Christmas Markets

A festive outdoor market arrives in Chester with stalls in front of the Town Hall and the Library (24 November – 31 December).

The Christmas Market is always popular for finding gifts and tasty treats. Look out for performances of local groups and community talent in the bandstand. Move inside to Chester Market within the Forum Shopping centre for the best local Christmas produce and more excellent gift ideas. Excluding santa’s grotto, stalls and attractions will remain open to 31st December.

This year the Christmas market will include several local independent traders including fair trade gifts, beautiful ceramics, jewellery, hats, gloves and scarves. Best selling toys will feature and the festive food offer will include Christmas cakes and puddings, mince pies, cheeses, meats, sweets, fine wines as well as the winter warming treats of mulled wine and hot chestnuts. The market also welcomes traders from further a field including the Bethlehem Artisans selling olive wood gift products.

New for this year, towering above the Town Hall Square is a Christmas Toboggan ride and Santa’s Sleigh a nostalgic reminder of fun fairs of old with all the thrills for the young and the young at heart. The 70-ft high fairground slide has a lighthouse design tracing the attraction back to 1953 where it was the centre piece of the Queen’s coronation party in Manchester and through the late 1950s when it stood at Blackpool. In the 1960s it was at Skegness each summer and toured fairgrounds the rest of the year and in the 1970s opened at large street fairs in the north of England.

During the Christmas market a santa’s grotto will be a new addition to the Town Hall Square. Visit Santa in his wonderful Grotto. Tickets cost £4.50