had the pleasure of watching the Christmas tree switch on in a small Iceland fishing town. It was the second week of December and the children sleighed down to what looked like a community hall. Once everyone had gathered, three Santa's came out and handed out some sweets. There was a countdown and then the lights were on. Then they all joined hands - parents, children and all. They circled the tree and sang carols/songs all together.

It was really like something out of an old movie. I felt so christmassy even watching. I wish our Christmas was more simple like this. I know the snow probably helped but I couldn't help noticing how uncommercial it all was and the children looked delighted just getting sweets.

I consider panto a Christmas activity and I think we do that well.

Ditto carol concerts, brass bands, local Christmas markets not the commercialised ones.

I think a big part of the problem is that there is demand from the public for Christmas-themed events like markets and funfairs, etc, but they're not part of our Christmas tradition. The weather generally isn't conducive to outdoor events either - December in the UK is wet, dark and muddy - unlike in central Europe where it's crisp, cold and snowy. So a Christmas market in a pretty English town can be charming, but it can also be damp and cold and rather dreary and from experience of the one in my (pretty English) town, it's always horribly overcrowded too.

I think people go to things like whatever that thing in Hyde Park and they want Christmas magic and sparkle, but what the fuck do they expect to find in a damp park in the middle of London in December? IMO, if you want snowy, sparkly magic then go somewhere snowy and sparkly, or accept that here in Britain we do lovely carol concerts with mulled wine and mince pies. Bah humbug!

SugaredCookie · Today 12:54

Everything in the UK is lame

You must be doing it all wrong!

We have amazing heritage and culture here and a lot of it can be accessed either free, or for very little. Historic sites, national parks, superb museums, theatre, music (lots of free concerts or low-cost ones), agricultural shows and other summer events, village and school fetes, guided walks, the list is huge.

What bits do you think are lame?

Absolutely AGREE about Manchester Christmas markets! We lived there from 2000 and back in those days, visiting them was a really joy- as you say, lovely variety of stalls, really Christmassy, (a LOT from the continent, including the most amazing cheese stalls) and food outlets whose prices were reasonable.
We moved away and didn't go for some years, then went back especially for the first one after Covid in 2021. IT WAS DREADFUL. Virtually no continental stalls, hugely overpriced stuff you can get anywhere and the food and drink stalls were mostly of the kind you see outside Old Trafford on match days but at twice the price.

@'Catza

But that would mean lots of people working on Christmas Day - not sure if that would catch on here!

Yes. Authenticity and simplicity are two very important factors IMO.

The rubbish bits are the commercial bits. When people do things for reasons other than money then very often they are wonderful.

Why don't more people do more? Selfish and lazy. The nicest thing I can say is they probably don't know how rewarding doing things for other people can be. Sorry, feeling a bit volunteered out today.

Families are spending so much money on a couple of hours entertainment, and being fleeced.

They could just not spend ridiculous money on two hours of entertainment.

If people are so desperate to go to these events then they're fleecing themselves. There's nothing wrong with NOT going to these markets / light trails / Santa's grottos etc.

I'm with the OP most pop-up Xmas places in this country can't even be bothered to have decent snow FFS. Pop over to Norway and they've got bloody tons of the stuff - not just at Xmas events, but they go to the effort of sticking it all over the place.

The weather doesn't help in the UK. Cold and damp.
I live in Austria and it's cold, but a more dry cold. Sometimes you might get a smattering of snow in the towns and villages at Christmas but in recent years that hasn't happened. The atmosphere at a Christmas market is different when it's dry cold and a bit frosty compared to the UK cold, dampness.

But I think the Salzburg Christmas markets are also lame, overpriced and just a bit shit really, just with less shit weather.

That said, a lot of the events running up to Christmas in November and December are nice - the St. Martin lantern procession in the village is always lovely. I can't stand the Krampus runs but a lot of people love them. And a lot of the Advent church services and concerts.

I think the problem with the "winter wonderland" type events you describe in the OP is that they aren't traditional in the UK and are just designed to fleece people of as much money as possible while ticking off a list of Christmassy things which are supposed to be fun - reindeer, santa, mulled wine, sleigh rides, whatever.

Correct. We've just had another t-shirt Halloween.

Once you’ve visited any German Christmas market, you can only cry at the sight of the British ones.

I don’t agree it’s lame, must depend where you are. My town does free Christmas market, and a free fair and light up celebration. Carol concerts, Santa comes around all the streets to meet the kids. All free!

Weather plays a big part in the UK in the ‘Lapland’ type of events that are put on. It’s too wet here and becomes muddy and sludgy, even if they have the fake snow. Also I think expectations are a little high, apart from actually going to Lapland or a northerly Nordic country that does it not many european countries do that type is event. It is more focussed on Christmas markets in the main towns. Poland, Germany and Austria will always have nice old town style markets - it’s a big tourist pull and tons of money is poured into it. London’s Covent Garden market is nice and Greenwich too, both are small. Hampton Court does a nice one and if you’re in the area Kingston has a Christmas market with a few stalls, okay but not great. Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park has gone down hill and lost its appeal for me. Not sure what is held further north as I haven’t been to anything outside of Surrey/London. I also wonder if too many American holiday films are being watched and if people are expecting too much?

I lived in Latvia for 5 years, beautiful small market in Rīga and lots of festive snow parks in towns further out for the children. Makes a real difference having a white Christmas instead of drizzly 17 degrees or whatever it was last year. Also find less it commercial in many european countries, I spent two Christmas’ in Italy and it was more pared back. People see the excess as a bit much.

As a pp said, there are so many really lovely Christmas events in this country.
We have a selection of nice Christmassy street markets to choose from ,with stalls selling nice locally-produced food at reasonable prices.
Many of the churches organise Carol services, some showcasing talented local musicians.
Nearest city has several Christmassy concerts in December.

Fwiw, having lived in Germany, their Christmas markets are largely overhyped too. They looked prettier than ours but still sold overpriced tatt that I didn’t want.

I'm never sure why people go to those things unless it's somewhere snowy and nordic. They're bound to be a bit drab.

We do a better job in our village. Decent tree, good decorations, three santas on a rota, two horse drawn sleighs, carol singers who have been rehearsing for months. Craft market where everything is crafted. Nice hand-wrapped presents & home made food/hot chocolate/mulled wine thanks to a fund raiser earlier in the year.

It takes some work but we have a retired lady who is an organisational demon.

Our winters are too mild and wet which causes all the mud. Once mud is involved everything then feels hard work and grotty.

As a general rule I think most UK Christmas events that require you to purchase a ticket (with the exception of panto/theatre shows) are crap. The more expensive, the more crap they tend to be. I don't even really know WTF a light trail is meant to be? Yes I get that there are displays of lights and you can walk around and look at them. But the tickets for the one near me are £20 per person so a family of four would spend £80 looking at some lights. There is an opportunity to buy overpriced mulled wine and (tepid) hot chocolate for about £7 a pop. Have to pay extra for parking.

The good Xmas things in the UK are generally free: Church/school/university carol services, community events, local tree light switch-ons. Some garden centres do ok santa's grottos but even these are becoming very expensive and are often £15+ a ticket. Last year the cheapest we could find was about £13 per child and the toy they were given must have cost at least £8 - what happened to paying £1 to see Father Christmas and getting a pocket money toy worth about 50p?! I'm very cynical and think it's because people expect stuff to be very instagrammable now and the local village hall generally isn't. So people will pay through the nose for shit 'experiences' because they generally have multiple photo opportunities even if the experience itself is actually rubbish.

See also: pumpkin picking.

Yes I agree. Calling it a Winter Wonderland, for example, and trying to pretend that's what you're getting, is just such a misnomer and really sets the whole thing up to fail. It'd be much better to just play to our strengths (there are plenty).

@Catza Presumably the shops shut around 12 in your home country on the 24? (Like they do in mine.) That evening is the 'family time' in your country, it's pretty much a normal day here and the Brits celebrate with their families on the 25th.
It's a but unfair to complain about celebrating Christmas on a different day.

I think Christmas has been commercialised too much, I'm not bothered with the markets, we mostly have things we need, and have too much 'stuff'. Expectations about magic has been set too high by movies that I really started to dislike recently.

Ahh it wouldn't be Christmas without Winter Blunderland schadenfreude!

You are doing it wrong. The secret is, don't go to these events. Just read the reviews and news articles afterwards and chuckle away.

Eg
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2221116/bakewell-winter-wonderland-slammed-by-families-as-pile-of-s-that-is-so-bad-even-santa-f-it-off/

Other countries are the same as here. Some good events and some bad ones. You have to choose carefully wherever you are

I love all the Christmas festivities...never been to anything I've found lame.
We do Christmas at the farm every year, Light displays, pantomime, Christmas villages, train rides, , Christmas markets, all day Christmas events - all stuff our children have absolutely loved and found magical.

Next year I'd love to do Polar Express and Disney on Ice.