Stalls

There is a huge Christmas tree and ice rink

Christmas markets are popping up across the UK as the festivities get underway. Lights, decorations and festive spirit are taking over towns and cities.

Multiple Christmas markets have already opened their doors this year, with another now added to the list. Nottingham’s Winter Wonderland has opened today (Thursday, November 12) and features an ice bar, a toboggan slide, and many stalls.

Visitors can enjoy food and drink from the small wooden chalets, and can pick up gifts and personalised items. The Christmas market has plenty to do, as thrill seekers can take a ride on the big wheel and a sky skate ice path.

What is on?

Along with over 60 stalls to wander by and explore, Nottingham’s market has plenty of attractions. In the middle of the market, visitors can skate on an ice rink before heading up to the Sky Skate Ice Path.

The path is elevated above the market, giving skaters views of the Christmas tree, lights and festivities. An ice bar serves up drinks surrounded by ice sculptures, and you can even sip out of an ice glass.

The big wheel offers a chance to head into the sky to soak up the atmosphere and city skyline. Meanwhile, the toboggan slide sees visitors head down a slope in an inflatable ring.

More food and drinks can be enjoyed at the Altitude glass chalet bar, ski chalet and Helter Skelter bar.

Where is Nottingham’s Christmas market?

The Winter Wonderland takes over Nottingham’s Old Market Square, which sits in the heart of the city. It also extends out onto Long Row.

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When is it open?

The market stalls will be open until December, 24, from 10am to 6:30pm, Sundays to Thursdays, and from 10am to 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays. After December 12, the opening hours will extend to 7:30pm Sunday to Thursday and 8:30 pm Friday and Saturday.

Many of the other attractions will remain open until New Year’s Eve. The Sur La Piste and Altitude bars are open 11am until 11pm Monday to Friday, 10am until 11pm Saturdays and 10am until 10pm on Sundays.

How to get there

The Winter Wonderland is in the centre of Nottingham and is around a 12-minute walk from the train station. The Old Market Square is served by trams, with seven park-and-ride spots across the network.

Nottingham City Transport buses run regularly into the centre of Nottingham. Nearby car parks include Lace Market, Trinity Square, Broad Marsh, Victoria Centre, Q Park Talbot Street, and Crowne Plaza Wollaton Street.

Drivers are advised it is likely to be busy, especially closer to Christmas. Broad Marsh car park is now £4.50 for all-day parking on Saturdays and Sundays until February 2027.

The popular market is back for 2026

A hugely popular Christmas market has returned with over 200 stalls. Christmas is almost upon us, with towns and cities across the UK set to be transformed for the festive season.

For one UK city, Christmas has already begun as its markets open today (Friday, November 6). Manchester Christmas Markets is bringing festive shopping, food and drink to the streets of the city.

Wooden chalets line parts of Manchester, where visitors can shop for handmade gifts, artisan products, and international food and drink, as well as take part in family-friendly festive experiences.

Albert Square will be at the heart of the festivities, hosting the 50-metre-high Ferris wheel and a pop-up pub. Manchester’s Giant Santa will also make a comeback alongside a vintage Helter-Skelter.

This year marks the first for a new tree installation with a life-sized selfie sleigh. Over at Cathedral Gardens sits Skate MCR, an undercover ice-skating rink with additional stalls.

In a month’s time, the Manchester Christmas Parade will take place, with more details about the event to come on Sunday, December 6. Overall, the markets will be home to 210 stalls across 10 different city centre sites.

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Where is the Manchester Christmas Market?

The market is spread across the city centre as hundreds of stalls make up the festive atmosphere. This year, locations include Albert Square, Lincoln Square, King Street, St Ann’s Square, Exchange Street, New Cathedral Street, Exchange Square, Corn Exchange, Cathedral Gardens, and Market Street.

When does the market open?

Manchester Christmas Markets will open on Friday, November 6 and run until Tuesday, December 22. The festivities at Albert Square and Cathedral Gardens will remain open throughout the Christmas period until Sunday, January 3.

Meanwhile, Skate MCR ice rink will be open from Friday, November 6 to Sunday, January 3. The market is open seven days a week from 10am until 9pm.

How much is Manchester Christmas Market?

It is free to visit Manchester Christmas Market and you do not need a ticket to enter.

How to get to Manchester Christmas Market

Manchester Christmas Market is best accessed by public transport as Manchester city centre is served by trains, trams and buses. Manchester’s Victoria and Piccadilly Stations are an easy walk to the markets.

Trams and buses on the Bee Network run every 12 minutes, and are said to be the “easiest, cheapest and fastest” way to get to the markets.

Roads and car parks are said to be very busy, with the option of using Greater Manchester’s Park & Ride locations instead. There are multiple car parks within a walking distance of the markets, with Piccadilly Plaza and Chorlton Street being the closest.

This stunning market opens in a few weeks and is the most likely to have snow

November has arrived, bringing with it the start of Christmas market season across the UK and Europe. While snow at Christmas in Britain remains somewhat unpredictable, there’s one destination where a white Christmas is far more likely.

And despite being outside the UK, it’s under three hours from London. What’s more, this stunning market has repeatedly been ranked amongst Europe’s finest – and it’s where you’ll find the oldest public Christmas Tree.

Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, is home to one of the continent’s premier Christmas markets and offers the best chance of experiencing snowfall.

Research from Rome2Rio reveals the market has recorded an average of 28.1 snowy days across the past 19 Christmases.

Running from November 20 through to January 6, the market transforms the medieval Town Hall Square into a winter wonderland, with around 40 to 60 wooden stalls.

Liverpool Echo lifestyle reporter Christopher Megrath paid a visit to this spectacular market and declared it amongst the most stunning he’d encountered.

He wrote: “The Old Town Christmas market in Tallinn, Estonia, was by far the most beautiful I’ve ever experienced.

“Unlike its famous Christmas market rivals in cities like Vienna, Cologne, or Salzburg, Tallinn’s market is modest in size.

“I had never heard it mentioned in conversations about Christmas markets, nor did I know anyone who had even visited the country, yet what it lacks in international fame it more than makes up for with its enchanting setting, cosy atmosphere and magical charm.”

Visitors will find themselves overwhelmed by choice at this festive market, which boasts an array of goods ranging from handmade treasures, confectionery, yuletide ornaments and hand-knitted scarves and mittens to ward off the bitter December chill.

RTE crowned the Tallinn market as Europe’s finest, urging visitors to experience the ice-skating rink and the traditional carousel.

Guests can also sample warming mulled wine crafted from indigenous buckthorn berries and fortified with spirits for a particularly luxurious festive beverage.

The market opens its doors towards the end of November, operating between 10am and 8pm, with warming beverages available until 10pm.

THE festive wrapping paper is on sale, the family-size box of Quality Street is stacked in shops – Christmas is officially on its way.

If you’re a true fan of the season, you’ll obviously want to head to the UK’s biggest Christmas market.

And the largest is actually in Manchester which opens at the beginning of next month.

Returning on November 6, it will run for over six weeks – so there’s plenty of time to visit whether you’re a local or not.

It’s so enormous that there are 210 stalls across 10 locations spread about the city centre.

The stalls will sell everything from festive food and drink – think hot chocolate and mulled wine – to international street food, if you’re over the yorkshire pudding wraps.

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Handmade gifts and stocking fillers can be found there too, if you’re ready to start Christmas shopping.

Albert Square will be where most of the city’s festivities will be, including its 50-metre high Ferris wheel.

There will also be a pop-up ‘pub’ for the festive season as well as a giant Santa, a vintage Helter Skelter and a huge tree installation and life-sized selfie sleigh.

If you’re on the hunt for ice skating, you’ll find it at Cathedral Gardens along with some market stalls too.

Across the city will be live entertainment, and plenty of Christmas lights.

The Manchester Christmas Parade will be held again this year on December 6.

Kids will be able to spot Snow Queens, reindeers, Nutcrackers, toy soldiers and even Santa who will be travelling onboard the Elf Express.

Visitors will find the market spread across locations including; Albert Square, Lincoln Square, King Street, St Ann’s Square, Exchange Street, New Cathedral Street, Exchange Square, Corn Exchange, Cathedral Gardens, and Market Street.

A recent study by Christmas Tree World also recently crowned Manchester Christmas Market as the UK’s best.

Factors were based on the number of Google searches, social media posts and videos, hotel prices, history, number of stalls, entry cost and closeness to public transport.

With much cheaper hotel prices than the like of New York city, the Manchester Christmas Market was also voted second best in the world.

The market will come to a close on December 22.

However, the Albert Square and Cathedral Gardens will remain open throughout the Christmas period until January 3, 2027. 

Without a quick deal to move fertiliser through the strait, agricultural productivity would ‘significantly drop’.

A senior United Nations official has warned that parts of Asia and Africa could face a food security crisis unless Iran and the United States quickly agree on a UN-backed plan to move fertiliser through the embattled Strait of Hormuz.

UN ⁠Under-Secretary-General Jorge Moreira da Silva said on Wednesday that it was “absolutely critical” that the two countries agree to the proposal within weeks as planting season approaches. It calls for a UN-staffed coordination centre in Oman to help register vessels and oversee their safe passage in the waterway, through which a large portion of key global fertiliser inputs traditionally flow.

“If we miss that planting season, the productivity of agriculture would significantly drop and the impact on prices will significantly increase,” Moreira da Silva told Reuters on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Bangkok, Thailand.

Farmers operate strict crop calendars, and even slight delays could severely affect yield.

‘Negligible’ fertiliser shipments

Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has been severely disrupted since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, with Iran targeting vessels in the strait and the US and Iran exchanging fire in and around the waterway.

The disruption has hit global supplies of urea, the world’s most widely used nitrogen fertiliser, as well as seaborne sulphur, a key input. Before the war, roughly a third of global urea shipments and nearly half of seaborne sulphur passed through the strait.

Although some ships have been able to sail through amid the crisis, fertiliser products have made up a “very negligible” share of moving cargo, according to the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute.

Moreira da Silva said the UN-backed fertiliser mechanism, drawn up in March, could be activated within seven to 10 days if both Iran and the US agree.

Under the plan, UN monitors would work alongside local authorities at Gulf ports to verify cargo loading. Ships would be tracked during transit, and additional inspections could ⁠be carried out if countries raised concerns about a vessel or its cargo, said Moreira da Silva. He did not say why the US and Iran have not yet agreed.

The passage of only five vessels per day through the Strait of Hormuz could keep fertiliser supplies flowing to countries in critical need, he added.

‘Let us do our job’

The UN mechanism could work alongside negotiations for a “comprehensive deal” to restore freedom of navigation in the strait, Moreira da Silva said.

Iran and the US have exchanged proposals through intermediaries since a June interim ceasefire collapsed. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz have stalled over Tehran’s conditions and Washington’s insistence on addressing Iran’s nuclear programme from the outset.

“What we are telling them is, while you continue your discussions towards a comprehensive deal, let us work, let us do our job,” said Moreira da Silva.

His plea comes amid growing concern that fertiliser shortages could hit global food supplies.

In May, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned that fertiliser scarcity could tighten food supplies from late 2026 into 2027, and would likely hit countries facing climate or other crises much harder.

In South Asia, where most rely on imported fertiliser, farmers are already struggling because of soaring costs and fertiliser scarcity. On Wednesday, farmers in Spain took to the streets to protest rising production costs amid high oil and fertiliser prices.