Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market: I went to the largest authentic German Christmas market outside of Germany and Austria - and it’s less than two hours from Yorkshire

Birmingham has had a Frankfurt Christmas Market for the past 25 years. It’s the largest of its kind outside of Germany and Austria.

After visiting Leeds, Sheffield and York’s Christmas Markets for The Yorkshire Post, we sent our reporter to Birmingham.

When it comes to travelling to a Christmas market, I’ve been to Edinburgh, Manchester and London Christmas Markets on several occasions, but I’d never been to Birmingham.

Birmingham’s twin city is Frankfurt, Germany, the birthplace of the now global Christmas market phenomenon. Birmingham’s Market is run in partnership with Frankfurt with everything sourced from Germany.

I’m unfamiliar with Birmingham so I asked online where people recommended to go. Sadly, there was very little affection for the place. I did get a few helpful suggestions, however, such as Chinatown, the Golden Mile, and the world’s largest Primark. The latter suggestion was enough to encourage one of our daughters to join us on an early train.

We took the train from Wakefield Westgate which took just under two hours and arrived at 8am.

Unlike London we were straight into the city centre. The Bull Ring is connected to Birmingham New Street station. This was ideal for me with a pushchair.

It’s a lovely shopping centre ideal for shopping, as well as acting as a walk through to the Christmas Markets.

As the markets didn’t open until 8am, and nor did the shops inside the Bull Ring, we headed straight to Primark which opened at 8am.

Primark is a shopping complex in its own right. There are photography booths, selfie stations galore and there’s even a beauty salon.

This Primark has five floors. It holds a Guinness World Record for being the largest fashion retail store.

On the Lower Ground floor there’s an instagrammable Greggs, and a barbershop. There's a Stranger Things pop-up cafe on the middle floor, and a Disney cafe on the top floor. Each floor is also full of clothes, accessories and homeware.

It reminded me of a stylish discounted Selfridges department store with interactive features I’ve only ever experienced in budget shops previously in Tokyo.

Before we knew it, it was 10am. We browsed around the other shops such as Selfridges and Space NK to look at beauty products and compare prices with the same products online, as well as the Primark dupes we’d found. It’s always a fun game, playing: ‘Where’s best to get the over-priced beauty products that my teens don’t need, but want for Christmas, and for the cheapest price?’

Then finally, it was time for the markets to open. We walked along New Street towards Victoria Square.

The centre of the street is lined with stunning stalls. These wooden chalet-like buildings of all shapes and sizes are built in Germany. It felt like we were walking through a toy town - the decorative stalls were breathtaking.

There is a bar selling drinks such as gluhwein, hot chocolate and beer. As well as stalls selling schnitzel, garlic mushrooms and bratwurst. Again everything is produced in Germany.

Halfway down there’s a fully vegan stall selling German food including meat free bratwurst.

Some vendors sell traditional gifts and German cookies called Lebkuchen.

The market stretches into Victoria Square. It’s one of the prettiest Christmas markets I’ve ever seen.

I love Germany at Christmas but for somewhere closer to home, super accessible and a lot more cost effective for our big family - this was ideal.

I appreciated all the decorations and the authenticity of it. The kids however are used to Christmas markets selling food from around the world with a wide variety of cuisines to choose from. Fortunately, In Birmingham you’re also surrounded by a huge range of shops and eateries, so there’s places for the whole family to go to.

It’s certainly the most accessible Christmas market I’ve ever been to, especially when travelling by train.