York Christmas Lights Switch On 2018
A first-time commentary on celebrating the start of the festivities within York. The York Christmas festival is running from the 15th of November to the 23rd of December 2018.
It took a while to get to St Helen’s Square but that was only because:
- The first buses after 5:15pm into town were full to capacity.
- If there is such thing as a sixth sense, the sense of spatial awareness was not gifted to me.
However, as this is one of the highlights of the year in York, all I had to do was follow the crowd of eager fairy light fanatics towards the main spectacle, taking a side detour through the York Christmas Market that had already set up shop for its first evening of yuletide trading- even though it’s still the middle of November. That’s probably the reason why I’m feeling a slightly scroogey. After all, we only had Halloween a couple of weeks ago and year on year I find myself constantly grinching about how we still have time to experience the rest of the year before boozing at its demise.
In saying that though, I was able to briefly put that aside when I finally reached the square. Luckily, there was enough elbow room to move which surprised me because I thought at this reasonable time of the evening, it would be like the middle of Society.
As the atmosphere became increasingly festive, the two local radio stations hyped up the karaoke to keep the crowd entertained. This mainly consisted of the chrimbo classics by Slade and Cliff Richard and harked back to a time when Christmas songs had a jovial mob singalong element to them. However, this was sorely needed as the actual switch-on was delayed by about 25 minutes so having them there really helped to boost morale.
Then finally, after a couple of false starts…CLICK! They were twinkling!
Once that was over, I decided to head to the marketplace to see their array of wares they were peddling to potential impulse buyers.
From bobble hats…
To eco totes…
And even Viking horns for when the internet’s down again on Hes West!
To be honest, it’s better if you bring a couple of friends along with you because they can make sure that you don’t spend your entire student loan on mulled wine and gourmet fudge.
Or you can count these lucky stars that you have gift ideas for your family back home!
Overall, the York Christmas Market is where you need to be for an evening of winter window shopping and gourmet grub. As someone who is new to the experience of a York Christmas, I’d say it’s a bit typical of what a Christmas market anywhere would sell but I really admired how much the independent handicrafters, craft brewers and cheese makers were being promoted because it made for quite a diverse shopping experience. Now I have no excuse not to buy any presents!
