It's the dreaded ' Christmas Market ' time !

[Rainbow321]

So I've been to a few ( UK only ) Christmas markets , and my opinion of them all is they are all crap !
The ones I've been to are York ( a few times over the years )
Chester , Harrogate , Edinburgh , Bath , & Lincoln & a few other towns local ones , all equal crap .
Are you with me on this or do you find them magical & wonderful and leaving you full of the Christmas spirit ?

Why have you tried so many if you don’t like them ?!

Bath is a popular day out from south Wales as it has a direct train service.

Tell you what Bath, we’ll keep your Christmas market shoppers if you take our stags and hens. Trade?

They just add to the overcrowding of cities in the run up to Christmas

The high street is desperately struggling, let alone being overcrowded 🤔

The high street is struggling. But making it really difficult to get into the city and too crowded to actually shop, is not going to help!
Dd went clothes shopping with her friend - couldn't move for people and came home and did an online order instead.
If it's too busy it puts people off going

Hate the U.K. Christmas Markets....every other stall is a gin stall (I bloody hate gin) or a soap or candle stall.

I love European Matkets as they are far more Christmassy. Decorations, snow, sausages, gluhwein, and quite often SNOW ⛄️❄️

The very famous European ones are also horrible at weekends. Munich on a Saturday in mid December is pretty hideous for example. The lure of selling overpriced crap to hordes of guaranteed tourists is pretty strong for any major market operator I imagine.

If you want the 'real deal' romantic lovely experience, imo you need to go to much smaller markets. Don't think of it as a day out - any market big enough to be a day out is likely to be full of coachloads of people having days out. Look at smaller towns in southern Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, Northern France. Some of them only have a market for one weekend in Dec because the stallholders are more local and go round all the local markets. And the bulk of the people visiting the markets are local. Those are the ones you want.

I loved the Cologne Christmas markets when I went a few years ago, but the ones in this country are just a ripoff. What pisses me off is that certain towns and cities are virtually no-go areas due to the dominance off the Christmas markets. I used to love going to Bath in the run up to Christmas, but now I steer clear.

We took the teens to our local one day thing last year, even that was dreadful.

We are popping up again this year but only to see Granny and will drive rather than the nice walk up.

It's still cute and fun if you are primary school or below age but yeah it's just artisan burgers, sweet mulled wine and overpriced craft stalls otherwise.

Why would anyone want soap for Christmas? Or fudge ? Or any of the other tatt these markets sell

I live in one of the places you mention and as lovely as the market is, it causes such chaos for residents who need to get in and out of the city for work, shopping etc. Parking becomes a nightmare, all P&R services are rammed all day long. I am glad they are only around for a couple of weeks, but having said all of that, I do think it's nice to be able to pick up different gifts and support independent businesses.

Shed after shed full of shit.

Sums them up nicely!

Actually... I love a good soap. Not some standard one I can get from supermarket, but there are some special ones I totally take as present🙈
My top Christmas present received in last x years was set of vaccum food atorage boxes... Some of us are booooring

I went to the Bath one a few years ago and thought it was shit. Certainly nothing magical about it!

Thousands of people crowding the streets and the seller huts that they have dotted around. It was mostly a load of old tat that was being sold anyway!

Never again.

I’m with you.
Yes they are busy and there’s a load of tat but I like the atmosphere and the mulled wine and people watching

Overpriced shite at all I have been to.
Stay at home drinking your own much cheaper hot chocolate and munching a mince pie whilst shopping online from the comfort of your toasty living room without hoards of irritating pushy people with feral under fives.

Us too! I was genuinely quite frightened by the crowd crush at the Edinburgh markets in about 2016/17. Never been back since.

I love this thread - thanks for linking so I can have another read. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the current thread.

Everywhere is a terrorist taraget these days....ask the people at the Manchester Arena concert..

Pickpockets wont be put off in those crowds where there is good pickings regardless of a few policemen..

I really dislike Christmas markets usually but went with my sister to the one at the Meadowcroft garden centre in Essex and it was quite nice . Very small , not too busy ( we went early ) and stalls with Christmas decs etc not just all food and booze .

They had police with machine guns manchester one year. Not sure if they still do, not been for several years

European ones I’ve been to have been great (Prague, Vienna, Munich, Berlin). UK ones mostly plasticky tat and overpriced hotdogs, with a side order of tacky fairground rides and dangerous crushes (looking at you, Winter Wonderland).

We went to Budapest last year, the market lovely plus lots else to see and do so may need to rethink our plans to go to Bath this year following this thread.

DH loves a Christmas market. I'm more inclined to feel I should be getting a bargain from a market, so put us down amongst the shacks of shite and we're kind of at odds from the off. I get through it by supping tiny samples of flavoured spirits, and eventually succumbing to my duty to buy one of them to fend off any accusation of being tight-fisted. We go at the beginning of the week when it's less crowded than the weekend.

I live near York so spend a lot of time trying to avoid that Christmas market. Nicest one I've ever been to was at Durham, in the cathedral cloisters. Lots of handmade stuff and very little tat. Most of the others I've visited have been commercially produced stuff sold at a premium.

Everywhere is. Why just say Manchester?

Gosh if you feel like that you will never go anywhere.