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 ??

A very tenth rate experience at that
Started off as genuine back in the day. With lots of authentic, hand made. And different lovely gifts and food

Now turned into free for all, for chancers and wide heads on the make selling trash and run of the mill crap food.

It’s not compulsory to go. Staying away with these prices might have a positive effect on prices.

I’ve no idea why, but assorted social media posters are blaming local councils for the prices. As if they had any control on them - or maybe there’s some secret Hot Dog Pricing Sub Committee I am unaware of?

A new gimmick for these so called. Christmas Markets.

Reindeer steaks burgers and mince.

Bet they would taste nice and cost afortune

Only meat from reindeers who have died of natural causes to comply with woke police.

I went to a local town for their Christmas lights switch on and the music/stage was so loud it completely ruined it for me and my husband. The food was alright and my spiced apple cider was yummy but small for £4. We didn't buy anything from the stalls as nothing looked that tempting and we had a 1 year old trying to run away from us!

I totally agree about Christmas markets and Winter Wonderland etc. I would go begrudgingly now but definitely not spend much money. And afterwards probably think it was all a bit too busy and boring! But I don't like rides and don't drink (pregnant and/or breastfeeding for the last few years).

They are hideously overpriced. I like to buy the Bratwurst, churros or chocolate-dipped strawberries etc but this year the churros were £9... obscene and not worth it. For the same price you could get to-notch churros in a restaurant.

I think the trick is to find a little town or village that puts on a good one and make a day of it. I went to one yesterday and hot chocolate was on offer for £1.50 from local girl guides, lots of locals who make bags, wooden chopping boards from local tree fall, enamelled jewellery, home made soap and candles it was really nice. I think the big ones in cities are really expensive for the stallholders to attend so they need to make their money through high prices.

Nobody forces you to go there or buy anything.

The 'paying for the experience' argument works if it is an experience.

Little local Christmas fairs or 1 day markets where you have carol singers, Santa or a lucky dip for kids, maybe a raffle or similar aren't the sophisticated Instagram/TikTok kind of experience but they're more entertaining than standing in a closed street in the middle of some sheds drinking mulled wine while watching out for pickpockets. At the other end of the scale the markets that are mostly food stalls are fun if you go to eat out but they're not markets. They're food courts. As an example, the Oxford one has gone from being mostly market stalls with a range of 'not found on the high street' products, to being 90% churros, bratwurst and raclette with a couple of stalls selling nice stuff, but it's stuff you could buy in town anyway. It doesn't really know what it's trying to be so it can't get it right.

We went to a small local xmas market up the road yesterday, every saturday there is an over priced food market running with vans....£15 for small bowl of noodles, £8 for a slice of cake....so they had mulled wine at £10 a paper cup or a bottle for £37....boxes of matches with a paper xmas tree stuck on the box for £13....we looked later and the matches had actually sold out....our area has lots of young couples with kids and obviously far too much money and no brains. all a total rip off.

The local church is doing an event this week, up the road, free cakes and snacks and the mulled wine is £3...carols etc...sensible prices.

I think I kept going to them longer than I should have done purely because I had such good memories of them from about 15 years ago.

We went to Wells Xmas market and it was ok, bakes and cakes between £3-4 and we had a huge burger bap and sausage bap for £14 total with onions and the works. I thought that was reasonable. Saw mulled wine for £5.

Always have been but even more so the past few years. Xx

We went to Bath last year and really enjoyed it - but went down on the Friday. Saturday morning people were pouring in as we left and it looked like it was going to be a nightmare.

I agree they are absolutely a total rip.off. We went through one a couple of years back. We stopped and paid £6.50 each for an authentic german bratwurst. My partner stood aside from the queue and saw them open a pack of Aldi bratwurst (which at the time were £1.85 for 6). Robbing bstds .

Totally. We should boycott. The greed from a lot of businesses now is laughable. All with the excuse of ' oh our overheads have gone up'. Vote with your feet people !!!

We took the DC to Winter Wonderland (Hyde Park) years ago . At the time the rides were £3 child/£4 adult , you could only buy tickets at the booths , no cash .
On the plus side, queues were ok, entry was free to walk about , toilets were clean and loads of them.
We went again 2 years later (pre booked some rides ) there was a blizzard . Lots of the rides closed for safety .
We went again two years after that , it was bigger not better . Lots of dogs , it was muddy , massive queues ( over a hour ) .
So no more WW .

DH and I went to Bath a couple of years ago , it was a weekend , early Dec , we were on a coach trip ( hotel then Oxford the next day ) You couldn't park in Bath , all the car parks were full (our coach was allowed to drop off/collect )
Park&Ride queues were massive
There were some nice stalls but they were £ . Food stalls queues .
I got the feeling the shops wanted it over and done with to get their High Street back !

Amsterdam and Bruges , the markets were nice , yes they were £ . Food seemed more authentic but maybe that was the atmosphere ? DD and DH went on the high swing on the ADAM loookout

Edinburgh last week , you have to get in the far side of the park and walk round . Some nice stalls , the rides , ( Starflyer the one DH and DD went on was £13.50 /person ) . We didn't go for the Christmas Market , it was something DH saw online and fancied going

I am now Christmas Market-ed Out .
We are going to London next week , there is the SouthBank and Leicester Square but I'm not going unless we happen to wander there ,

I visisted one in a large city -I was really disappointed that 90% of stalls were food and drink. Even if I'd wanted to eat al fresco in the freezing cold and rain, you can only eat once. I was hoping for handmade stuff but the few stalls that weren't food just had mass produced stuff.

We used to have a fantastic one near us. It was in a village and took place in a farmer's fields. Different and interesting food such as a local cheese maker who had lots of cheese out to try and had partnered with a local woman who made chutneys and pickles. There was a great paella stall where you could get a huge portion for £4, a friend from school who had converted a van and sold seasonal pies, mash and gravy for £6 a serving. Every stall was a local and talented seller who had unique USPs and interesting and exciting gift ideas. The local blacksmith did demonstrations and sold some of his things, carol singers were there most of the day. There was even a magician walking round and entertaining people.

It worked for several years, was well attended and a highlight of my festive season. I don't know what went wrong but it started to hike its prices, people flocked to it in too great a number and local residents complained about roads being gridlocked. It closed down.

Some of the local village hall ones are okay but still an alarming number of wax melt sellers and strange 3D-printed tat.

I went to a Christmas market last year and couldn’t believe how much tat from Temu was being sold for ridiculous prices

Bath is only worth visiting in the rain when others have bypassed, it’s crazy busy. We have to be in the centre and nightmare traffic then so busy to walk

3 Marsh mallows on a stick which you toast yourself. £6. (Belfast)

Its just a massive rip off, trying to make us feel we are in a lovely snow dappled German style market, rather than depressing, crap filled smelly British town.
People who should know better are being seduced into buying ridiculously overpriced crap and thinking they are enjoying themselves.
No thanks 🤣

Like an old colleague of mine used to say Christmas is just an excuse to waste money

We've just been to Hamburg for their Xmas markets, fantastic bratwursts and gluhw fir the half the price of UK markets.