In the run up to Christmas, the most festive cities in the UK have been revealed - and Manchester has claimed one of the top spots.
York was crowned the most festive city ahead of Christmas 2022, while Edinburgh took the second spot, followed by Manchester in third position. The study, conducted by Hammonds Fitted Furniture, compared a number of Christmassy factors in order to create a list of top destinations for a festive day out.
Whilst the city may have only secured third place, Manchester has the most tagged Christmas market on Instagram, boasting 54.3k posts under the hashtag. The Manchester Christmas light switch on may have been cancelled this year, but people across the nation are still keen to see the decorations around the city, with 880 average searches each month.
Other Northern cities ranked within the top ten included Blackpool, Leeds and Newcastle. In contrast, the Warrington, Warrington and Bradford were voted some of the least festive areas.
To find out what makes Brits festive, 2,000 people were surveyed, with festive lights, festive decorations and Christmas Markets ranked highest. Meanwhile, only a quarter believe that snow is needed to get that festive feeling going, and less than a third said that carol singers are a seasonal necessity.
With less than a month to go until Christmas, the city centre has been getting into the festive spirit with its Christmas Markets now in full swing, and restaurants and bars throughout the city lit up in anticipation of the big day. Spread across ten sites in the city centre and encompassing over 200 stallholders, the Christmas markets have got off to a great start with the first two weekends seeing great numbers.
The city's Christmas lights have also been switched on with installations including the massive Santa on St Peter's Square attracting visitors. The large Santa appeared last week just outside the Central Library, with footage showing a large crane putting him in place atop a glittering present wrapped in a red bow.
Manchester's bars and restaurants have also been getting in on the action, with glittering festoon lighting adding some festive sparkle to the city centre. Over at swanky Italian restaurant Rosso, their showstopping decorations have sparked quite the frenzy with people 'risking their lives' to get pictures of the Christmas lights.
The celeb haunt, co-owned by former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand, switched on its new display at the weekend, which comes complete with thousands of twinkling bulbs overlaying the former bank building on Spring Gardens. The doorway has been encased in a giant 30 foot high Christmas tree adorned with massive glistening baubles.
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