With only two weekends left to enjoy Manchester’s legendary Christmas Markets, Christmas mug-lovers are urged not to leave it too late if they’re hoping to get themselves one of the iconic 2024 Christmas market mugs to add to their Christmas mug collection, or to gift to someone else this festive season.
Market bosses have confirmed that all of this year’s 2024 dated mugs are now out on stalls across the nine different Christmas market locations in the city centre – and when these mugs have gone, they’ve gone.
With the last of the 2024 mugs now out on the markets, the hunt is also now on to find the person who has the biggest collection of Manchester Christmas Market mugs from all the years the mugs have been produced.
With what could be a record-breaking haul of 15 Manchester Christmas Market mugs going back over a decade and owned by one individual who has made themselves known to Manchester’s Christmas team, the team is keen to know if there are other festive fanatics out there who can beat the size of this impressive collection.
Councillor Pat Karney, Christmas spokesperson for Manchester City Council, said: “Our fabulous Christmas mugs are the talk of the town every year and people just can’t get enough of them.
“As well as gracing more Santa’s-on-his-way social feeds than you possibly imagine, we’ve heard there are some serious collectors out there who every year just can’t wait to get their mitts on our latest festive mug to add to their collection.
“What we want to know now is if anyone can beat the step-back-in-time Santastic haul we’ve heard about of a staggering15 mugs going back over a decade of Manchester Christmases.
“We all know how much Mancunians love a bit of friendly competition – so it’s game on – if there’s anyone out there who has a bigger and better collection than this and can provide the picture to prove it – well I’ll eat my Santa hat!”
Designed by the city council’s in-house design studio, this year’s edition of the highly collectible mugs builds on the design of last year’s much sought-after Nutcracker themed mugs which sold out across the markets in record time.
Continuing the Nordic-style theme from 2023, this year’s souvenir mugs feature a brand-new family of festive characters – Father Christmas, Mother Christmas and all the elves.
As always Manchester’s special edition Christmas mugs can either be bought outright by Christmas shoppers or ‘rented’ when they purchase a hot drink at one of the Christmas Market stalls.
Customers will be asked to pay a deposit of £3.50 for their mug when they purchase a hot drink and can then either return their mug to the stall afterwards to get their deposit back, or keep the mug and take it home with them as a souvenir of their visit to the markets.
Hot chocolate and gluhwein lovers might also want to look out for the new-for-this year festive photo booths located in the Winter Gardens at Piccadilly, St Ann’s Square, and Cathedral Gardens, to capture a memory-making picture of themselves with their Christmas mugs to take home with them. Print it out at the booth old-school style and it will come out complete with a festive surround to treasure forever, or send it straight to your phone and onto your socials.
For anyone making their first visit to Manchester’s world famous Christmas Markets, the hub of this year’s markets is the Winter Gardens at Piccadilly, with the picture perfect iconic wooden chalets also to be found at Market Street, Cathedral Gardens, Exchange Street, New Cathedral Street, St Ann’s Square, Exchange Square, The Corn Exchange and King Street – transforming the city centre into a twinkling winter wonderland.
Manchester’s Christmas markets are open every day and close on Sunday 22 December.
They are open daily at the following times:
All craft stalls 10 am – 8 pm
All bars and food stalls 11 am – 9 pm
The Ice Rink in Cathedral Gardens will be open for Christmas skaters from Friday 8 November until Wednesday 1 January. The food and drink stalls in Cathedral Gardens alongside the skate rink will remain open until 31 December.
Find out more information about Christmas in Manchester here
