This week the Daily Mail named Bath Christmas Market as the best in England. Here at Cottages Near Bath we love celebrating the birth of Jesus and as part of our Christmas fun we visit the Bath Christmas market most years. For comparison we have also had the pleasure of visiting many Christmas markets both at home and overseas. So we thought we’d share our view of why our local festive fair rightly enjoys quasi-royal status among Christmas markets in England! If you’re planning to come, this year’s market is from Thursday 27th November to Sunday 14th December.
Firstly, its setting is nothing short of magical. Bath is a UNESCO-listed city, its honey-coloured Georgian stone buildings, Roman Baths and imposing Bath Abbey always provide a gorgeous historic and romantic backdrop. The Christmas market is best enjoyed on a long winter’s evening, as the narrow streets turn bright with lights and the air heavy with the smells of delicious wintry foods. The market will take you on a winding route through cobbled streets around Bath Abbey and Abbey Green, the colourful twinkling bulbs turning the city centre into a winter wonderland with a distinct charm from years past. You can almost imagine Jane Austen shopping in Bath for late Christmas gifts for her family, or perhaps the Prince Regent stopping to buy hot roast chestnuts en route to a ball at the Assembly Rooms.
In contrast to some of larger but more generic Christmas fairs we’ve visited, Bath’s market feels authentic. There have doubtless been special Christmas treats for sale at stalls in Bath for far more than a thousand years. Possibly even some early Roman Christians had a special festive meal or two here! The current iteration of the market was founded in 2001 by a handful of local artisans and small businesses. And it has grown organically since then – not as a facsimile of a German-style Christmas village, but as a celebration of local creativity.
The majority of traders come from Bath and the South West: in 2025, around 65 percent hail from the local area. As well as gifts, decorations and clothes, we always make time for the mulled cider and the artisan cooked sausages and burgers. And look out for fabulous local chocolate makers! That sense of authenticity is matched by sheer scale: over 250 independent stallholders take part. If you compare that with many other UK markets, Bath’s is impressively large but avoids becoming impersonal.
What makes the stalls themselves so compelling is their quality and variety. We love the mind boggling range of local crafts such as hand-carved wooden furniture, Bristolian knitwear, indie fragrances, beeswax candles, artisan jewellery and more. Local food producers also feature strongly: we particularly love the homemade jams, festive cakes and biscuits and sweets. Many of the food stalls are microbusinesses based right in Bath or nearby. More than just breadth, there is depth to the stalls: not just cheap seasonal tat, but thoughtfully made, locally rooted gifts.
Stallholders are often artisan makers or genuine food producers, rather than generic fair traders. Last year we bought door wreaths with dried lemon and oranges, a festive lamp and warm hats. These quality local items are what gives the market its character of local treats with friends rather than bland Xmas commercial exploitation.
The city council has a lovely bias towards Eco issues and emphasises sustainability, asking stallholders to use biodegradable packaging and reuse decorations year after year. This year is special too: In 2025, it celebrates its 25th anniversary, a quarter-century of festive enchantment. So hopefully it will be particularly fabulous this year.
One word of caution we’d sound: the market gets very busy from 6pm on Fridays and all day Saturday. So ideally try to avoid peak times if you’d prefer a quieter stroll around or easier access to car parking! In short: if you want a Christmas market that feels genuine, beautiful, abundant but human-scale, and steeped in local craft and food, then we recommend Bath Christmas Market as one to visit. Its hundreds of well-chosen stalls, locally rooted traders, and stunning historic surroundings combine to make a festive experience that is more than just shopping – it’s a celebration of place.
So, dear reader: come and celebrate the birth of Christ in beautiful surroundings. Visit Bath this Christmas season, wander the cobbled streets under twinkling lights, taste local delicacies, and bring home wise gifts crafted by makers who call this part of England home. And we wish you what one of Jane Austen’s famous characters did: we “sincerely hope your Christmas…may abound in the gaieties which the season generally brings…”
The 2025 market is from Thursday 27th November to Sunday 14th December.
For more information: https://www.bathchristmasmarket.co.uk/