Manchester's hectic Christmas Markets have run out of mugs for a SECOND year running - due to unprecedented demand at the festive extravaganza. Last year 40,000 mugs had sold out by the first week of December, so council bosses had more than doubled their order for 2022 in a bid to cope with anticipated sales at bars this year.
But even with a hefty supply of 140,000 mugs for this year it wasn't enough - as last week food and drink stalls began to run out of the new design. The new mugs have been particularly popular this year as they features cute festive cartoon figures that you can make "high five" each other when you clink cups.
Now "standby" mugs from past years of the Christmas Markets have been put back out for circulation on the bars. People have been spotted drinking from "vintage" designs - including classics from 2017 and 2018.
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Everyone purchasing a hot drink on the markets must pay a £3 deposit for their mug on top of the cost of your drink - and the deposit is refundable if you take the mug back to a bar. Or, as thousands are clearly doing, you can keep the mug and take it home as a festive souvenir.
There were two designs for 2022 - for the smaller blue gluhwein mugs and larger white hot chocolate mugs. 80,000 of these designs were put into circulation at the start of the Christmas Markets which began this year on November 10.
An additional 60,000 generic mugs were also made for this year to be put out for use when the initial run had gone. But they were all put out last Monday - and by Thursday they'd all gone too as huge numbers headed in for the December rush at the markets.
It means 140,000 2022 mugs have all been sold. The number of drinks sold at the bars will, of course, exceed that figure as not everyone buying a drink will choose to take the mug itself home.
Council bosses say that "generic mugs from previous years" are now being supplied to food and drink stalls across the markets.
While the council does not keep a figure on footfall on the markets, sources "on the ground" say attendance numbers this year are back to pre-pandemic levels.
On Monday, with temperatures slightly improving after an Arctic blast earlier in the month, huge numbers of people flocked in to the city centre. There were reports of St Ann's Square "heaving" with shoppers for the final week of shopping before Christmas.
A spokesperson for the council said: "The feeling from traders is that numbers are back up to 2019 figures, when the markets were last on Albert Square.
"There has been an impact from the train strikes, but overall the markets have been heaving. People are enjoying themselves in Manchester."
Councillor Pat Karney, Christmas spokesperson for Manchester City Council, said: "Our Christmas mugs have always been a massive hit with each year's design eagerly anticipated, but this year they seem to have been top of everyone's wish-list and the demand for them has been phenomenal.
"Bad luck of course for anyone who maybe hasn't been to the markets yet and so has missed out on one of them, but with all our vintage mugs now out in the markets until they close, what a great chance to grab a piece of Manchester Christmas past for all the retro-heads and collectors out there.
"The vintage mugs have been proving a massive hit with visitors over the weekend who simply can't get enough of them and have been lapping up the nostalgic designs with their kissing snowmen and mistletoe, and of course our 2018 vintage with their interactive and wearable red nose reindeers."
The main Christmas Markets will close on Thursday, December 22, which includes the popular food and drink stalls around Exchange Square, St Ann's Square and King Street.
But some areas of the markets, including the bars at Piccadilly Gardens and the stalls around the ice skating rink at Cathedral Gardens, will continue to trade on Friday and Christmas Eve. They will be closing for Christmas Day and will then reopen on Boxing Day until December 31.
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