Stamford Christmas Market

With all the snow we had just over two weeks ago, the ever famous Lincoln Christmas Market was cancelled!!!! We were crushed as it was a big Christmas time tradition for us. But we did happen to find out that the Stamford Christmas market was going on this weekend...yeah!!! We made our way up after lunch time which we should have known better that parking was going to be atrocious. We ended up parking way out on the west edge of town and walked into the city centre...just parked it on the edge of a main road and shut it down just like everyone else.

I LOVE markets and Christmas markets are the most fun!!!! English ones especially as they come from right out of the story books or in some cases science fiction books as you'll see later. What would Christmas time be without Hot Roasted Chestnuts?!!!

The Lion's club even had a little Grotto set up for the kids to visit with Santa.

There were various music groups scheduled to play all around the city centre. When we got to Red Lion Square this brass ensemble was playing Christmas tunes.

And I really thought I had seen it all living in the mid-West, but I have never seen a police "tractor," but's totally legit.

There was a neat little group singing further up the hill. I swear I had seen them before somewhere, but they were really good singing folk-type music. They were called "Penny-Les" with her name being Penny and he being Les...a pretty cute play on words.

All sorts of foods to eat at the market from wood fired pizza,

to cakes and pastries to loads of sweeties,

to crisps (potato and parsnip chips) flavored like Haggis....

to pork and turkey sandwiches with stuffing...

(and this little piggy went to Stamford market)..

....mulled wine is another Christmas time staple and lovely and something to keep you warm.

And if you weren't old enough to drink mulled wine then you could have mulled fruit punch with a mince pie.

Instead of the flower stalls you see evergreens...

There was even a little ice skating rink set up. I don't think you'll be doing any triple sal cows on it, but it looked fun.

We found a few of Santa's little helpers...looks like they did a little Polar run or something.

We stopped by one of our favorite stores in Stamford, Nook Furniture, to check out their Christmas goodies. This is where we got our kitchen table and chairs and curvy shelf.

Just outside the Nook were these funny dancers covered up with greenish ribbons and hats with feathers. The clanked sticks together as the accordion played on.

This was the funniest thing we saw all day. I think this girl was trying to raise money for a children's charity but didn't look all that motivated to get close to people. But you gotta dig the puffy skirt, red leggings and green ear muffs.