The magic of Christmas is universal and we know it well. Every year, markets with lights, elves and Santa Claus are practically in every corner of the globe. And even the largest Canadian metropolis is no exception to this tradition that unites almost all the peoples of the world, on a religious level, but not only. In fact, starting on November 14, Toronto Christmas Market will be the great protagonist of the Distillery Historic District.
The event lasts for over a month
It has been classified as one of the most beautiful Christmas markets in the world, the Toronto Christmas Market brings the spirit of the most loved feast until December 22nd in the Distillery Historic District, a commercial and residential district located in downtown east, consisting of over 40 historic buildings from the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery (with ten streets, is the largest industrial architecture complex of the Victorian era in North America).
This site has become a great party location, which brings together local artisans, musicians and street food masters. In addition to the usual Christmas sweet sellers, of course. All visitors can access it for free on weekdays, or by paying a $ 12 dollar fee over the weekend. Here they sip mulled wine and European-style Christmas cocktails during the walk among handmade decorations on sale in the market. This year the event is even more sensational than the previous ones. There are, in fact, more music and entertainment on the main stage and throughout the market, with almost five hundred artists including choristers, dancers, musicians, party elves and, of course, Santa Claus. There’s also a huge Ferris wheel, of course, and the great tree, donated by Forests Ontario, more than 15 meters high.
Background of the Toronto Christmas Market
The history of the Toronto Christmas Market begun when Matthew Rosenblatt and his co-investors, who bought the Gooderham & Worts Whiskey Distillery, decided to transform this neighborhood into a tourist destination with shops and restaurants. But if in summer this place was full of tourists, in winter the situation was quite different. So Rosenblatt and his partners found a solution to make it an entertainment spot for the whole year. In fact, they decided to bring the typical European Christmas market to this revived Canadian neighborhood. It seems that the creators of the Toronto Christmas Market were inspired by the German Christmas markets of the fifteenth century.
The inaugural event, which took place ten years ago, lasted 10 days. It didn’t attract many people on the first day, but luckily the word has spread quickly and the number of visitors have been increasing. As Rosenblatt himself said, “on the eighth or ninth day we were already saturated with visitors and we decided to expand the second edition into a 17-day event“.
The Toronto Christmas Market also performs an important charity action. The money raised goes to the operating costs of the market and any surplus is largely donated to the Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund. This institution has been helping poor families by distributing clothes and toys. Rosenblatt’s father benefited from the charity of this humanitarian partnership and he could not help but return the good received from his family.
Ph: Roozbeh Rokni, licence CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
