[News] Christmas Markets

[GJN1]

Saw this in The Guardian today and couldn't agree more.

I hate Christmas Markets with a rare and ferocious passion.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I'd rather chew my left ( or indeed right ) testicle off than go to a Christmas market.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

The selling of toot at Christmas has become a worldwide phenomena. Some people pay thousands of pounds travelling Europe to buy the same crap you can buy on Amazon and get it delivered free.

 

[Weststander]

But in Olso and Munich, we were there for visits anyway, stunning, atmospheric, wonderful.

With our temperate climate it just couldn't be the same thing.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

B&H Council will be disappointed with their decision to allow a Christmas Market pitch up in Valley Gardens these past couple of years. Turned that green space into a muddy mess for months after

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

But in Olso and Munich, we were there for visits anyway, stunning, atmospheric, wonderful.

With our temperate climate it just couldn't be the same thing.

Exactly this. A nice pre-Christmas weekend away with the missus visiting some fantastic cities. Everyone friendly and having fun. Lovely dark and cold evenings, drinking loads of gluhwein and eating sausage. As with most things, it's just a rip-off con job over here. Not a single wooden tie being sold for £15 in sight.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

The selling of toot at Christmas has become a worldwide phenomena. Some people pay thousands of pounds travelling Europe to buy the same crap you can buy on Amazon and get it delivered free.

It's difficult to know which to object to more, Amazon or chintzy, schmaltzy Xmas markets full of overpriced pointless shite no one really needs...

 

[GJN1]

Exactly this. A nice pre-Christmas weekend away with the missus visiting some fantastic cities. Everyone friendly and having fun. Lovely dark and cold evenings, drinking loads of gluhwein and eating sausage. As with most things, it's just a rip-off con job over here. Not a single wooden tie being sold for £15 in sight.

Yes, I meant ones in the UK. Ever been to Manchester in December? There's one on every shopping throroughfare. It's unbearable.

 

[portlock seagull]

“The intoxicating Christmas atmosphere across our markets is free for everyone to enjoy with no requirement to buy anything.”

LOL!!! And the spokesperson a)actually said that b) believes it!!

 

[The Clamp]

Went to the Berlin ones a few years ago. Nice for an hour or so.


I won’t go to an English one. We are shit at everything.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I will go to the one near the opera house on Unter der Linden. Has a decent bar in it, which is heated.

 

[portlock seagull]

What we excel at here is copying something nice and ruining it, usually by commercialisation, to the point it bears no resemblance.

 

[Uncle Buck]

To fair, most of them in Germany have nothing you actually want to buy. Normally an extensive range of pork based food, hot wine and wooden rubbish.

Finding ones with heated bars is the trick. Cannot stand gluwein and drinking a beer in sub zero temperatures is novel for about 90 seconds.

The other problem is for the famous markets, tour companies bus people in for the day, so they are stupidly busy. Remember going to Nuremberg a few years back. Basically feet did not touch the ground. Retreated to a bar in the city walls, far nicer way to spend the evening.

 

[dazzer6666]

Went to Edinburgh (happened to be there anyway). Mild, wet, absolutely crowded............and rubbish.

I can see the attraction of an old-established market in a snowy European city, but a few cheap sheds with even cheaper twinkly lights stapled to them, full of chinese-made tat on a drizzly night being sold by a dodgy market trader whilst being suffocated by the overwhelming RANK smell of cinnamon, cheap wine and donuts and having to listen to bloody Christmas songs being piped through a crap speaker doesn't overly appeal. I'm fence for now.

 

[PeterT]

To fair, most of them in Germany have nothing you actually want to buy. Normally an extensive range of pork based food, hot wine and wooden rubbish.

Finding ones with heated bars is the trick. Cannot stand gluwein and drinking a beer in sub zero temperatures is novel for about 90 seconds.

The other problem is for the famous markets, tour companies bus people in for the day, so they are stupidly busy. Remember going to Nuremberg a few years back. Basically feet did not touch the ground. Retreated to a bar in the city walls, far nicer way to spend the evening.

I bet that was a trial....

 

[Uncle Buck]

I bet that was a trial....

Bearing in mind the numbers there it was more of a rally.

 

[Swegulls]

I'm off to Prague with the family in early December, surely Christmas markets on the agenda! I just have to lose 7Ibs in November first ... really bad timing, all hard work down the drain I guess

 

[nickbrighton]

Christmas markets sound like a good idea . Lots of stalls selling bespoke Christmas items, homemade food, Christmas choirs, snow gently falling but in reality they are simply (in my experience anyway) overpriced, miserable ,cold, very little on sale that isnt available much cheaper elsewhere, wet, cold, usually muddy, and mass produced plastic food, and crap fizzy beer, and have i mentioned wet , cold and muddy?

 

[Weststander]

Oslo was lovely. With some cute, handmade gifts that have lasted.

 

[Algernon]

Last week I walked along the South Bank and there are quite a few of the "Xmas" style wooden shacks along there selling everything for at least 3 or 4 times as much as you'd normally pay.
Could be Xmas or London prices or both. But very dismal albeit over a month before the big day.

Proper Xmas markets in larger German cities are pretty good for atmosphere I've found.