Manchester Christmas Markets kick off next week and with it comes copious mugs full of hot chocolate and mulled wine. As much as we love its contents, the Manchester Christmas Markets mugs are a tradition in itself with Manchester City Council revealing today this year’s design.
Known for their wonderfully creative festive graphic designs, the limited edition mugs are a firm favourite of the Christmas Markets and every year they are are snapped up in their tens of thousands with visitors to the markets eager to add to their collection. Previous years have seen kissing snowmen, mistletoe, interactive and wearable red nose reindeers, and even Santa himself.
Designed by the council’s inhouse design studio, this year’s edition of the much-coveted mugs which are set to grace many a social media feed over the coming weeks, feature festive Nutcracker designs with a distinctive and on-trend Scandi feel. The collectible souvenir mugs that for thousands of visitors to Manchester’s Christmas markets help spell the start of the Christmas season, will be available at all of the city centre Christmas market sites from November 10 while stocks last.
Anyone wanting to get their hands on one of the must-have mugs this year is advised to get themselves along to see the markets sooner rather than later and not to leave their visit to the last minute. The advice comes off the back of last year which saw the 2022 Christmas mugs sell out completely the week before the markets closed, after Christmas Market lovers in Manchester got through a staggering 140,000 specially produced mugs. The sell-out saw market traders bringing out vintage mugs from previous years to keep up with the demand from Christmas shoppers.
Determined not to disappoint festive visitors who just can’t get enough of the collectible Christmas mugs, market bosses have this year ordered in 170,000 of the special edition mugs to try and help make sure visitors to Manchester’s Christmas markets can get their hands on one of the mugs if they want one, whenever they make their visit.
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 across Winter Gardens, Market Street, Cathedral Gardens, Exchange Street, New Cathedral Street, St Ann’s Square, Exchange Square, The Corn Exchange and King Street. Customers will be asked to pay a deposit of £3.50 for their mug when they purchase a hot drink and can then either choose to 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.
Manchester Christmas Markets will be open daily from 10am till 8pm and bars will be open 11am –9pm between November 10 and December 21 for you to snap up one their festive mugs.
On November 14, Manchester City Council also hid a number of Christmas mugs in iconic spots across the city including AO Arena, Piccadilly station, Manchester Cathedral and next to the Alan Turing statue in Sackville Gardens. All the locations have been teased on Manchester City Council’s Instagram stories.