Manchester Christmas Markets have opened and we take a look around

National World - LocalTV

The time has finally come - the Manchester Christmas Markets have opened for 2023.  The 225 stalls across nine areas of the city centre have officially started serving customers with delicious food and drink and offering unique Christmas gifts and trinkets.  This year's Christmas mugs are a perfect keepsake to remember the festivities, and can be bought from one of the many bars with a tempting hot chocolate or mulled wine.  We headed down to the markets on opening day to check everything out for ourselves.

Transcript

00:00 Ladies and gentlemen, the bars are now open!

00:07 Can I ask for a favour of people? You'll see me on all the chocolate stalls, can you just

00:14 push me away from chocolate stalls because otherwise I will look like Father Christmas.

00:19 I mean, it's ridiculous. I've got such a sweet tooth that if you see me at any of them sweet

00:23 stalls, just push me away and say, "Grow up."

00:26 The time has finally come. The Manchester Christmas Markets have opened for 2023.

00:31 The 225 stalls across nine areas of the city centre have officially started serving customers

00:37 with delicious food and drink and offering unique Christmas gifts and trinkets.

00:42 This year's Christmas mugs are a perfect keepsake to remember the festivities and can be bought

00:47 from one of the many bars with attempting hot chocolate or mulled wine.

00:51 We headed down to the markets on opening day to check everything out for ourselves.

00:55 It's a fantastic milestone. When you think we came from 16 stalls in St Anne's Square,

01:01 how embarrassing that was being. I don't know if I opened them, I can't remember, but 16

01:05 to now 225, the biggest in the country and we've just been given this award last week,

01:11 the best in Europe as well. And it's Santa's favourite city, so Mancunians love Christmas

01:18 and that's what makes it all work. Because we're expecting thousands of visitors over

01:22 the next few weeks from the Midlands up to Newcastle and all over the place and Mancunians

01:28 just welcome them and you just have a great cheerful time on these markets.

01:31 The Manchester personality and spirit is on these markets. People come and they come back,

01:36 they really have a good time. Basically it's a playground for adults over the next few

01:40 weeks because once you grow up, what's left at Christmas really, basically you want to

01:45 come out and enjoy yourself. And the biggest growth is after work parties. You just see

01:49 loads of after work parties, having a great time. This is a multi-million pound boost

01:54 to Manchester's economy. Jobs depend on this. It spreads out not just from the markets itself,

02:00 it spreads out to all the restaurants, all the bars, all the cafes in Manchester and to

02:04 us Christmas is always about keeping people in jobs. So although a lot of us clown around,

02:10 I put on these silly jumpers and behind all the tinsel and behind all the hoopla is a

02:15 very serious economic project in Manchester. There is so much effort in creating the market

02:20 over here and I think the people really notice that and this is why they come back again

02:25 and again and this is why it came to the number one. We started with selling glue wine, but

02:31 we do have like several types of fruit wines. Our newest product is a honey wine which you

02:37 can have with a shot of brandy and it's called Manchester Bee and we also do some cocktails

02:44 right now and the Feuerzangenbowle. I don't know if you know what that is. It's like a

02:49 glue wine where you have like a cone of sugar on top of it and then there's spiced rum and

02:55 then it's going to be in flames and then the sugar drips into the cup. Yeah, it is. It

03:01 does something special. Strong.

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