Last weekend I was lucky to experience a traditional Christmas Market, Swiss style.

Unlike in Manchester, the Christmas Market in Huttwil is set up for a long weekend only. It’s a preamble to Christmas, designed to get you in the festive spirit, started on your Christmas shopping, and of course to bring lots of tourists to the area. As a result, everyone wants to make the most of it. We visited 4 times; twice for shopping and twice for gluhwein.

Despite being small, the market had lots of interesting things to offer.

And, contrary to my expectation, it was an entirely different selection to that found in Manchester. Although I do understand that many of the same traders turn out year after year, so maybe that feeling of seeing it all before is not unique to Manchester.

For me however, it was all new.

The Market was spread over a few streets, all of which were lined with little wooden huts, rammed full of Christmas goodies.

Most things looked handmade.

There were many examples of wood carving, a traditional Swiss craft, including some rather beautiful Christmas tree ornaments.

More on those once I’ve put up my tree.

Unsurprisingly there were lots of delicious consumables, including biscuits, sweets, and chocolates – Swiss of course!

There were lovely displays set up all over the market, including a nativity,

a witch’s house,

and a sleigh full of chopped wood – you’d never see an axe so freely abandoned in Manchester now would you!

There were bands, musicians,

and even sheep!

The gluhwein came in market mugs similar to those we have in Manchester, which we kept to add to our collection.

I loved looking at all the beautiful things, and taking in the details. Check out the gingerbread hut!

The market left me feeling very Christmassy and even more excited about decorating my tree with my new decorations.