To think that most christmas markets are having us over

[sunintheeast]

Not bah humbug I love christmas but was at a nice christmas market today.. mostly food.. some makers stalls but my God the price hike.. bought two wraps which were no shred (haha) of a lie like those starters on a chinese resteraunt.. but a single wonton wrap with a teaspoon of meat and a bit of relish.. FOR £24 QUID. I stupidly paid before seeing it and then felt daft and said thankyou.. literally two bites each... the place was heaving.. is it just me??.. £7 hot chocolate anyone ?? looked around..its all gone insane. There were a couple of reindeer looking sad in a pen but it just felt like it's all gone a bit mad. I like supporting local but ,.. anyone else feel the same ??

This is exactly why I don't bother with them. Ditto these Winter Wonderland things as well. Since hearing a couple of years ago about someone being charged 25 quid for a small bag of fudge at the Winter Wonderland in London,I thought fuck that.

To be fair, I think with the rise in popularity of Christmas markets have come the hike in costs to rent a pitch. I do summer events and festivals and the cost of a 6m x 3m pitch (without electricity) is nearly a grand at some popular events.

We have one come to our nearest town, Bath. Its literally awful, the roads and car parks are full, the streets are overcrowded and most of the wooden sheds just sell overpriced tat.
Can't wait for it to pack up and go...

This. Most of which nobody really needs, and overpriced mediocre food stalls. No thanks.

Yan um

Yanbu.
Tat in sheds.

We went to Chatsworth, it was quite nice, we had a drink from the usual Chatsworth vendors though rather than the Market ones

I don't mind paying a bit extra for a nice time but I find so many of these things (not just Christmas markets but light trails and other "experiences") overcrowded and stressful.

I have become very selective about what we do as a family over Christmas. Anything overly aimed at Instagrammers, with long queues or with nowhere comfortable to sit and eat and drink is off the list.

I love the German hotdogs and a Christmas market with love music. But Kingston upon Thames Christmas market wanted £9 due a bratwurst hot dog this year. I just couldn't.

We went to the Lincoln one a good few years ago now and it was nearly all food stalls , probably two thirds of it at least. Never been to one since!

I like a (weekday!!) wander around Bath as it's up the road but I don't buy anything. Nobody local does. It's just all the shops that you can go into all year round, but with goods moved into a shed. Who is buying wooden ties and £8 chutney?

In busy markets the cost to actually have a stall will be absolutely astronomical, so prices will be up as a result.

That said, I took the kids to the Edinburgh one a few years ago, managed to spend well over £100 in about an hour, and it was fucking shit.

Agree but I also wish Christmas in general would just fuck off. I'm all for family Christmases, Christmas trees and Christmas Dinner etc but have has enough of the rest of it.

I went to Winter Wonderland once. Never again. It's all just so false.

I think you need to have a specific mindset - it’s about wandering around with one or two cups of mulled wine or hot chocolate on the way. You need to be curious about unusual food.
And you need to like various stuff or have a lot of friends and relatives and you need to be a type who likes redecorate often.
Im none of these^. I like to sit and have a cup of tea under the roof. I like to read a list of ingredients or better to buy ingredients and cook them. I keep things for ages, I don’t like stuff and my friends are the same.
im just not a demographic for a Christmas market 😔

They used to be continental but since Brexit they've become mongers of Temu crap at ridiculous prices. 2 cardboard light shades for £50 anyone?

Theyrenice to walk around but I wouldn't buy anything.

I don’t remember them being much of a thing 10+ years ago but now know loads of people that travel to European cities and make a holiday of it. They all come back complaining how busy and expensive it was. Really don’t see the appeal and my kids would hate being dragged around, looking at tat in the freezing cold. It’s a shame that so many of the weekly markets that were in towns up and down the country have stopped. They were actually good and were full of bargains. Councils hiked up the rents and didn’t support them and then wonder why high streets are going to the dogs.

I couldn’t agree more! The crowds are ridiculous and the prices are overinflated.

We go abroad. Done Vienna and Munich, Lublijana next week.

We were in Bath last week. Crazy busy but the stalls were selling nice locally produced things - as far as I could see there was no temu crap.

It’s OK to just walk around and get a drink/snack from elsewhere.

I’ve just been to Vienna, it was incredible ! Big mugs of mulled wine for only 4- /5.5 euros .Beautiful stalls selling mostly lovely stuff ( we bought very little )
gorgeous lights , ferris wheels , palace light trails etc , I’d never bother with one here as they look rubbish

The ones on the continent are much better value. It doesn’t work so well in uk for some reason.

Ditto going to Bath last weekend. My mulled cider was £6 for a small cup though!

Your charity shop imaginings are a very good trick. Christmas markets have always been absolutely, cynical guff. A massive over-priced exercise in over-consumption. I have (accidentally) wandered through them in Newcastle and Edinburgh and found every aspect of the experience depressing. We have reached peak capitalism and this is how it feels. Empty, soulless, sad. The human spirit deserves and is capable of so much joy. This is not it.

Trouble is now, price exploitation in 'modern' Britain runs in a chain, from the top, Government, councils etc, to the middle, wholesalers, transporters and especially rent/pitch prices, so those actually selling to the public have to inflate their prices to get anything at all................Mind the quoted lacklustre wrap for £24 is taking the you know !