| With less than three weeks to go now until Manchester’s legendary Christmas Markets open, we’ve got the markets mapped for visitors and festive shoppers with a downloadable map to help everyone find their way round the markets and point them in the right direction for food and drink, live entertainment, and those all-important toilet stops. |
| Open daily for a six-week seasonal take-over of the city centre from Friday 8 November until Sunday 22 December, this year’s markets include seven weekends of festive fun for visitors and Christmas shoppers instead of the usual six, due to the way dates fall. Bigger and better than ever, this year’s Christmas Markets will see 240 of the iconic wooden ski chalet market stalls across nine different locations throughout the city centre. New for this year is an expanded Winter Gardens at Piccadilly, with more space and stalls to enjoy along with two fabulous festive marquees fit for the Santa season and festooned with twinkling fairy lights, to provide more of the all-important under-cover space for Christmas shoppers to get cosy if the weather turns cold. Also new this year at the Winter Gardens is an expanded seasonal offer from next-door neighbours Piccadilly Street Food Market, with stalls there also staying open until 9 pm each night, serving up their unique flavours from around the world. With the Winter Gardens at Piccadilly at the heart of this year’s Christmas Markets, the markets will also see the transformation of Market Street, Cathedral Gardens, Exchange Street, New Cathedral Street, St Ann’s Square, Exchange Square, The Corn Exchange, and King Street into Manchester’s very own magical Christmas wonderland. Manchester’s Christmas Markets will be open daily from Friday 8 November to Sunday 22 December. Craft stalls and stalls selling seasonal goods will be open each day from 10 am – 8 pm, whilst food and drink stalls will be open from 11 am – 9 pm each day. The markets wrap for Christmas at 6pm on Sunday 22 December, except for the food and drink stalls at Cathedral Gardens which will stay open until December 31 alongside the ice rink. Councillor Pat Karney, Christmas spokesperson for Manchester City Council, said: “Less than three weeks to go now until the opening of our world-famous Christmas Markets and it’s suddenly beginning to feel a lot like my absolute favourite tinsel-y time of year. The markets sound incredible – we’ve got stalls selling everything from hand-made wrist watches, leather goods and jewellery, to fine art prints, designer hats, cheeses and chutneys, Christmas tree decorations and chocolate kisses – as well as mouth-watering treats and hot drinks at every turn. They’re going to be amazing, and we’re all set for Manchester’s best Christmas ever!” For more information about Christmas in Manchester and to download the festive market map visit manchester.gov.uk/christmas Download |