Newcastle’s Christmas Markets: Meet the Traders

Matthews Cheese

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

We’re Matthews Cheese and we’re based in the Grainger Market. We do the Christmas Markets every year and we sell a variety of cheese truckles – sweet, savoury, creamy, crumbly. They’re the best in town!

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

It’s so festive and Christmassy – I just love it!

Firebrick Brewery

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

It’s all beers locally brewed down in Blaydon, a 10-minute train journey up the River Tyne. We have everything from lagers, blonde beers, IPA beers all the way up to darker stouts, winter ales and brown ales and we sell gift packs as well.

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

Seeing everyone happy and in the Christmas spirit! We get a lot of new customers who aren’t aware of our products too, so it’s nice to introduce to them to our beers as well!

Fudge Packers

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

We’re a North East-based company that sells handmade fudge in a range of different flavours including salted caramel, Baileys and Ferrero Rocher but our most popular flavours are Mars Bar and Amaretto & Cherry.

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

I think the atmosphere is amazing – especially when it starts to snow!

Riverside Spirits

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

We have a range of whisky, gin, vodka and rum-based liqueurs and everyone is welcome to come and have a taste! People are loving our vodka passionfruit liqueur and it’s selling really well. It can be used on its own over ice or topped up with prosecco – it’s almost instantly like a Pornstar Martini and everyone seems to be into that flavour at the moment!

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

This is our fourth year doing the markets and I love the people here in Newcastle. We also get a lot of Dutch people who come over on the ferry and do their Christmas shopping here and a lot of Scottish people come down from the borders too – it’s a great mixture of people. I’ve done a lot of Christmas Markets and Newcastle’s definitely has the best atmosphere!

Geordie Banger Co

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

We’re Geordie Banger Co and we sell sausages. We’ve got loaded hot dogs that you can put toppings on, you can get sausage on a stick, there’s plenty of variety of sauces and we do festive sausage swirls too – plus plenty of hot and cold drinks as well. Our most popular food is our loaded banger dog topped with jalapenos, gherkins and crispy onions – people absolutely love them!

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

Meeting all the people! Everyone has a good laugh and it’s just a good time. We’ll definitely be back next year!

All Things Bloom

What are you selling at Newcastle's Christmas Markets? 

All things nature and your favourite North East places illustrated on my art prints. I'm selling a series of North East art prints, merch and framed art. If you've seen my work, you know they tell stories - they're more than just landmark prints, but a meaningful and authentic reflection of the places that brings memories and resonates with the many of you.

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

Definitely the happy and exciting faces. This is my first year trading at the Markets, but I always love chatting with customers and telling them the stories behind my art, and hearing theirs. Excited to see all the familiar and new faces at the Market.

Elemental Photography

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

We’re selling framed photographs of iconic, local landscapes in Newcastle, Northumberland and North East. They’re all images I’ve taken myself and we do all the prints ourselves using a 12 colour Canon pigment ink printer which is a fine art printer, so the quality is absolutely exceptional.

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

Trade has been really good and I’ve met some great people too. As always, you get to meet some great characters in Newcastle! I’ve had loads of people from outside the area too and lots of people have commented that the atmosphere is much better this year. Everybody’s in a good mood and nobody’s too stressed about their Christmas shopping just yet!

La Petite Crêperie

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

I’m selling authentic French sweet crêpes. The most popular one is definitely the Nutella and my homemade salted caramel sauce has been very successful too. And if you want a treat, you can try pistachio or hazelnut as well. I also sell a savoury crêpe in the mornings that’s filled cream cheese that has been asked for by my Middle Eastern customers. I’m serving hundreds of customers from the Middle East – students mainly – every single day and they love the cream cheese!

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

The relationships I manage to build with my customers – that’s why I do this job actually! That’s why they come back every single year. I love looking after them, serving them authentic French crêpes and having a bit of craic with them!

Netoon Creative

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

There’s two of us in here to start with, so we’re sort of sharing the space. Both of us are local artists, and we both make and create our own products based on our local area. We try to make as many of our own products as we can.

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

Seeing customers face to face. Because we are single owners of our businesses, we don’t have employees or extra people. Most of the time, we’re behind doors, working in studios, either making or creating our own products, we don’t see customer faces all the time. It’s really nice to see people appreciate your work and talk about it, be emotional, well, for what you create and make at the same time, rather than just through the internet!

Konatsu Jewellery

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

We have waterproof jewellery with charms that you can build your own necklaces or bracelets with. And when you buy any gift, you get your own Polaroid with it as well!

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

I think it’s organised very well, the security guys are so friendly if I ever need help and stuff! The people are very nice too.

Stix Studio

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

The main thing that I sell is Geordie prints, mainly based on the local dialect. But I’ve also started selling Geordie mugs, coasters, tote bags now as well!

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

I think it’s the buzz, like on the weekend we’re so busy, and people really get into the festive spirit.

Scented Melts

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

We have a small range here but we have a huge range in our Grainger Market shop! So there’s about 50 different oil burners, we have 60 fragrances here, which is 140 in the shop. And you can spend as little as 90p and buy one! Our bestseller is rhubarb and custard but my favourite is vanilla and tobacco.

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

I love the people and the general vibe of it all.

The Eco Stall

What are you selling at Newcastle’s Christmas Markets?

We are introducing a lot of new products, but we are very much all about natural skincare, natural cosmetics and lifestyle. We have our studio in East Boldon, so we make all our products in-house, small batch made as well, but only using clean ingredients. More recently we have introduced more skincare items, including the moisturisers, which are face, body and hands souffles, as well as launching a new product during our time at the market.

What do you love most about taking part in the Christmas Markets?

I love seeing so many local businesses coming together and showing their wares. We work hard all year round for this moment. Of course, it isn’t just here where we’ll be seen for the rest of the year – we do lots of events! – but being in the centre of Newcastle, a city where we’ve grown up and seeing our products shine is a huge, huge thing.

We love meeting new customers too - locals as well as tourists because it does draw a lot of tourism as well to the city centre. We love meeting customers, that’s exactly why we do it. We love to be forward facing, not behind a computer screen.

Newcastle’s Christmas Markets are positively brimming with amazing traders and it’s the perfect excuse to get some Christmas shopping done… while perhaps indulging in some amazing food to keep you fuelled! Stop by the markets and see for yourself and check out all the traders taking part this year at the official Newcastle’s Christmas website.

Featured image: La Petite Crêperie image by Sarah May

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