Anyone living in or simply passing through York around Christmas time will no doubt notice the bright & beautifully decorated wooden stalls in the middle of the high street. Flanked by gigantic dazzling Christmas trees and cosily sat underneath hundreds of lights resembling ice shards – it’s certainly hard to miss, especially at night.
However, nestled underneath all of the amazing displays and seasonal decor, lies the market itself. Stall after stall, full of each and every niche commodity you could think of for a gift, yourself or something else entirely. There’s so much variety it’s truly an astounding sight, but what was more amazing was the number of nationalities and backgrounds the stall sellers were from, one Polish owned stall I had a browse in was selling various dried fruits designed to be hung up in a room, each one with a different but incredibly relaxing tropical smell – just one of many products sold here.
One of the many well-decorated stalls.
The market was clearly enjoyed by customers, filling every inch of empty space to have a gander, so instead, I wanted to see just how much it meant to the salespeople, and how they felt about it. The first was an elderly woman selling personalised Coaster mats, ranging from trivia and jokes to modern icons and movie characters.
(Talking about her products and the market)
“Yeah, it’s very much a niche thing! you either get it or you don’t, it’s about what it say’s on the coaster, it’s not the need of a coaster, it’s about a little gift with a special meaning to someone. –
It’s a personalised market that we’re into, like the stall opposite, it bases itself on being personalised, and this (Stall) is about teaming the coaster up with the person.”
After taking a short break loitering around food stalls and even getting to try some amazing brownie samples, I went into a humble knitwear clothes shop run by an Irish man based out of North Wales, who’d been attending regularly for 5 years every Christmas travelling around the country selling his product.
“We do a lot of business in Yorkshire, not only here, but also the Yorkshire Show and Harrogate Flower Show. It’s always a good venue for us, people appreciate the quality so we do very well here.”
“There seems to be a reasonably good spread of products, the quality is very good in comparison to some Christmas markets. It’s a good place for us, also there’s a lot of foreign tourists here, lot of Americans, Japanese and Europeans, so they like the knitwear as well and we do well with them.”
Food is one of the most common businesses within the market, with many specialising in things like cheese, chocolate and alcohol.
It was clear – the market meant a lot to those selling their products, it isn’t full of huge businesses trying to look unique and get an extra £30 on a product already on shelves, it was for genuine niche sellers who wanted to make and sell something special to customers, and just by standing in the middle of the bustling strip of stalls, you can just feel the effort and warmth they put into what they’re doing.
For those curious, you can learn more about the York St Nicholas Fair here.