Edinburgh’s annual Christmas market celebrates its 24th anniversary in 2023. It’s a festival beloved by residents and tourists alike, filled with fantastic food and flashy attractions. It was also listed 15th on The Times’ rankings of the best Christmas markets in Europe. Edinburgh dominates the winter-aesthetic boards of Pinterest and influencers’ posed candids on Instagram.
Though the first Christmas market can be dubiously traced back to Vienna in 1296, when Albert I of Habsburg (then the Duke of Austria) sanctioned a 14-day winter fair. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the recognised standard for “the Christmas market” and other commonplace Christmas traditions stem from Germany and the Christkindlesmarkt (literally, “Christ child market”).
Alas, as these Christmas markets have grown massively in both scale and popularity, the ordinarily delightful experience has turned into a crowded and expensive hellscape for many. Edinburgh’s own market has been increasingly criticised by concerned citizens of the internet for its long queues, overcrowding, and expensive food.
Scathing TripAdvisor reviews aside, Christmas in Edinburgh has seen no shortage of foot traffic, attracting over 2.4 million visitors in 2022 according to The Edinburgh Reporter. This is a 161% increase from 2017’s numbers. The hashtag #edinburghchristmas has accumulated a whopping 28.4 million views on TikTok, each video more glamorous than the last.
Sophia, a second-year student at the University of Edinburgh, lived for four years in Zürich, a German-speaking city in Switzerland. She offered her perspective on the Christmas Market conundrum, having only experienced traditional small-town Christkindlesmarkts before coming to Edinburgh.
“People go to the Christmas markets in Switzerland and Germany for the sake of culture or tradition, not just to take pictures or just to say that they went,” she explained.
“Not to say that [the Edinburgh Christmas market] is bad. It’s gorgeous, the food is delicious… but at the same time, it was a really stressful experience. It was so crowded, and you have to plan to go at the right time on the right day to avoid that.”
Sophia described the Swiss-German Christmas markets she had visited as feeling “less like a spectacle,” not quite as sensationalised because “in Switzerland, these markets are of their own culture.”
I raised the principal question: Do more people see the Edinburgh Christmas market as a highlight of the festive period or an overcrowded, overpriced gimmick?
She responded, “As someone who used to live in Switzerland, it was interesting to see a kind of Germanic Christmas market in the UK… [but] there’s a lot of tourists and it’s not that big of a city. People who live in Edinburgh probably don’t like it as much because it’s chaotic and crowded, like the Fringe.”
In 2021, the City of Edinburgh released the results of its Winter Festivals Consultation. The Council collected responses from city residents and acknowledged the many issues local respondents took with the Christmas market, one of the majority opinions being that “these celebrations are designed for tourists and not local people.”
One individual commented, “[The Winter Festivals] are not welcoming to city centre residents, only tourists and out-of-towners,” “these events [are in] no way designed to be of benefit for citizens of Edinburgh.” Many expressed disapproval of the lack of support for local businesses.
It is clear from the Council’s report that a majority of Edinburgh locals view the Christmas market in a poor light, not just because it is “an overcrowded, overpriced gimmick” but because of how disconnected the event feels from the people of Edinburgh themselves. Though the internet loves #edinburghchristmas, the increased online popularity seems only to have exacerbated the overcrowding and consequently increased the incentive for maximum profit with maximum pricing, regardless of how it affects the local population.
Christmas in Edinburgh can be an exciting and memorable experience for many, but it is up to the city’s residents to recognise their individual priorities when choosing how to best spend time and money during the holidays.
Frohe Weihnachten, everyone!
“Edinburgh Christmas market and fair 015” by byronv2 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.