Get Ready For Christmas at The Grainger Market

With Christmas only a few weeks away, thoughts turn to stocking up on all the things we need to make sure everything is perfect – the food, the nibbles, the treats, and the décor. It can be a lot of work and a source of sore feet and stress. Wouldn’t it be great if there was one location where we could get everything in one place and know that it would be keenly priced, high quality, and often locally sourced? Well of course, there is: the Grainger Market, the beating heart of Newcastle’s shopping district for 187 years! 

Here are a few suggestions of stalls to visit to make sure Christmas is just right.

Meat & Fish

The butchers and fishmongers of Grainger Market are key to its appeal - especially as many traditional high street stores have been closing down - and are often the busiest and most vibrant stalls in the market. Three of the finest the city has to offer are Finlay’s Quality Butcher, Oliver & Eden and Richard Campbell, all serving up the best meat around - from the essential turkey for your Christmas dinner to prime cuts of beef, pork, and lamb alongside dressed meats and handmade goods like sausages. With hundreds of years of experience between them and a reputation for friendly and helpful service, these old-school traders aren’t to be missed.

Another great destination for goodness is the Geordie Banger Co, stocked in various shops throughout the area but with their own stall in the market. Made fresh in North Shields, their varied range of sausages and burgers are excellent - and they deliver too!

Quality fish is also a big part of the Christmas menu – from smoked salmon on Christmas morning to seafood for nibbles and buffets. Both Chirton Fisheries and Lindsays are fine fishmongers in the traditional style with fresh, varied and often locally caught stock and always helpful with preparation ideas.

Fruit & Vegetables

The other key element of the Christmas menu is fresh fruit and vegetables, and again the Grainger Market is full of fine greengrocery stalls. There are five particular favourites to choose from - B Muers & Son Quality Fruiterers, Hector Hall, Hutchinson’s, Hutton & Oliver, and T E Liddell. Between them you’ll find copious amounts of the finest, freshest food around – from potatoes, carrots, and parsnips for Christmas dinner to nectarines, grapes and apples for nibbles, and all points in between. As with the butchers, there are decades of tradition and experience across these stalls and they really do stock everything you need. Hector Hall also offer festive veg boxes to make it even simpler.

Nibbles

We keep mentioning nibbles – well, the market has three great stalls that will make sure your buffet selection is tasty and varied. Matthew’s Cheese is a turophile’s idea of paradise (look it up!): they stock 150 kinds of cheese regularly and a rotating stock of 50 or more guest cheeses. They even make cheese wedding cakes and offer a range of hampers and gift boxes. Hunter’s Deli is a market favourite with a great range of cooked meats, pies and savouries, and prepared meats (ribs, sausages, and such). And there’s the Fruit & Nut Company, who stock exactly what you’d expect – a great range of dried, exotic, and traditional fruits, plus all sorts of nuts sold by weight – and lots of tempting nibbles like yoghurt-coated raisins and bags of assorted sweets. They sell plenty of baking essentials too.

Bread & Cakes

And then there are cakes! And pies! And all manner of sweet treats! There are four great bakeries and cake shops in the market – Meeting You, Pet Lamb Patisserie, Rise Artisan and The French Oven – all with their own take on cakes and baked goods. Each has its strong points – Meeting You makes great cakes for all occasions, Pet Lamb excels at delicious and imaginative cakes, Rise Artisan is known for stunning sourdoughs and The French Oven are great for an excellent array of bakes, pies, cakes and breads.

Wreaths

There’s a lot of debate about the connection between wreaths and Christmas – were they Persian in origin? Or 16th-century German? Or pagan? – but whatever the source, they’re a familiar part of a traditional Christmas home. Both Gardener’s Choice and MJ Fagan Plants & Flowers will sell you a beautiful Christmas wreath alongside their outstanding ranges of flowers, plants, bulbs, and seeds.

Gifts

Finally, the Grainger Market is a great place to pick up some gifts – from big-ticket presents to stocking fillers. If you really want to impress, both Amblergem Jewellers and S Murray Jewellers are fine places to pick up something glittering. Amblergem is a family business with a large selection of jewellery and also offers all sorts of essential services – repairs, resizing, replacement parts – much of it done onsite to save time. They also offer bespoke items. S Murray have been in the Grainger Market for over a century and offer a great selection of new, bespoke and pre-loved gifts as well as repairs and cleaning.

If you want to really please the Geordie in your life, you need to visit Geordie Gifts - a fun stall offering all sorts of Tyneside-themed gifts and cards. Whether you’re looking for a Sam Fender mug or an Alan Shearer t-shirt, Geordie Gifts is bound to have it. Meanwhile, Fantastic Toys & Collectibles is an Aladdin’s cave of superb gifts from traditional toys to modern comic book spin-offs.

Tian’s Gifts is an award-winning delight, stocking all sorts of traditional and contemporary arts and crafts. From haberdashery and embroidery to stationery and pop-up greeting cards, Tian’s Gifts is a wonderful place to pick up something unique.

And last but not least, it wouldn’t be Christmas without a visit to Santa’s Grotto. Your children will be delighted to meet Santa and his elves, post their wish lists in the North Pole postbox and get an excellent present. Tickets are £13.37 per child and are available here. Santa will be there until Christmas Eve, from 12pm till 4pm on weekdays and from 10am on weekends.

The Grainger Market really is a one-stop shop for many of your Christmas essentials. So whether you want to make sure your dinner table is groaning beneath the weight of a Christmas dinner sourced from the butchers and greengrocers or that your loved ones' eyes light up when they get their splendid presents, the market is the place to go. Don’t forget that the Grainger Market also offers a market-wide delivery service that can combine orders from several stalls into one convenient delivery - check the website for details.