Christmas Markets With Very Little Christmas About It

I’ve got to say…. I am so disappointed & genuinely gutted about this year’s Christmas Markets (2022).

I planned this trip around the Christmas Markets, as a gift to my sister when she turned 30 back in March. I looked online at previous years, checked all the dates to make sure the markets would be on….5 nights in Edinburgh arriving on 21st November (Markets due to open 19th).

So imagine my disappointment after hyping my sister up for the Christmas Markets for the last few months, when we arrived in Edinburgh on Monday to be told the Christmas Market opening has actually been postponed until today (25th November), due to a change of ownership. I was gutted, but as we don’t fly back til 26th, I thought visiting the Christmas Markets on Friday will be the perfect end to our trip. I have been Edinburgh once before, so knew where to take my sister to explore & take in the sights at the start of the week.

We’ve had a brilliant week in Edinburgh, lots of shopping, visits to all the royal places, and of course walking tours & hop-on-hop-off buses. My sister and I have a tradition whenever we go away, we always buy a Christmas decoration. We’ve seen many beautiful ones this week in the shops, but decided to wait til today for our market visit, hoping we would get a few pretty ones there!

I was so wrong! 🙁 Firstly, we were told it opens at 10AM. We then went down early this morning with plans to go back in the evening, but unfortunately the opening was again postponed until 2:30PM. So at around 5PM, we head down to Princes Street. It was HEAVING and queuing to get in, but this was expected on opening night & the queue went down very quickly.

The market was advertised as over 60 stalls…..but 40 of those were food & drink, and only about 4-5 of the remaining 20 were actually selling Christmas things! Every other stall were the same items you can buy on Cockburn Street, The Royal Mile & Victoria Street. I couldn’t believe how little they had, considering it’s a CHRISTMAS market. European Christmas Market too but this was nothing like I’ve seen abroad, or even compared to London’s Winter Wonderland or Birmingham Christmas Markets. I was so disappointed I even asked a member of staff if this was the only part. She then said if we head down past The Gallery to the other half of the gardens, we would find more stalls there. This wasn’t true. All that was there were a few small fairground rides for the kids, and again a few food stalls but no shops/stalls.

I have family in Edinburgh that have raved about the Christmas Markets in previous years, and made us really excited to visit! I’m so glad we came to a city with so much more to do, as if we hadn’t, we’d have been finished with our trip within an hour or so after arriving!

I wont be making plans to return for the markets which is such a shame. I’m guessing the new ownership & how last minute all the planning was has something to do with the poor quality. For next year, I really hope you make it more about Christmas! The food & drink stalls are nice but far too many in comparison to actual stalls. Invite more local companies that make/sell Christmas Decorations or Christmas related merchandise.

Really gutted it wasn’t as advertised or at all as expected. Maybe pop in if you’re in Edinburgh for a few days, but I wouldn’t bother arranging your trip around them….hotels are more expensive and it’s not worth it! 🙁