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Our Adventure to the Birmingham Christmas Market

For the past few years Hubs and I have been talking about going to the German Christmas Market in Birmingham. It is billed as the biggest Christmas Market outside of Germany and with the combination of me loving Christmas and Hubs having lived in Germany…we knew the Christmas markets would be high on our list of things to do with the family. Unfortunately, flying to Germany has not been an option, so Birmingham seemed the perfect solution.

Perfect…if we could actually get there…. Two years ago we had planned to go but Hubs’s mum was ill. Last year, it was me, then Hubs…

This year, I got over my obligatory chest infection just in time and we were amazingly ‘good to go’! His parents made the trip up to us for the weekend and we were off. The forecasted snow seemed to miss us and we were hopeful that everything would be perfect this year. The sun was out when we left and we were all excited with the anticipation….

The closer we got to Birmingham, the darker the clouds became and we started hitting a few patches of rain. Still, we held out hope that we were driving through the patches and Birmingham would be ok.

We got there and after driving around the multi-story carpark for a while, found two parking spaces. We had made it. Emerging from the carpark, the sky was cloudy and dark, but dry. I’m sure we were all thinking the same thing, hoping it would hold out… I don’t know about the others but I certainly said a silent prayer, or twelve…

We started walking towards the Market and finally made it there. We were probably at the third stall when it started sprinkling. I started telling myself  ‘this is England…it’s just a shower….it will stop any minute.’ It did. For about five minutes.

Then is started coming down steadily. We all had hats on, but unfortunately ALL of us had forgotten our umbrellas! (I know…don’t say anything.) There were two choices, we could either just keep going, or go home. After all that anticipation and actually making it there, it wasn’t much of a decision. So, we plodded on. Eventually the kids started complaining of being hungry so we found some frankfurters and wurst and ate…in…the…cold….rain. Luckily, eventually, I spotted a little set of tables that were under a gazebo and we were able to sit down and be a little bit drier.

Our four year old decided to tell us in no uncertain terms that she wanted a drink of juice. We went to several stalls and none of them had any. So we went on a little adventure to find some. We finally ducked into a cafe which had bottled juices and made our way back to where they were all sitting.

By then, they were finished eating and had got hot chocolates from one of the food stalls next to where we were camped out. Chris and I got our food and Little Miss was finally happy with her juice. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before she started shivering so we rushed through our food while Grammie and Grandad took the girls to the carousel.

They had their ride and soon after, she started crying. The poor little thing was just soaked and freezing. I couldn’t really blame her. I was freezing myself. The wet had just made things a thousand times worse. After a little discussion, we decided to make our way back to the Bullring Shopping Centre to warm up and maybe head back out to the other side of the Market afterwards.

In the end, it was a good decision. We managed to get a few last minute Christmas pressies and the girls were much happier being warm and dry. They even had a little look around the Build-a-Bear Workshop and the Disney Shop.

So…we made it….we’ve been to the Birmingham Christmas Market. It was nice, but hopefully next year we’ll have better weather to be able to enjoy it more and not have to rush through it.