Today it’s all about the mar­kets, for there are many mar­kets to be found in our fine city at any time. Sad­ly, Christ­mas seems to bring every Tom, Dick and mar­ket out of the wood­work.

So I’m going to focus on some of the bet­ter curat­ed mar­kets where you walk in with high hopes of tick­ing many box­es on your shop­ping list and walk out with a smile for tick­ing those box­es with a few parcels San­ta snuck into your bas­ket just for you.

The Annu­al Welling­ton Christ­mas Mar­kets held every Sat­ur­day and Sun­day lead­ing up to Christ­mas. You’ll find 100+ stall hold­ers at Frank Kitts Park from 10 am till 4 pm.

Bonus of this mar­ket = it’s the largest curat­ed mar­ket in Welling­ton and there is a very strong focus on local­ly hand­made items, with a few spots for qual­i­ty import­ed items that fit with the tone of the mar­ket.

You’ll find ceram­ics, paper­craft, soaps, fab­rics, toys, cloth­ing, lamps, tasty treats and a selec­tion of jew­ellery for all ages and gen­ders. As an all-weath­er venue there is no chance of get­ting way­laid by thun­der­storms, rain or sun­burn.

The Hill Street Farm­ers Mar­ket

This mar­ket is all about the fresh, qual­i­ty, local food and runs every Sat­ur­day, rain or shine, from 8.30am until 12.30pm in the car park of the Cathe­dral of St Paul in Hill Street, Thorn­don. Sat­ur­day the 15th sees them expand to include Christ­mas gifts and on Decem­ber 22nd you can shop for your Christ­mas table treats while the kids get exhaust­ed cour­tesy of bit of free bounc­ing and jump­ing on Springfree Tram­po­lines. To keep up with what food you’ll find each week check out their newslet­ter.

 The City Mar­ket

Held every Sun­day, 8.30am – 12.30pm, Under­cov­er in the Atri­um, Chaf­fers Dock Build­ing, 1 Herd St, Welling­ton. With a Spe­cial Evening Mar­ket on Wednes­day Decem­ber 19th if you’re stuck for gift ideas, hang out to the 19th and take care of every­one in one go.

City Mar­ket is Welling­ton’s spir­i­tu­al home for food enthu­si­asts, and the Line-up of guest Provi­dores  changes from week to week. But with a sta­ple of reg­u­lars like Mac­arons by Cre­ative Cook­ing, Cup­cake Sweet­ies, Mar­tin Bosley’s, Cul­tured New Zealand cheese & Yel­low Brick Road long-line caught fish. It’s not like you have to wor­ry about their not being some­thing to suit your taste buds. Plus who doesn;t love late night shop­ping that isn’t at a mall.

A lit­tle out-of-town but more than worth the day trip is The Craft Coun­try Fair on Sat­ur­day, 15 Decem­ber from 10 am — 3 pm.

The fair was the idea that gave birth to the best lit­tle shop in Feath­er­ston, Craft Coun­try at 44a Fitzher­bert Street.

 Now in its third year, Craft Coun­try is always a pop­u­lar rea­son to come over the hill. It’s held in the Grey­town town hall/library build­ing and fea­tures top qual­i­ty stall­hold­ers from across the North Island. The fair is praised for its qual­i­ty and is an occa­sion that peo­ple look for­ward to. Shop­pers love the chance to buy great hand­made prod­ucts and rave about the qual­i­ty and pro­fes­sion­al­ism.
 New on the block but shap­ing up to be a reg­u­lar lit­tle gem is the Sky­line Gift Fairs which you find at the top of the Welling­ton cable car. For­get the fud­dy dud­dy sky­line of old, now the venue with a view is home to a bou­tique gift fair run­ning lead­ing up to Christ­mas and beyond. Between their late evening fair on the 15th and being the only fair open in town on Christ­mas eve, one trip up the cable car could answer all your last min­utes shop­ping woes in but a moment. Plus the view is real­ly beau­ti­ful.

Next week — the shops that make you smile.