The Xmas place to be

(by peter)

This weekend saw Winchester’s brilliant annual Christmas market open to the public.

Cue traffic chaos, parking hell – and rain.

Despite all this, we couldn’t contain our excitement (not to mention the fact that we have a small child to tire out) so we dragged our poor visiting friends along to taste the action, which you can get a glimpse of in the video at the end of this piece (also features a brass band and Susie lurking in the background).

It’s great fun in the daytime, but even better at night when the lights come on and the smell of mulled wine wafts over the cathedral close like an angelic fog.

There are lots of bits and bobs to buy, some more eccentric than others (decorative spiders made from old oil drums, anyone?) But it’s a great place to visit, not too sickly – and if you come on Sunday 12th December, you can tie in with the farmers’ market too (as we did yesterday).

Well worth a yuletide visit – it runs until Sunday 20th December.