On a busy Thursday afternoon my mother and I visited the highly rated Winchester Christmas Market – would it be the return of a classic, a tired repeat or perhaps somewhere between the two?
This is a lovely traditional Christmas market, with the beautiful backdrop of the Winchester Cathedral giving it a breath of magic which I think any other market, at least locally, would struggle to compete with.
That being said, as a local to Southampton I have been visiting this market all my life, and like other people I know who are more local to Winchester, it is a bit harder to be impressed anymore.
The Winchester Christmas Market had the pretty much exact same stall layout as last year. Whilst I did see new stalls compared to last year, definitely with more variety than Southampton (selling clothing and offering free samples of shortbread and cheeses and even a stall selling virgin olive oil as some examples) it did seem a lot less interesting than previous visits.
Winchester Christmas Market is far more accessible than other markets I have seen, with the food stalls in a central area which helps with foot traffic and avoids the main issue in Southampton where you cannot walk through Above Bar Street because the queues to buy churros and Yorkshire wraps have clogged up the whole street. The markets have their own toilets which is very welcome compared to Southampton as well, however, they did need a clean when my mum and I were visiting which wasn’t very appealing!
Despite finding it a bit boring and feeling like I had seen it before, I can say that I did still enjoy my night out to the market. I had spent the past few months looking forward too seeing the cathedral light up and the beautiful stalls and mulled wine carts again, so whilst it felt like a repeat, it was a night I was very happy to experience from last year all over again.
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