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 ?

@Mademetoxic it was in response to someone wondering why there are traffic barriers and armed guards at the Manchester markets. I can't speak for other markets or cities, perhaps they also have anti-terrorist measures in place too.

Because Picadilly gardens is quite sketchy.

I'm local. I always feel safe but it's to stop trouble forming that's all.

York is awful this year - lots of overpriced food and drink. Hardly any of the nice jewellery stalls or gifts that they used to have. No doubt it will be manically busy though

Sketchy - translated as it’s a shithole full of wasters that’s best avoided.

Off topic, but it looked so nice back in the day. (Before my time)
What has happened to it.

It's very ugly now and has such a bad name for itself.
Such a shame.

Die Hard does Christmas Markets, excellent 😁

Piccadilly gardens through the ages

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/gallery/piccadilly-gardens-through-the-years-6983985

I've been to a few in Europe that I enjoyed. I'm not a fan of the UK ones with over priced hot dogs and 2 litre glasses of beer that so many men are not used to so seem mesmerised by them and hang around the pavements just drinking the beer and making it difficult for people especially with prams to get by.

@Jellyslothbridge I'm a local in Bath and it's a freaking nightmare- it looks lovely, but is jam packed full of tanked up Welsh people on coach trips ( sorry any Welsh people on here - but I'm being factual) - and there are coaches littered everywhere -

On the other hand the day the sheds of shit go down the really beautiful old carousel goes up in the centre , the lights are lovely , the shipping is great, the buskers are back and it's a fab atmosphere again- and hotels cheaper!!

Leicester's offering is utterly appalling. The cost of them is eye watering meaning no real independent sellers as it's cost prohibitive, or you have sellers who clearly bulk buy tat from China and whack a huge price on it. There's not even a mulled wine / Cider seller 😬

Last year the one in Winchester was nice but we went on a weekday. I am sure it's rammed at the weekends. It had some proper craft stalls.

Not a fan of Christmas markets. They cause chaos diversions for locals and the ones that I have been to are full of Christmas tat and oversold shite food.

I went to the Edinburgh one in 2016 and really enjoyed it and was thinking about going again this year, but the cost of travel and hotels is quite pricey now (left it too late to decide).

This was when it used to be in front of the town hall [Albert Square?) , before they started the renovations. I assume anti-terrorist machine guns, not anti-spice casualty 🤔

I'm referring to the machine gun armed police, in case that's not clear

The Manchester Markets have gone downhill- About 8 years ago (ish) the Manchester Markets we're mush better Lots of variety I remember buying Xmas presents. Now it's mainly crap and overpriced food and drink.

I worked in a pub on the doorstep of the Bath markets many years ago. Truly the worst days of the year when the Christmas market was on.

Why in the UK do we have no standards. We seem determined to run everything down to cheap, Chinese crap without any quality.

Christmas markets in tthat I've been to in Europe are beautiful. Magical atmosphere, fantastic local food and drinks handcrafted local items.

Is that this year? Cardiff normally has loads of stalls selling local crafts.

If you know where you're going there are some stalls on the edge on less touristy roads which are much better.

The Glasgow one is ok for a wander but utterly overpriced - I seem to remember playing £3 for DS to have one slide down a helter skelter a couple of years ago. It's mostly food for sale and the ubiquitous fudge is surely mass produced and nothing special. But, BUT, you can get a roast dinner wrapped in a giant flat Yorkshire pudding and I can't bring myself to hate on a venue that provides such a thing.

I visited a nice one in La Defense in Paris a few years ago, maybe less touristy as it's in the business district so the stalls had a nicer range of things for sale. And a really magical one in Stuttgart about 20 years back but perhaps it wouldn't impress the same way now because we have our own versions here. At the time I'd seen nothing like it. I bought giant cookies the size of a child's torso, in the shape of a horse and a train, beautifully iced. They were fun to try to transport home unbroken!

I like them and hate them. Love the Christmas atmosphere but most of it’s expensive crap that I don’t need and can’t afford. Happy to buy food from food venders though and happy to mooch around. My dd is living in Bath so I may take a trip there in a couple weeks to look around the market.

I wonder how long it will be until "fringe" markets start popping up around the official markets, selling actual local craft, and people go there instead.
Like the Edinburgh festival which is now dwarfed by the fringe.

We used to go to Birmingham's Frankfurt market every year but all the stalls are the same- rarely anything new so we got bored with it.

I find the whole thing totally weird. Maybe once upon a time in Germany there was an authentic one but every single other one I have been to is just stalls of overpriced tat and expensive hot wine. It's all very fake. It's just shopping, but outside in fake huts 😅