CityLife

Festive feeling from Markets is priceless

BIGGER THAN EVER: The European Christmas Market in Albert Square

RAY Cummings sums up the entrepreneurial spirit of Manchester’s Christmas markets better than most. For the past five years, the housing support officer from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, has helped out a friend on the market.

This year, however, Ray is getting into the spirit of things himself.

Having looked on the internet for pictures of authentic Victorian street vendors, the 55-year-old bolted together a Heath Robinson-style roast chestnut stall using a chimenea and some bicycle wheels and is literally doing a roaring trade when I arrive at his Brazennose Street pitch.

“I’m struggling to keep up with demand,” explains Ray, a larger than life figure who removes his heat-proof gloved hand from the fire just long enough to pass me a £2.50 bag of delicacies.

Cummings, dressed from head to toe in Victorian garb, adds: “It’s easily going to be worth my while – people seem to love it.”

He’s not wrong. Now in its 10th year, Manchester’s Christmas markets are bigger than ever before – with 150 stalls spread across sites in Brazennose Street, Albert Square and St Ann’s Square.

I’m paying a visit on Sunday afternoon, with the thermometer teetering below freezing point, and still thousands of people have come into town, perhaps tempted by the notion of a brief respite from talk of financial chaos in the real world.

Notions

It’s possibly a good thing that they’ve put notions of economic meltdown to one side given that there have been suggestions that traders here are cashing in on the festive feel-good factor with sky high prices.

It’s fair to say that it takes a cup or two of gluhwein to limber up the spending muscles when it costs £4.50 for a chorizo sausage that would be half the price in a supermarket.

But if it is expensive, the punters don’t seem to mind.

It could be the combined smells of succulent roasted meats, perfumed candles and sweet and steaming alcoholic punch, but those milling around seem to have been caught up in the intoxicating Christmasness of the place.

Or maybe it’s the bright lights and mistletoe.

The traders I speak to say that people are happily spending and insist that their prices are no higher than they would normally charge at other European markets throughout the year.

Mike Alexander has brought his Indonesian imported carved ducks to Manchester for a fifth time and says that the Christmas markets are always his most lucrative.

But he charges the same amount year round and has too because he also sells them on the internet.

Mike, who is based in Chester, says that he has tried all sorts of animals, “pigs, sheep, etc”, but people seem to prefer the ducks.

Dutch doughnut and cookie man Evert Veldhuizan, who is also trading in Brazennose Street, suggests that the euro is impacting on the profit he is able to make – something I don’t quite understand – but says that the Manchester crowd seems to be spending just as enthusiastically as ever.

Sweeping motion

Gesturing in a downward sweeping motion, he says that customers in some cities have started to spend less.

“But in Manchester…” he adds – and draws an imaginary line to represent record sales.

He’s full of praise for Manchester’s Christmas Markets and says that they leave traders every bit as delighted as visitors.

“They are very well organised,” he says. “And there are lots of visitors.”

In fact, that is the basis of the only criticism I hear while touring the market’s biggest festive outpost in Albert Square.

One trader points to the congestion in the aisles and is concerned what might happen if there was a fire. He suggests a one-way system and the allocation of one-in, one-out ticketing.

It’s a nice problem for a trader to have, but he might have a point.

Some are here for the food – a mouth-watering mix from across Europe, which includes pancakes, hog roasts, bratwurst, burgers, and, closer to home, Lancashire hot pot and black pudding.

Some are here for the alcohol, even at £3.50 for a pint of lager (plus glass deposit).

But some are perhaps looking for alternatives to the usual socks and handkerchiefs.  

There’s plenty to browse, with the German Christmas Market from Frankfurt taking up its usual spot in St Ann’s Square, a mix of traditional wooden toys and the weird and wonderful.

It’s impossible to walk more than a few paces without somebody saying how amazing the atmosphere is and they’re right.

Is it expensive? A little. But for just a few hours, touring Manchester’s Christmas markets makes the credit crunch feel like it’s happening in another world. And, like the magic of Christmas itself, that feeling is… absolutely priceless.

Click on the link to the right for a full rundown on Manchester's Christmas Markets.