Sheffield Christmas Market
A tour of the Sheffield Christmas Market, with traders explaining their wares
Transcript
00:00 Hello and it's the Sheffield Star here and as you'll see behind me we are at the Sheffield Christmas Market with an umbrella because it's raining.
00:11 I'm going to have a wander down the market, see what's there and we shall also stop and speak to a few of the people who are working on the market.
00:20 As you'll see it's moved slightly this year because Fargate is currently rather preoccupied with various other items.
00:30 You can see they're doing a lot of work there. So let's turn around and have a bit of a wander over here along to the Christmas Market.
00:39 So you can see there's various items of knitwear there. The market is going all the way down Pinston Street to the moor. Let's see if there's anyone we can speak to.
00:51 Hello, I'm from the Sheffield Star and could you pop over here and tell me how it's going?
00:59 I'm from the Sheffield Star, do you want to tell us about how things are going or shall I pop to the next trader?
01:11 OK, thanks very much. OK, they don't seem to want to speak, we'll try someone else.
01:17 Hello, I'm from the Sheffield Star. How's it going? Is the market going well so far?
01:22 It's going well, yeah. Obviously with the weather it's been a bit rough. The past few days have been really good for us. It's a great atmosphere.
01:31 Are you enjoying doing the market?
01:33 I am, yeah. Loads of great people, a great atmosphere like I've said. A lot of good stores and it's a really enjoyable time.
01:41 What are you selling here?
01:43 We sell fruit and flowers. We grow them all locally in Chesterfield. We grow most of the fruit ourselves. It's all very time-free.
01:55 Excellent, it looks fantastic. And what's your name?
01:58 I'm Tony. I'm the Morton of Hockney.
02:01 Excellent, thank you very much indeed.
02:03 Thank you.
02:05 So let's have a move on and see what the other stores are doing. You can see there's a lot of leather goods there and various other items of clothing.
02:22 Just moving gently along up here we've got the Yorkshire Print Company. Shall we see what's going on there?
02:32 It's just busy, perhaps we could come back in a moment.
02:36 Let's go and have a look. This is looking very Christmassy. Let's see what's happening here.
02:43 Hello sir, I'm from the Sheffield Star and we're just doing a bit of a Facebook Live here along the Sheffield Christmas market. How's it going?
02:56 It's going great, absolutely great. Today's a bit quiet because of the weather but we're in England so we've got to expect the same.
03:05 Have the first few days been a success then for the markets?
03:08 It's been excellent. There's been a lovely atmosphere down here and the people have been really nice.
03:13 Obviously it's cost a living thing, people are not spending as much but they're doing their best to try and look after the kids and that.
03:21 And what's your name, sorry, and what's your store called?
03:24 This is called, we call it the Glass Forest Decorations but we've been here for quite a few years. My name's Gabby and I've been here for eight or nine years with these.
03:37 So we get the same customers from this year as every year which we're quite pleased about. And we're local so we enjoy it here.
03:45 So what are you selling here?
03:47 We sell personalised ornaments and handmade glass ornaments and anything to do with decorating your tree or decorating the house is where the people come and see.
03:58 Thank you very much indeed.
03:59 You're welcome.
04:00 So he's clearly enjoying the market.
04:06 Oh, hot chestnuts, what could be more Christmasy than hot roast chestnuts?
04:10 Excuse me sir, sorry to bother you. I'm from the Sheffield Star and we are just doing a Facebook Live about the Christmas market. Could you tell me how it's going and are you enjoying it?
04:23 Well so far the beginning weekend is always the opening weekend, it's the most exciting weekend. Apart from today's weather, I mean I wish it was a duck.
04:32 But yeah, so far it's been quite good. Looking forward to being back anyway and yeah, it's all good fun.
04:38 And are you here most days?
04:41 Yes, we share a retreat with myself and my wife who's hiding around the corner there. But yeah, generally we're both here on the weekends and then we take turns throughout the week and just give us a chance to get a bit of a break and do some Christmas shopping.
04:53 I heard it was really, really busy on Saturday night. Were you here on Saturday night?
04:58 It was, yes. It was indeed very busy. There's a lot of people, it's nice to see a lot of people out and enjoying themselves. I mean we've come out of lockdown and everybody seems to be gearing up for, well we don't want to go back into that again, so we're out, we're enjoying life. Living life is the main thing, enjoying it.
05:12 And have you sold a lot of chestnuts? Are people wanting to eat chestnuts this year?
05:15 Short answer is yes, including myself. That's why I'm the shape of a chestnut.
05:20 Fantastic. And what's your name, sorry?
05:22 It's Jay.
05:23 Jay, and what's the business called?
05:26 Hot Roasted Chestnuts.
05:27 Excellent. Thanks very much Jay. Have a good day.
05:29 Thank you.
05:30 Let's see what's going on with the Yorkshire stall.
05:34 Here we go. Who have we got here?
05:39 Hello sir. I'm from the Sheffield Star and we're just doing a Facebook Live today on how things are going here at the Sheffield Christmas Market. What are you selling here?
05:51 We're the Yorkshire Print Company, we're selling prints. It's been really busy yesterday, we're really busy with the Christmas Market. Top sellers will be Pubs of Sheffield, Yorkshire Periodic Table and Sheffield Monofilth. Thanks.
06:07 Excellent. And I gather, were you here Saturday night? I gather Saturday night was very busy.
06:14 Yeah, we were here, yeah. It was really busy yesterday, yeah.
06:17 So has it been a good year so far for the Christmas Market?
06:20 It's been really good, yeah. We did it last year, definitely coming back next year.
06:24 Excellent. What's your name, sorry?
06:26 Sam.
06:27 Sam, and it's the Yorkshire Print Company. Excellent. Thanks very much Sam.
06:31 Thanks a lot.
06:32 So there's another one. It sounds like it's been a busy time so far.
06:39 So what have we got there? We've got plenty of food stalls as well. You can see another food stall here.
06:47 And here we've got more Christmas decorations here I think.
06:54 In fact I think that, is that Russian dolls?
07:02 The lady I think is just speaking to somebody so I'll come back in a moment and have a quick word.
07:12 And we've got more food there. And street traders.
07:19 It just wouldn't be Sheffield Market without a few street traders showing their street trader skills.
07:26 Let's have a look at how he's managing.
07:36 I've got to say, I'd stroll to do that.
07:48 That's clever stuff.
08:04 Thank you very much.
08:07 It looks like he's going to have another go on his balancing before I go and speak to the lady over there.
08:15 There's a lovely lady over there.
08:17 There we go, some fantastic balancing skills.
08:38 Welcome back, we'll move on to the next stall.
08:42 There we go.
08:47 Still lots and lots of stalls actually. I think we probably ought to get a bit of a shift on along here because otherwise we're going to have only seen the beginning of the market.
08:56 Here we go.
09:00 The Roast Hut. They're the place that sell the Yorkshire Pudding wraps which I gather are quite popular.
09:05 Shall we see if anyone can tell us how popular they are?
09:08 Hello, I'm from the Star, we're just doing a Facebook Live.
09:11 You are?
09:14 Would anyone be able to tell me how the Yorkshire Pudding wraps are going? Are they proving popular?
09:19 Just a little bit, yes, quite busy yesterday.
09:23 So hopefully we'll keep up with the trend and we're ready for more customers today.
09:28 Do many places do the Yorkshire Pudding wraps or do you think you're fairly unique?
09:32 Yes, I think it's just something that now comes with Christmas.
09:36 So people cast Christmas from the Yorkshire Pudding wraps and they've got them, which is good for us.
09:41 Has it been your best seller so far then this Christmas down here?
09:45 Yes, we're very popular. The turkey seems to be a real hit.
09:50 Excellent, so turkey Yorkshire Pudding wraps. Fantastic.
09:53 You can see all the Yorkshire Puddings there, ready for serving.
09:57 Thank you very much indeed.
10:00 Let's have a wander along.
10:03 Spiced mulled wine. Plenty of options for things that you can have on that.
10:08 All sorts of Dutch pancakes.
10:14 That looks like it's a selection of jams.
10:20 Bags and things.
10:24 Street food, various burgers, everything from venison to traditional beef.
10:33 Oh, there's something for those with a sweet tooth with a little bit of everything.
10:40 Oh, there's something for those with a sweet tooth with fresh donuts.
10:45 Candles. Have a look along here, what have we got?
10:54 Oh, more sweet things, that looks nice.
10:58 Moving further along, plenty of things here.
11:04 We'll just move along a bit.
11:07 You can see this year we've got an awful lot going on.
11:11 There's also the Alpine Lodge in the Peace Gardens.
11:15 The Alpine Lodge, that's traditionally where you go for a beer or a drink of some sort.
11:20 Let's just have a quick wander into the Peace Gardens.
11:25 You can see this is nicely decorated, there's a huge display of art.
11:31 There's a huge teddy bear with a Santa hat, a festive pillar box.
11:36 Moving along there, I think we've got a penguin with a Father Christmas hat.
11:43 And then going out towards the Millennium Galleries and so forth, you can hear there's music going on.
11:53 So there's plenty of entertainment.
11:57 I don't know if you can just see in the distance, I think you can just about see it.
12:03 But we're going to go back up here and have a look at more of the things on the main market area.
12:11 As you can see, there's another place selling drinks there.
12:20 Moving further along, you've got a jewellery store, looks like all sorts of nice jewellery on there.
12:27 And more mulled wine, that's pretty festive.
12:36 You can see it might be raining, but it doesn't seem to have stopped people coming out here on a Sunday.
12:43 And it's not just about buying things in terms of your Christmas presents here, there's plenty of other stuff to do.
12:51 As you can see there, there's a fairground ride for those with little ones.
12:57 I'm not sure they'll get many grown-ups on that, you'd be sure to space out your legs, wouldn't you?
13:03 Oh, that's a poor joke.
13:06 Marshmallow toasting.
13:10 Let's have another wander along.
13:13 You can really smell the wood smoke coming from there as well, that gives it a real sort of Victorian flavour.
13:21 Right, so things are thinning out a little bit here as we move towards the next area of the Christmas market.
13:34 It's going to take a few seconds to get to that, because as we walk here along the far end of Pinstead Street,
13:42 things are a little bit more sparse.
13:47 But as you can see, I don't know if you can see on the small screen in the distance,
13:53 but as we walk here heading towards the moor, you can see the big wheel, which is looking pretty sparkly.
14:03 I'll tell you what, let's jog along, because otherwise you'll all be getting bored sitting around waiting for Christmas.
14:17 I don't really think anyone wants to watch a video of the back of shoppers.
14:31 So, here we go.
14:33 Let's have a look and see what we've got now at this end.
14:39 Just going to wait to cross the road.
14:44 Now, I think you can certainly see the big wheel there in the distance now.
15:00 And...
15:02 Just waiting for the lights to cross.
15:09 You can see the big wheel there, and in front of the big wheel, you can see that there's another Alpine bar.
15:23 So, I'm going to cross now, having hopefully given a quick lesson in the Green Cross code.
15:30 And let's have a look. So, what have we got along here? We've got the Alpine bar.
15:45 It may be a bit early for that, but I can imagine that we'll get pretty busy in the evenings.
15:52 We've already had people telling us how busy it was on Saturday evening.
15:57 We've had a lot of people out and about and enjoying Sheffield's Christmas offering.
16:03 Of course, it was the first weekend that the Christmas market had been open.
16:11 So, we're just getting towards now a few more items in terms of fairgrounds.
16:18 So, let's have a look at what we've got.
16:21 Well, there's an aeroplane's ride there that goes up in the air.
16:27 And, move along from that, there we have it.
16:34 There's the big wheel.
16:39 So...
16:41 Let's have a look.
16:48 So, you've got views presumably all across Sheffield there.
16:53 And apparently Amy Burton's just telling me that Funky Dance Fever Studio are performing at 1 o'clock at Millennium Square.
17:02 So, that sounds great, doesn't it? If you want to see some great dancing, pop down to Millennium Square at 1 o'clock.
17:09 That sounds like a great opportunity for some entertainment.
17:14 So, there we go.
17:21 Let's just quickly move along and see what else we've got going on here.
17:29 [wind noise]
17:31 Well, here we are. We've just got to just outside Primark and the stalls look like they're starting again here.
17:44 So, let's have a quick look and see what we've got.
17:54 Here we go. Oh, it's toys. Well, that looks like toys to me.
17:58 So, you've got all sorts of things like Lego figures there.
18:02 And...
18:05 More sweet items. Cakes.
18:08 Nick wears a lot of festive stuff in there as well.
18:12 Soft toys. Looks like everything there from dinosaurs to dogs and ducks. Quite a selection.
18:21 [wind noise]
18:23 There's Chinese food.
18:27 Here we go, continuing along the market. What have we got next?
18:35 So, what have we got? We've got more jewellery and things like that.
18:46 We've got picture frames here.
18:51 More jewellery.
18:54 And... earrings, jewellery, that sort of thing.
18:59 I think we've got more entertainment coming up along here. That looks like it's pictures frames, ornaments.
19:06 [wind noise]
19:09 Here we go, more entertainment. This is just outside the Moor Market where we've got people in some great costumes.
19:18 [music]
19:20 In fact, who is this? This is... I think what we have here is... Is this the Manor operatic show?
19:30 Well, if you're looking forward to Pantomime, this looks like a great place to get a bit of a sneak preview.
19:38 Here are the costumes, and this is the people who are doing the Robin Hood and his Merry Men panto at Sheffield City Hall.
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20:53 I think a couple would like to speak to us. Excuse me, sorry to bother you, I'm from the Sheffield Star and I'm doing a Facebook Live.
21:00 I just wanted to be alright to speak to you and ask how much you enjoyed the Santa's Grotto. Would that be alright?
21:05 OK, thanks very much. Cheers. Well, they don't want to speak, but we've not got them on camera anyway, so no problem there.
21:12 And I think that brings us pretty much to the end of the Father Christmas Grotto.
21:19 The Father Christmas Grotto is just outside the Atkinsons.
21:23 So, that is the Sheffield Christmas Market.
21:30 And I'm going to finish the broadcast very shortly.
21:37 So let's just finish with another quick look at the people from the Christmas Panto.
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