The Manchester Christmas Markets are over for 2022. Last night as the darkness descended, stallholders packed up their wares and headed home after another busy year.
The final German sausages and gluhwein have been sold and this morning the last remaining wooden cabins have been dismantled from locations across the city centre. Walk down Market Street this morning and you'll no longer see fairy lights, handmade wooden gifts or scented candles, but stalls reduced to piles of wood, as well as some last-minute shoppers hitting the big stores.
Thousands of people have descended on Manchester this year to experience the Christmas Markets, which have featured over 220 wooden chalet stalls spread across ten different locations around the city. The main hub this year was based over in Piccadilly Gardens, which was given a festive make-over and transformed into the Winter Gardens.
Read more: As Manchester Christmas Markets come to an end - what needs to change for 2023
St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, King Street, New Cathedral Street and Exchange Square also provided a home for this year's markets. Meanwhile, Cathedral Gardens, which welcomed the undercover ice rink, Skate MCR, remains open for a little while longer.
The food stalls at Cathedral Gardens including De Creperie, Bars@Yours and The Dog House, will stay open through to December 31. The ice rink at Cathedral Gardens is taking bookings through to January 3.
Almost 25 years on from the first ever Manchester Christmas Markets in 1998, the annual event continues to attract big number, as Mancunians and visitors alike fill up on festive treats. This year has seen record numbers head into the city, with a full return following the Covid-19 pandemic, however, while the city has been packed out, there have also been some moans - as it to be expected when it comes to one of the biggest markets in the country.
The price of a sausage, pint and gluhwein are always contentious, and this year has seen some stall prices shoot up. However, stallholders were quick to defend price increases with many saying it was the first time that they have had to do so in a long time, while others said it was due to the price of ingredients going up and the cost of living crisis.
Aside from the prices, many were left feeling that the markets need to be a little more festive when they return next year - with some suggesting the markets have become too focussed on the food and drink stalls, with little in the way of "Christmassy stuff" to purchase on the wooden stalls.
On the positive side, Manchester Council has hailed the success of this year's event, celebrating a record year for visitors numbers. All 140,000 Christmas mugs ordered for this year have all been sold, and they have said they are taking onboard all the comments from visitors as they start planning for next year's festivities.
Commenting on this year's markets, Councillor Pat Karney, Christmas spokesperson for Manchester City Council, said: "Visitor numbers to our world-famous Christmas Markets have exceeded all expectations this year, with thousands upon thousands of visitors flocking into the city centre to enjoy them.
"We're definitely back up to pre-Covid levels and it's clear that visitors are really enjoying having their freedoms back and are making the most of this. With visitors gulping down the Gluhwein and managing to get through a whopping 140,000 Christmas mugs, thank goodness we had some spares from previous years and were able to bring out the vintage!
"It's not just the mugs either that have been going down a storm this year, we've also been talking to our traders and have worked out in a very scientific fashion that if all the bratwursts and sausages sold at the Christmas markets during their run this year were laid end-to-end, we'd have a line of sausages that would stretch pretty much from Manchester all the way to Liverpool.
"Our planning will start in earnest in the new year and we'll be looking closely as we go at all the brilliant suggestions people have come up with on how we might do this. I'm also told by the elves-in-the-know that this will include suggestions from the big red man himself, who as well as confirming he will definitely be back in his favourite city in the world again next year has, I believe, a couple of ideas of his own on how we can make Manchester even more San-tastic in 2023!"
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