Winchester Christmas Market/ice skating

[Songofsixpence]

Apologies if this has already been asked, I did search but couldn't see anything.

I'm thinking about taking the kids to Winchester for the markets and the ice skating and just wondered what it was like.

It's a bit of a trek for us, but we have nothing really Christmassy and fun round here but happy to make the journey is it's worth it

DD1 is 13 and everything is "boooorrrring" and DD2 is 9 but has anxiety and doesn't cope well if it's too crowded and noisy

It is seriously packed unless you go early in the morning eg I was there at 10am on Monday and it was fine, but any later and it is so crowded that you have to queue to move. It's very festive, but not much to buy: lots of crafty kind of stuff, good for presents for your mum etc but all very samey. I don't think I'd recommend it if its a trek. My daughter has asd and even when it was quiet it was a bit too much for her as it is so enclosed and the music is playing loudly etc. also parking in winchester can be almost impossible!

We went a couple of years ago and my experience matched Buscake's
Depends where you are but I much preferred Bath's Christmas market

Thanks!

If it's really crowded then I think I'll give it a miss. We'd do it on a weekend or once the kids have broken up, so if it's crowded during the week now, it'll be a nightmare weekend/school holidays

Bath is too far. It's not a major trek, but still a trek, we were going to come up on the train, so would probably get there lunchtime-ish

Just fancied something festive, buy nice food, mulled wine, ice skating, bit of a festive mooch.

It was absolutely horrendous when we went last year with dc and my sister. We got there about mid-morning on a Saturday and it was packed but not all the stalls were open. Very expensive stuff to buy and on a treadmill as there was so little room and so many people, so not even time to stop and gaze.

Unless they have an INSET day when you might be able to go mid-week when it could be quieter, I would avoid.

There's always Salisbury's Christmas Market?

Yeah, it's rammed. It was even busy this morning.

It causes utter chaos! It's lovely, but it'd probably quite stressful for people who don't like crowds.