This December is the Oxford Christmas Market’s 10 year anniversary and organisers hope it is as popular as ever.
Today is the first day of the Christmas market and a variety of traders from Oxford and from across the world are in the German style huts selling everything from tasty Christmas treats and Mulled wine to jewellery and handmade ceramics.
Nicole Rahimi is the organiser of the Oxford Christmas Market and has been running the market for 10 years. Ms Rahimi says she has had warm responses over her time running the event and people always ask if she is running it the following year.
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Ms Rahimi said: “It's great people are looking forward to this because this is how I grew up in Germany. I grew up with the Christmas market being something to look forward to and to get into the Christmas spirit, so this is what I wanted to create, a Christmas tradition in Oxford.”
Although organising a German Christmas market is stressful, Ms Rahimi does manage to enjoy the market herself once in a while.
She said: “Once it’s all up and running I do have my moments, when we have local bands and choirs performing the Christmas carols, I always love to watch and listen to them. Other people stop by and I see them humming or singing along and these are the moments I’m proud of when I take a little rest and I think wow, it is beautiful and people do enjoy it and there’s a Christmas feel about it.”
The market has a number of traders who come from across the globe. Many traders return to the market and this year there were 18 new traders.
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Samer Tamimi sells Palestinian pottery and has been coming to the market for five years. He said: “We don’t live here we just travel for the market once a year and my family have been making pottery for 150 years.”
Anna Pirie owns a stall called Rockabella selling hand made jewellery. She has been making the jewellery for 12 years but this is her first time at the Oxford market.
She said: “This is our first time at Oxford. We’ve done other places like Bath and Winter Wonderland in London, but it looks really nice, I’m looking forward to it I’m sure it will go well. I’m getting into the spirit of it and a few more Christmas carols and I’ll be there.”
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