Manchester Christmas Markets have officially run out of its beloved festive mugs, despite a stock of 140,000 cups.
The hugely popular event has now resorted to using leftover stock from previous years for its gluhwein and hot chocolates, billing them as ‘vintage and retro’.
It means that visitors to the Christmas Markets over its final few days will no longer be handed the 2022 design – featuring Christmas characters like Santa, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, and polar bears all high-fiving each other – and will instead throw it back as far as 2012.
Shoppers pay a deposit of £3 for a mug, which is returned when mugs are handed back in at the bars – but it seems like this year everyone’s chosen to hang on to theirs as a souvenir.
Manchester City Council said that 80,000 collectable 2022 mugs were printed this year, with a further 60,000 printed with no dates to be used in future years.
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Manchester Christmas Markets 2011 mug design. Credit: Manchester City Council
After a particularly busy festive period, which has included the city’s first ever Christmas Parade, the entire stock has been obliterated.
By 12 December – just over a month since the markets opened – every 2022 mug had either been sold or was doing the rounds of the markets in its rental scheme.
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Then by 15 December, a whole week before the festivities wrap up, they were all gone and were being replaced by vintage mugs from previous years.
Councillor Pat Karney, Christmas spokesperson for Manchester City Council, said: “Our Christmas mugs have always been a massive hit with each year’s design eagerly anticipated, but this year they seem to have been top of everyone’s wish-list and the demand for them has been phenomenal!
Previous Manchester Christmas Markets mug designs:
Manchester Christmas Markets 2012 mug design. Credit: Manchester City CouncilManchester Christmas Markets 2017 mug design. Credit: Manchester City CouncilManchester Christmas Markets 2018 mug design. Credit: Manchester City Council
“Bad luck of course for anyone who maybe hasn’t been to the markets yet and so has missed out on one of them, but with all our vintage mugs now out in the markets until they close, what a great chance to grab a piece of Manchester Christmas past for all the retro-heads and collectors out there!
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“The vintage mugs have been proving a massive hit with visitors over the weekend who simply can’t get enough of them and have been lapping up the nostalgic designs with their kissing snowmen and mistletoe, and of course our 2018 vintage with their interactive and wearable red nose reindeers!
“Don’t miss out – come and grab one!”
Manchester’s world-famous Christmas Markets are spread across nine sites in the city centre, and are open until 5pm this Thursday 22 December.
The market stalls at Cathedral Gardens alongside Skate Manchester ice rink will remain open in the run-up to Christmas and again after Christmas until New Year’s Eve.
The opening times for stalls at Cathedral Gardens from 22 December are as follows:
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22 Dec – open 11 am close at 9 pm
23 Dec – open 11 am close at 9 pm
24 Dec – open 10 am close at 5 pm
25 Dec – closed for Christmas Day
26 Dec – 31 Dec – open 10 am close at 6 pm
Featured image: Manchester City Council
Christmas
Massive festive event dubbed the ‘Glastonbury of Christmas’ is returning to the North West
Daisy Jackson
The North West’s most extravagant festive event, with everything from a frozen skating pond to a snow-covered world filled with elves, will return just outside Greater Manchester this winter.
Dubbed the ‘Glastonbury of Christmas’, LaplandUK recreates the home of Father Christmas himself right outside Greater Manchester.
The event was so popular last year, organisers are expecting more than one million people will join the queue for tickets when they go live this week – with tickets expected to sell out in hours.
Families who book tickets for LaplandUK – which range in price from £60 to £195 – will be greeted by hundreds of elves and other performers in a snow-covered landscape.
You’ll be able to visit the Lapland Toy Factory to make a toy for Santa’s sleigh; decorate gingerbead with Mother Christmas in the Lapland Bakery, as well as skating on a frozen pond and travelling through the Whispering Woods.
Every child leaves LaplandUK with a gift from Father Christmas.
The immersive experience takes around four and a half hours from start to finish, but the magic begins way before – ticket-holders are sent personalised invitation boxes (which you can pop in the freezer for extra magic for the kids).
LaplandUK has invested an additional £30m into its Cheshire site, which is the second location after a long-standing residency in Ascot.
Keeping this impressive festive event running are more than 2000 members of staff across the two sites.
It’s drawn in some very high-profile guests, too, with previous visitors including the Prince and Princess of Wales, Sir Elton John, and the Beckhams.
The Lapland experience is based on eight best-selling books, written by founders Mike and Alison Battle.
LaplandUK will run from 7 November to 24 December 2026, with tickets ranging from £60 to £195.
Tickets for LaplandUK Manchester go on sale from 10am on Friday 27 March HERE, with the waiting room open from 9am.
How and where to recycle or donate your Christmas tree in Manchester | 2026
Emily Sergeant
The new year is here, and the ’12 days of Christmas’ are up… which means it’s time for a fresh start.
Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve both feel like things of the past now, and for most of us, this is our first proper week back at work too, which means (if you haven’t already) it’s time to tackle the task of taking down and putting away all the festive decorations – even if it is one of the dullest times of the year and it signals that the magic of Christmas is over.
For those of us that opt for a real Christmas tree though, the end of the year always brings one question – now what do we do with it?
Manchester City Council has aimed to answer that very question by providing residents with a handful of different ways to recycle their Christmas trees to make sure they’re put to good use and don’t go to waste or get dumped.
Here’s the different options.
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Recycle it in your food and garden waste bin
You can recycle your Christmas tree by cutting it up and placing it in your food and garden waste bin, but you’ll need to make sure you take the following steps before doing so.
Remove all decorations and fairy lights
Take off the base or wooden block if your tree has one
Make sure the trunk is not thicker than your wrist. Wood thicker than your wrist is too big and can’t be put in the garden and food bin. Large trunks and wooden bases can be taken to a recycling centre.
Donate it to charity
Did you know you can donate your Christmas trees to charity? That’s right – for residents living in Manchester, all you’ll need to do is register your tree with national charity JustHelping, along with a donation towards the collection, and you can help a local hospice or charitable cause in the city-region.
The money raised will go to good causes in the area, including Moya Cole Hospice (previously St Anne’s Hospice), Francis House, and We Love Manchester.
You can find more information and register your tree here.
It’s time to take down and recycle our Christmas trees for another year / Credit: Myriam Olmz | Tanbir Mahmud (via Unsplash)
Take it to a local drop-off point
You can drop your real tree throughout January at:
Angel Meadow Park (entrance Old Mount Street) – M4 4HA
Wythenshawe Park and Gardens Athletics Track – M23 0PH
Heaton Park (Middleton Road entrance) – M8 4NB
Boggart Hole Clough (near the Visitor Centre) – M9 7DH
Patchett Street, off Hyde Road in Ardwick – M12 4RY
Bring it to your local recycling centres
And finally, wherever you live in Manchester, you can take your real Christmas tree – and even your artificial tree that is beyond reuse – to your local recycling centre for free of charge, but it’s worth noting that if you’re planning on using a van, pick-up truck, or a twin-axle trailer to dispose of your tree, then you’ll probably need to apply for a permit.
You can find information about your nearest recycling centre here.
Are you elsewhere in Greater Manchester? Recycle for Greater Manchester (R4GM) has teamed up with local councils and charities across the region to provide Greater Manchester residents in all 10 boroughs with several different options for either recycling or donate their old Christmas trees.
Daisy Jackson -
20th December 2022 
