Chester Christmas Market, November 2024

Well, the UK Theme Park season is in downtime, and we still have a few weeks until we head to Florida, but as the festive period is fully kicking in, we took a trip to Chester to visit the Christmas Market.

We love visiting Christmas Markets. Manchester is always massive with a full indoor bar, and York has a great selection of stalls to see, but Chester is our local, and while it’s less than a quarter of the size of the others you can still find some fun things. And who doesn’t enjoy trying all the tasty cheeses, jams and pickles, sipping tasters of fancy gins and novelty flavoured vodkas – and there’s always a fudge stall to pick at. Plus, all the food, mulled wine and hot chocolates to fill up on…

Chester Christmas Market is a nice little setup. Always on Northgate Street, just up from the Cathedral, outside the Town Hall, opposite the Storyhouse Theatre. It consists of a few rows of wooden stalls leading up the street and just across the road are a few more stalls, plus the bar tent with seats and live music.

You’re always guaranteed to find lots of unique and fun things at Christmas Market stalls, especially if you’re looking for something a little different for a gift or a novelty food item you can’t get anywhere else.

Chester offered plenty of chocolates, cakes and sweets, cheeses, jams and pickles, bottles of spirits like Rum, Gin and Vodka all in different flavours – and there’s always one that sells Mead!

Hand-crafted jewellery and Christmas decorations, festive wreaths and planters, clothing, artwork and drinking horns. I was so tempted to buy a drinking horn. A classic Christmas market item.

We picked up a lovely IPA from Snowdon Craft Beer and tried a sample of their Bara Brith Rum, and bought a small bottle of a Cherry Bakewell flavoured Vodka from Gangplank Spirits & Preserves, because we’re fancy like that!

Plenty of options available for food if you’re hungry. Burgers and hotdogs from £8, a Hog Roast stall offering pulled pork or beef brisket baps and wraps from £9, a cup full of roast potatoes for £5.50 and pork scratchings for £4.50, a Noodle Bar offering a variety of noodle dishes in with decent portions from £9, jacket potatoes from £5 and a Greek food stall with Halloumi fries at £10 and gyros from £12.

For sweeter options you could pick up coconut macaroons from £2 each, freshly made mini Dutch pancakes from £6 and churros from £6.

For drinks there were a few stalls offering mulled wines from £5.50 and hot chocolate from £5, plus you could add a Baileys to it for an extra £2.50.

We didn’t venture into the bar, but prices were reasonable for a city market bar, with a few options available including half/pint of lager for £3.50/£6, Prosecco at £7 and wines from £8.

Well, from the food stalls, Jo headed to the Hog Roast for a pulled pork wrap with stuffing and gravy for £9, which was nice. I opted for the doner gyro form the Greek food stall for £12, which was served with salad and Tzatziki and was rammed full of doner meat, and it tasted lovely. A bit dear, but much better than a greasy Saturday night at 2am doner kebab. For dessert, we shared the lemon & sugar Dutch mini pancakes for £6. They were ok, nothing special.

All in all, a fun few hours out without the kids – They would have been bored. Always great to visit Christmas Markets in the evening when they’re all lit up. Chester’s setup features a large Christmas tree as a centrepiece and the stalls and trees on Northgate Street are all lit up too. And from the lower end of the market, you can see the purple lights and trees of the Cathedral.

Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.