Getting into the Christmas Spirit!

Sincd moving to the UK, Christmas markets have become one of my favourite parts of Christmas. They are festive, full of delicious food, interesting crafts and best of all mulled wine. We kicked off our weekend of Christmas fun with a trip to the Manchester Christmas markets on Friday. You can Christmas market crawl through a large chunk of the city, barely leaving the markets as you follow the trail of wooden huts and mulled wine as you wander through blocks and squares that are fully decked out. We shamelessly wore our Christmas jumpers for the first time this season.

The Manchester markets are meant to be some of the best in the country, and didn’t let us down. There’s an international market, a German market and a French market, as well as areas of stalls selling local hand made products and food. My best purchase was a teatowel with road signs of the raunchiest named towns and roads in Britain. The only one I’d actually been to before was Cockermouth. You get the idea. 

After spending the afternoon leisurely strolling and shopping, we found ourselves conveniently in the Northern Quarter, and found a delicious dinner at Cane and Grain. The closest thing to buffalo wings I’ve had in the UK.

The rest of the weekend was dedicated to a Dickensian festival, full of Christmas markets and costumes. Of course we had to go all out with the fancy dress! From the men’s facial hair contest to hanging out in pubs in costume, it’s a great weekend and sense of community spirit. Last year the festival made national news for choosing the questionable #dickfest… all in good fun though!

I can’t wait for Christmas!