WALLET-BUSTING FESTIVE TREAT

VISITORS to Christmas markets across Britain will sip winter-warming glühwein and chomp on a bratwurst during the next few weeks - but is it all just a festive rip-off?

- BY CHRIS RICHES

Before lockdown, Britain boasted 100 Yuletide markets, but by this weekend almost every town and city will have seasonal stalls selling handcrafted gifts, jewellery, sweets, food, drink and tonnes of sizzling sausages.

But while many call you a Grinch if you moan about a £14.50 hot turkey wrap or a £9 small mug of hot wine, others slam stalls for selling cheap tat and simply sleighing us with their sky-high food and drink prices.

So the Express visited one of the UK's biggest and longest-running Christmas markets, in Manchester, to see if we left with seasonal spirit or a bill to seriously damage our elf.

Now in its 27th year, the Manchester festive markets sprawl over 10 different areas of the city centre and have 274 stalls selling everything from Yorkshire pudding wraps, patatas bravas to Dutch pancakes.

Running until December 22, with some until January 4, for the first time in years the Albert Square markets in front of the under-renovation town hall are also open.

But some have already grumbled over 2025 price hikes, with many vendors increasing lager by 50p to an average of £6.50 a pint, a glass of prosecco up 50p to around £6.50, while many cocktails now cost £1 more at £9.50.