On December 1, my mum, dad, Jake and I headed up to the Manchester Christmas Markets to mark the start of the festive period.
I do like to try and get up to the markets each year, especially since Stoke don’t do much in the city to celebrate the season. Manchester know how to do Christmas and they do it well – will mulled wine and festive treats on every corner.
As soon as we pulled into Piccadilly, I popped into Oliver Bonas to scout out anything I might pop on my wish list. Being in the store makes my creative heart happy – how sad does that sound – because the whole branding and colour palette in-store is gorgeous.
We wandered down towards Piccadilly Gardens in search of food to fuel our trip. I was tempted by some halloumi fries on a Greek street food stand, but they were £7.00 and I thought that was a bit much.
The next stall was by the Hot Stuffed Bread Company, selling Buntzels – if you follow me on Instagram you’ll already know I was obsessed. The buntzel is a bun/pretzel hybrid, stuffed with meat and cheese. In other words – bloody incredible.
They were just £5 each and came with a pot of gravy/jus and was 100% worth it. I’d eat them for the rest of my life if I could. The lads serving certainly had a giggle when I returned three hours later for a second one. I definitely recommend heading here if you’re at Manchester Christmas Markets this year.
We continued straight down the main street past Primark and Urban Outfitters, taking a look at each little stall – stopping at the ones that sold rum, gin and vodka for a cheeky sample. We took a left at the bottom of the road, meandering through the wooden huts until we reached the bar. We stopped briefly for a hot mulled wine before heading back the other way to the markets near Selfridges.
We considered stopping for a Yorkshire wrap or frankfurter, but were still absolutely stuffed from the buntzels, so continued with a spot of shopping. We went into the Arndale centre and did a few shops in there (you can check out what I picked up in my vlog), before making our way back towards the station – hitting Urban Outfitters, Debenhams and Primark en route.
We picked a pretty good time to go, as we went from 10.30 – 3.30 on the ‘Black Friday’ Sunday. It was relatively quiet (as quiet as Manchester is on a regular day), and there were tonnes of offers on in stores, so even got a few bargains.
Check out my YouTube vlog for more festive bits and to see what I picked up in Manchester!
