Maybe I've got this wrong.
Maybe Leeds doesn't want to rival Manchester as a Christmas tourist destination. But seriously, I imagine the folks at Leeds City Council, who cancelled the German Christmas Market for the third year running, would very much like to see their counterparts at Manchester City Council quivering in their Santa boots.
I sympathise with Leeds City Council. Thanks to Brexit the council would have had to buy expensive work visas and health insurance for the scores of German staff who would have cooked your bratwurst and pulled your pints of Krombacher. Successive governments have cut the council's budget so deeply it has eroded essential services, and essential things like waste disposal and social services are always going to take precedence over a Christmas market.
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Admittedly, Leeds City Council couldn't do much about 2020 or 2021 given its own citizens were dying from the most pervasive pandemic in 100 years. But what message does it send out when you cancel a Christmas destination attraction for a third consecutive year?
It says, "Leeds can't be arsed with Christmas."
Again, I blame the central government's policy of austerity, Brexit which the city narrowly voted against and a Russian dictator for making everything cost too much. Leeds isn't unique; town halls in Glasgow and Southampton have cancelled their cities' Christmas markets.
But no Christkindlmarkt – to use its proper name – makes Leeds feel like a second division city. It means fewer non-Leodensians will be spending money in Leeds in the run-up to Christmas when Leeds businesses need the trade more than ever. It means Leodensians will be jumping on trains to Manchester or York, which also has an internationally renowned Christmas market, rather than spending money in their own city.
I suppose there was always the risk of wasting money on a crap Christmas market and damaging its reputation. Perhaps Leeds City Council will inadvertently achieve that in the form of 'Ice Cube @ Christmas', a smaller, lower-key festival in place of the German Market in Millennium Square. I hope not. Ice Cube – sadly not featuring the former NWA rapper and actor – sounds OK but OK won't bring in the numbers.
The pessimist in me says Leeds City Council will be faced with the same miserable choice next year. Will the erstwhile highlight of the city's social calendar inevitably be thrown unceremoniously into an unmarked grave? Will it become a tear-jerking memory of a happier, wealthier time?
Maybe a plaque with the inscription 'Leeds Christkindlmarkt 1997 - 2019' will be installed on the columns of the Civic Hall to mourn its loss. A memorial bench in Millennium Square could be knocked together so Loiners can sit and reminisce about the fat hotdogs they crammed into their mouths one grey November afternoon in 2007.
Perhaps if Leeds' Christkindlmarkt comes back before the next century there'll still be living humans who can remember it the first time around.
Read next:
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- Leeds market trader launches free Christmas dinner deliveries to help struggling families
