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Kilkenny’s Yulefest brings a welcoming, small‑city vibe to Christmas with a market on The Parade against the backdrop of Kilkenny Castle. Weekend stalls showcase Irish makers, seasonal bakes and warming…
As the festive season approaches, Christmas markets across the UK begin to sparkle with twinkling lights, enticing scents and the joyful buzz of holiday shoppers. UK Christmas markets are not…
From the original December market to the city that created stollen, the source of mulled wine and the first Christmas tree, let Travel Begins at 40 guide you through some…
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2025 is the UK’s blockbuster festive experience, with headline rides, huge themed bars, an alpine village of food stalls, and the UK’s largest seasonal ice rink…
Birmingham’s long‑standing partnership with Frankfurt delivers the UK’s biggest authentic German market – the Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market. Wooden huts line New Street and Victoria Square, wafting aromas of bratwurst…
Few markets have a setting as dramatic as Edinburgh’s, with the Castle perched above Princes Street Gardens. The core market mixes Scottish produce with international treats—think hot toddies, shortbread and…
Award‑winning Bath Christmas Market threads through handsome Georgian streets around the Abbey, creating one of the most photogenic Christmas scenes in the UK. In 2025 it celebrates 25 years of…
York’s St Nicholas Fair fills the medieval city centre with alpine chalets selling Yorkshire produce and thoughtful crafts. The warren of lanes around Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square springs…
Nottingham transforms Old Market Square into a complete festive village. Beyond the Christmas market stalls you’ll find an Ice Bar, alpine‑themed bars, an observation wheel and entertainment programme. Food is…
Belfast Christmas Market wraps around City Hall, filling Donegall Square with wooden chalets. Warm up with glühwein, try Belgian chocolates and flamboyant crêpes, or brave an ‘exotic’ burger before browsing…
Organised by Craft*Folk for over three decades, the Cardiff Christmas Market – or Marchnad Nadolig Caerdydd in Welsh – champions home‑grown creativity. The streets around St John’s Church fill with distinctive…
If you’re planning a festive visit, the Leeds Christmas Markets make unmissable highlights. From 21 November to 21 December 2025, up to 60 beautifully decorated chalets will take over City…
Exeter’s market blends independent South West artisans with a strong street‑food line‑up, all set on the lawned Cathedral Green. Between gift shopping you can graze your way around—wood‑fired pizzas, curries…
Liverpool’s market clusters outside St George’s Hall, the city’s grand neoclassical icon opposite Lime Street station. Traditional chalets sell crafts, decorations and warming food, while the bar huts pour mulled…
Canterbury’s festive scene stretches from the open‑air Whitefriars quarter to the atmospheric Cathedral Precincts, mixing craft stalls and street food with choral services and heritage sights. It’s a wonderfully compact…
Bristol Christmas Market fills Broadmead with twinkling chalets, après‑style bar huts and the eye‑catching ‘sky gondola’ dining pods. Expect an eclectic, foodie‑led line‑up—mulled cider (naturally), churros, Yorkshire pud wraps and…
Newcastle Christmas market threads through the elegant streets around Grainger Market near Grey’s Monument and Eldon Square, bringing together northern street food, local designers and festive bars. Expect proper Geordie…
Set within the grounds of UNESCO‑listed Blenheim Palace, Blenheim Palace Christmas Market feels suitably grand. Chalet stalls line the Great Court with artisan crafts and fine foods to match the…
Stratford‑upon‑Avon rolls out two festive weekends across its most photogenic streets, with seasonal food, music and costumed traders creating a Dickensian mood, which is slightly off-piste considering this is Shakespeare’s…
Worcester’s Victorian Fayre is a beloved four‑day celebration that transforms the cathedral city into a period scene. Stallholders don top hats and capes, street performers roam, and carols mingle with…
Chester’s market is storybook pretty: a pyramid of a Christmas tree, the Gothic Town Hall and the city’s famed black‑and‑white Rows framing a ring of wooden huts. Expect small‑batch gin…
Mark Bibby Jackson ignores weather warnings to travel to Pas-de-Calais France during Storm Darragh with his mother. Does he live to tell the tale? The plan is to visit the…
Mark Bibby Jackson spends 48 hours in Bratislava Slovakia to see why this underrated European capital is a winter wonderland. My previous visit to the Bratislava Slovakia was in 1994…
On his way from Carinthia Austria to Bratislava in Slovakia, Mark spends a night in Vienna, to review the NH Wien Belvedere hotel, next to the famous Belvedere Palace. A…
Come November the cities and towns of Europe join in unison to celebrate the advent of Christmas with a Christmas Market. What started off as very much a Germanic tradition has now swept across much of mainland Europe as well as in the UK.
The very first December market was held in 1298 when Albrecht I granted permission for a meat market, and the Austrian capital is very much at the heart of festive markets to this day, with 20 in and around the city.
However, it is in Germany that the markets really flourished, with Dresden’s Striezelmarkt standing out as one of the most spectacular Christmas markets in the country – where else can you see a giant stollen parade?
In the UK the trend has evolved more recently, with markets now appearing in most cities and towns across the kingdom. From Winchester to Beverley and Padstow each has its own particular take on the theme, and London even has its own Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.
From the iconic Brussels Christmas Market in the capital of the European Union, the festive seasonal tradition has also swept across eastern Europe and Scandinavia. The Brno Christmas Market is prove that the Czech Republic is not all about Prague while in Lithuania they take place all over this small country, from its capital Vilnius to the smaller city of Kaunas. Meanwhile, the one in Helsinki called Tuomaan Markkinat, is amongst Europe’s most Istagrammable Christmas markets.
