Amelia Cropley
With the recent fall of November snow, it has become inevitable that the Christmas season is upon us once again. And with it comes every city’s celebration of Christmas lights, ice-skating rinks and mulled wine. And whilst nothing lifts the Christmas spirit more than a Christmas market, every year increases the polarising divide of opinions nationwide: Christmas markets, are they a novelty or an inconvenience? Is it a winter wonderland we Brits crave all year round, or is it just a deceptive money-making scam?
Gathering up the fun-seeking crowds is no small feat, but a Christmas market can do it immaculately. In 2021, London’s Hyde Park Winter Wonderland saw over two million visitors enter their fantasy land, undoubtedly from all over the world and will be reproduced year in and year out. So when the long, dark nights come out, the Christmas lights go up, transporting people straight into the festivity, where even if you aren’t much of a shopper, it is still a feast to the eyes.
visiting a local Christmas market or venturing out and being a tourist in a new city is to celebrate regional and local businesses whilst indulging yourself
So, visiting a local Christmas market or venturing out and being a tourist in a new city is to celebrate regional and local businesses whilst indulging yourself in sampling culinary miracles from the near and far. And reminding ourselves that the season of respite and gift-giving will soon be here and can be celebrated with the handcrafted Christmas gift you wanted to give away (like the highland cow I had my eye on in Nottingham’s Winter Wonderland) or simply to enjoy a family or friends day out of ice skating, the giant wheel, delicious street food and to the appeal of us students, of course, the ice bar.
It makes it wild to think these special moments cannot be appreciated, especially when every city never fails to bring home the Christmas charm. When sight-seeing in Nottingham’s market (and possibly being mistaken for a tourist several times), by four pm, the lights lit up the market square, and the mulled cider warmed us up against the biting November chill, and with the constant ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ I am guilty of, it seems incomprehensible that what brings people together, can be despised so passionately.
As it turns out, it can. What we would expect brings people together might just be the divide that splits us up. Sometimes, we must ask ourselves, is all of this really worth it? And if so, is it worth this amount of money? Katie Jones, walking through the authentic Frankfurt Birmingham market, told The Guardian that these wonderlands are “just not the same any more. It’s too commercial. It starts too early, and it’s got too expensive”, and Hannah simply stated, which became the Guardian’s headline, “It’s overpriced tat, but it’s fun overpriced tat I suppose.” so maybe the Christmas tragedy is the unnecessary prices we cannot avoid any longer. You could quickly spend all your weekly budget on a couple of activities, a little street food and a Christmas souvenir. Ok, you might pay for the experience, but over time, the enthusiasm has declined considerably, especially for locals who see the same so-called ‘tat’ every year.
And no wonder why: Lydia Hawken from the Daily Mail compares the incredible prices between York, Manchester and Birmingham Christmas Markets. She compares in a table how a Biscoff Baileys hot chocolate in York is £7, which for a city as beautiful as York seems almost justified, especially in comparison to a Biscoff-less Baileys hot chocolate in Birmingham for a whopping £12. Imagine paying £4.50 for a bag of roasted almonds. Well, in Birmingham, you don’t have to – I think that burns a hole right through my student budget!
Are Christmas markets becoming just a commercialised ploy to take whatever money we had saved for Christmas?
Are Christmas markets becoming just a commercialised ploy to take whatever money we had saved for Christmas? Are they an entertaining diversion into the fantasy that these luxuries are closer than ever, on a stand right in front of your eyes, but at a bank-breaking cost, especially for the university student who is already dreading their weekly food shop?
However, luckily for us Nottingham students, it seems like we have a somewhat fairer end of the stick with the Old Market Square’s Winter Wonderland. And whilst it all adds up, I was shocked to find out that a Student Special for £20 includes Ice Skating and the Sky Skate Ice Path, the Observation wheel and a selected drink at the Sur La Piste, compared to the average £12.50 per person for Ice Skating alone. So maybe it can be a winter wonderland – but only when it’s student-friendly.
But really, who are we kidding? Why would I pay almost a fiver for a hot beverage when I could get it so much cheaper somewhere within walking distance? I can be in the Christmassy mood with the lights alone, but maybe not with these prices. Not when a hotdog can be a good £10 when I know I could walk into Lidl and get a whole dinner for that, and isn’t that money better spent than an ‘experience’?
So, are they a winter wonderland or a mystified scam? A beautiful, magical transportation of a city or a tourist-attracting havoc-inducing nuisance? Without a doubt, the markets will, of course, be bringing in great income, but is it worth us paying? And if we don’t, will we sacrifice the local beauty each and every one provides us?
Amelia Cropley
Featured image courtesy of Ash Willson via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of Valentin Petkov via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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