If you ask us, we’d be inclined to say that the best Christmas markets are found right here in our lovely city. How could we not be proud of London’s incredible array of festive markets? But apparently, we’d be wrong to put ourselves at the top of the list.
Recent research from cinch revealed that another city beat off London, as well as the likes of Liverpool and Edinburgh, for the top spot. None other than Manchester took the crown, according to the following factors: “average hotel costs, predicted days of snowfall, market duration and how popular it is on TikTok”.
Edinburgh and Liverpool were hot on the heels of Manchester, ranking in second and third place respectively. Glasgow (#4) and Aberdeen (#5) rounded out the top 5 with a strong showing for the Scottish markets.
How did London fare? Well, according to the study, we don’t rank highly at all. Our Winter Wonderland only just broke into the top 10 at seventh position.
The 10 best Christmas markets in the UK
- Manchester
- Edinburgh
- Liverpool
- Glasgow
- Aberdeen
- Birmingham
- Hyde Park (Winter Wonderland)
- Leicester
- Belfast
- Canterbury
But beyond discovering which Christmas markets are (purportedly) the best, the report also revealed some interesting facts. Did you know that some of London’s Christmas markets are open for the longest time?
The Southbank Christmas Market, for example, opens in late October and runs for over 70 days! On top of that, Leicester Square and Covent Garden markets also run for a long time – for 61 and 56 days respectively.
And did you know that Manchester’s Christmas markets are by far the most popular ones on TikTok? The Manchester Christmas markets count 13.3 million views (and counting) under their belt. That’s in comparison to Winter Wonderland, which does well but falls a bit short with 4.9 million views at the time of the report.
We suspect that Manchester’s TikTok popularity must have played a significant role in unseating us from our throne. But we’ll concede defeat – for now! If you’re looking to explore the UK’s other festive offerings, we’ll admit that you could do a lot worse than taking a trip up north to visit our Mancunian friends.