Cake and food stalls at Christmas markets require extensive preparation, with one stall owner saying her team of 8 works 5 days a week for 4 months in advance. While ornament stalls were originally more popular, food and drink stalls now sell more, with one crystal stall getting only 2 sales in an hour compared to countless customers at a donut stall. Bratwurst stalls, selling German pork sausages, tend to be the most popular overall with the longest queues each year.

2. It
takes
a
lot
to
prepare
for
the
fes.ve
season,
and
on
average,
a
cake
stall
like
this
è
takes
up
to
4
months
to
prepare
for
the
coming
December.
Maggie
Talbot,
the
stall
owner,
said
“a
team
of
8
of
us
work
5
days
a
week
for
4
months
prior
to
Christmas.”

3. The
tradi.onal
ornament
stalls,
which
was
originally
what
the
Christmas
markets
were
about,
now
a
days
do
not
sell
as
much
compared
with
the
food
and
drink
stalls.
This
Crystal
stall
only
got
2
sales
within
an
hour,
whereas
the
donut
stall
sold
to
a
countless
number
of
customers.

4. When
the
Christmas
markets
first
started,
they
put
fruit
on
skewers
and
covered
them
in
chocolate
as
they
did
not
have
many
‘sweet
treat’
stalls
so
this
was
sort
of
a
last
resort.
So
much
so
that
the
idea
of
‘chocolate
fondue’
as
we
know
it
today,
originated
from
this
stall.

5. The
most
popular
stall
throughout
most
Christmas
markets
tends
to
be
the
Bratwurst
stalls.
They
are
a
bit
like
a
hotdog
but
they
use
German
pork
sausage
instead.
Stall
worker
Sabrina
Lowe
said:
“The
Bratwurst
stall
is
defiantly
the
most
popular,
each
year
it
has
the
most
queues
and
intake!”

6. The
Christmas
markets
have
always
been
known
as
the
‘German
Christmas
Markets,’
as
demonstrated
in
the
picture
below,
however
this
is
not
technically
true.
The
Christmas
markets
actually
originated
from
Austria
in
1294.
Austrian
people
took
to
the
markets
to
sell
their
goods
for
money
to
buy
loved
ones
Christmas
presents
with.

7. There
are
the
more
general
stalls
that
appear
at
all
Christmas
markets
but
every
town
that
hosts
the
markets
will
have
a
local
varia.on
of
stalls,
for
example
the
Leeds
Christmas
markets
have
a
garlic
bread
stall,
and
a
stall
that
sells
snow
globes
with
‘Leeds’
wriUen
in
them.

8. Every
single
Christmas
market
has
the
head
of
a
moose
somewhere
in
it,
this
is
tradi.onally
put
up
as
a
central
point
of
the
markets.
The
people
gather
round
the
moose’s
head
to
sing
carols.
However
stall
owner,
Nastassia
Wortle,
said:
“It’s
not
as
much
a
tradi.on
now
as
it
was
15
years
ago.”

9. Most
towns
in
the
UK
now
welcome
the
fes.ve
markets,
but
the
first
ever
Christmas
markets
was
in
Lincoln.
This
was
because
of
its
close
friendship
with
a
small
German
town
that
used
to
send
hats
and
warm
clothing
goods
over
to
Lincoln,
un.l
it
became
a
tradi.on
every
year.

10. Every
Chri stmas
market
tradi.onally
has
a
carousel,
this
was
because
the
parents
used
to
leave
the
children
on
t h e
c a r o u s e l
w i t h
t h e
aUendant
and
the
adults
would
go
off
and
browse
the
stalls.
The
children
never
really
experienced
any
other
aspect
of
the
markets
but
this
tradi.on
has
preUy
much
died
out
now.

11. There
are
thousands
of
p e o p l e
t h a t
g o
t o
t h e
Christmas
markets
more
than
once
every
year.
This
year,
around
720,000
people
are
expected
to
aUend
the
Christmas
markets
in
Leeds.
Maria
Anastaiadi
said
“I
have
travelled
from
Greece
to
the
Leeds
Christmas
markets,
I
didn’t
expect
them
to
be
this
busy!”