Birmingham offers up plenty to enjoy at Christmas time. Beyond the already many great sites of the city to explore for Christmas there is Christmas at the Cathedral, Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market, and ice skating on offer. Despite how consumerist Christmas has become, can you still enjoy an unapologetically festive Christmas?
Christmas in October?
I first heard a Christmas song this year in early October. Sitting in a café, typing away furiously at my keyboard, I overheard the familiar bells and jingles of a Christmas song pouring out of the café’s tucked away speakers. My thoughts were quickly summarised by a customer at the till, who asked the barista, astonished: “No, that’s not what I think it is, is it? It’s only October!”.
This sentiment came back again and again throughout the month as, despite my best efforts, Christmas increasingly crept into my life. Adverts started telling me about the best food to buy for Christmas Day. When I went to supermarkets I was greeted by rows and rows of Christmas decorations. Halloween had not yet passed, yet it seemed as if Christmas was almost here – and who even remembers Guy Fawkes?
The most frustrating part of Christmas’s capitalistic takeover is how it manages to take away from the really positive parts of the holiday. Being with family. Gifting to others. Delicious food. The genuine childhood joy of Christmas, which I truly believe should be felt even as an adult, is seeping away.
With that in mind, I headed to Birmingham with my partner for the weekend to enjoy the city and to try to have an unapologetically festive Christmas.
Birmingham Christmas
For anyone in Birmingham during November or December it is impossible to avoid the city’s Frankfurt Christmas Market. Organisers bill it as the largest German Christmas market outside Germany. Having only been to one years ago, I can’t comment on that claim, but as Christmas markets in the UK go, it puts the rest to shame.
Starting at the entrance to the Bullring on New Street, it stretches all the way down to Victoria Square. It certainly looks the part, with wooden huts, extensive Christmas lights, and extravagant decorations. Stalls offer various gifts and Christmas ornaments, copious amounts of hot dogs and half-metre-long bratwurst, pretzels, chocolate-coated fruit for dessert, and of course plenty of beer. Many of the stalls are the same, so variety isn’t great, and it goes without saying that some of the items seem a little overpriced. Despite that, it absolutely got me in the Christmas spirit.
At Victoria Square, there are plenty of Christmas market-themed standing roofs to shelter under while enjoying a beer at the tables, meaning even the unforgiving British rain doesn’t dampen the Christmas spirit. While the slightly off-tune band raising some money for charity with Christmas songs made me reminisce about the equally out-of-tune school Christmas concerts from secondary school.
Cathedrals and ice skating
From Victoria Square, take the short walk to Birmingham Cathedral and there is another similar German Christmas market to enjoy – the Christmas in Cathedral Square Market (better known as Pigeon Park).
There is a lot more variety here than through the Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market. So, if you’ve seen one too many bratwurst this may be the destination for you. Instead, you can try out the not very Christmassy but very yummy Indian or Chinese options at the market. There are also a greater variety of gifts on offer, if you’re looking to pick up a Christmas present. A great helter-skelter looms over the square for younger (or young at heart) visitors. On some days charity stalls will also be set up, helping to raise money at the market for important local causes.
Birmingham Cathedral, or officially The Cathedral Church of Saint Philip, is well worth the visit as well. Especially at Christmas. For people religious or not, it is perfect for a moment of reflection. Free to visit, but don’t come late as it closes before evening every day.
For a bit more of an athletic activity, to burn off all the beer and sausages that have been consumed, there is ice skating available at Ice Skate Birmingham. Located next to the Birmingham Library, there is also a Big Wheel.
The rink at Ice Skate Birmingham is not large by any means, but for someone like me who can’t really claim to be an ice skater, it is plenty enjoyable. To my joy I managed to avoid falling over, which was better than many of the people who joined me on the ice.
For those who are planning on doing some ice skating, it’s worth pointing out that the on-site lockers to store your items are tiny. They certainly won’t fit a backpack and can barely squeeze in a decent-sized handbag.
Birmingham Christmas beyond the lights
It is rather pessimistic to say, but consumerism at Christmas is probably unavoidable. All these locations I visited, despite how much I enjoyed them, are all undeniably consumerist.
The issue for me isn’t so much that aspects of Christmas are now consumerist, but how in- your-face it is. There is a line you need to find between spending money at a Christmas market or going ice skating, and the money-pit monstrosity that is Christmas Wonderland in London, or enjoying a Christmas weekend away late in the year, and supermarkets trying to sell you decorations in October.
It is also a matter of how you balance yourself. So, between the ice skating and Christmas markets, I enjoyed a lovely meal at the Palace Hotpot, and tea with mint at the local Damascena café. The food and drink may not have been Christmassy, but enjoying great food with someone you love is.
Likewise, browsing through books at the amazing independent Voce Bookshop before being gifted two by my partner definitely felt like an early Christmas present. Located close to the Victorian arches of Moor Street Railway Station, this is a tiny one-room bookshop. This is more than made up for by the unique curation of independent books they have.
Returning home after the weekend, it was undeniably a lovely festive time; striking a balance between how consumerist Christmas can be and enjoying the festivities yourself.
As I woke up the next day to see the unmistakable whiteness of the first dusting of snow through our curtains, I couldn’t help but feel like a child at Christmas again.
