Manchester City Council has released brand-new Christmas mug designs, based on a festive Nutcracker design.
Each year the council’s in-house design studio creates a new collectible souvenir mug for visitors to the Christmas market.
After last year’s designs of Santa, Rudolph and polar bears high-fiving each other, this year the mugs are based off the Nutcracker, with a Scandinavian feel.
All the designs include the phrase Manchester Christmas Markets 2023, alongside #MCRChristmas.
The popular, special edition mugs are ‘rented’ by paying a deposit of £3.50 when purchasing a hot drink.
Customers can then choose to return the mug and receive their deposit back, or keep the souvenir and take it home.
The mugs can also be bought outright by Christmas shoppers.
Here's a first look at our 2023 Christmas mugs.🤩
— Manchester City Council (@ManCityCouncil) November 2, 2023
Get yours at our Manchester Christmas Markets, which will return from 10 November – 21 December. ☕️
Or, pick one up early at our Cathedral Gardens Market, open now.
Find out more at https://t.co/zFEzk8xnmU pic.twitter.com/EPDj6oMdWJ
The council’s advice is to get along to the markets sooner rather than later and not to leave their visit to the last minute.
The warning comes after the 2022 mugs sold out completely, well before the end of the Christmas markets.
In total, over 140,000 of the specially produced mugs were sold last year, which led to market traders bringing out vintage mugs from previous years’ markets to keep up with the demand from Christmas shoppers.
Manchester’s 2023 Christmas markets are set to open on Friday 10 November and close on Thursday 21 December.
The craft stalls will be open every day from 10am to 8pm, whilst the food and drink stalls will be open from 11am to 9pm.
Great to see our 2023 Christmas mugs in action at Cathedral Gardens. 👀 #MCRChristmas https://t.co/QrcSJ4DOKa
— Manchester City Council (@ManCityCouncil) November 2, 2023
Councillor Pat Karney, Manchester City Council’s Christmas spokesperson, said: “Our iconic Christmas mugs are the must-have accessory of the festive season and absolutely no social media feed should be without one!
“With different designs every year the collectible mugs are highly sought after and even have Santa’s seal of approval. Don’t leave it too late to come and get yours!
“No-one does Christmas quite like Manchester and we can’t wait to welcome everyone to Santa’s favourite city and to our world-beating Christmas Markets again this year!”
Some of the activities to look forward to include visits to Father Christmas – who takes up residence in St Peter’s Square after Remembrance Sunday – and skating at the ice rink in Cathedral Gardens, which will be open from 2 November to 2 January.
More information about the council’s Christmas plans can be found here.
Feature image credit: Manchester City Council
