Hundreds of stalls are back in Manchester for the 27th year of the Christmas markets.
The familiar wooden huts have popped up across the city centre, with seasonal favourites like the Bratwurst stands returning year after year, while other new additions are hoping to become just as popular.
Anja Manke has been selling at the market for the past 27 years, and said the joy it brings is what keeps her coming back.
For first time sellers like Ronnie Miller from Manchester, they are hoping to make a lasting impression on some of the millions of visitors to the city over the festive season.
Mr Miller, from Cheetham Hill in Manchester, said he is feeling good about his first season on the market, working side by side with his son to sell dog treats.
He said he set up his business Charlie Boy’s Barkery 18 months ago, and “the vibe and the people” is what attracted him to set up shop at the markets.
He said: “It’s going to be a great old slog, but I’m going to love every minute of it.”
Pip Fowler has been selling at the markets for more than 20 years.
Based in Yorkshire, he said he set up his record coaster business after the birth of his second child, when he realised he would have to start cutting down his record collection.
He said he realised if he could cut the middle out into a coaster, it would make a nice gift, and “six months later I figured out how to do it, and here we are”.
“It’s a music city,” he said, of his success at the markets in Manchester, where the best selling record coasters are Frank Wilson’s album Do I Love You? followed by Oasis’s Roll With It.
Anja Manke has been a trader here since the markets first began in Manchester 27 years ago.
She has been instrumental in helping to set up many parts of the market, and said she recalled that when she first came here that “nobody knew what Glühwein was about at that time… and now Glühwein is a common word in the Christmas language”.
Ms Manke said: “It’s such a good job because you make people happy.”
Rick Coops from Middleton, who has taken over the Cherry Tree preserves franchise, said: “It’s nice to see people, and when they remember your face, that’s nice”.
He acknowledged his costs have risen from previous years, and put that down to the rise in price of rent at the markets and the rising costs of goods.
Mr Coops is hoping his local link will give him an edge on the market this year, “Mancs like to buy from Mancs,” he said.
