The historic winding streets of Playfair Street and Jack Mundey Place are filled with market stalls every weekend 12 months a year, but there’s a festive spring in their step each December, when they transform into Christmas markets on Friday nights. Pop in after work to fill your Santa sack with pressies from the variety of gourmet food stalls and local knick-knack designers.
Jack Mundey Place, The Rocks NSW, +61 2 9240 8717
Couple at the Rocks Markets | © Craven Images/Courtesy of the Rocks Markets
If you want your Christmas shopping budget to make a positive impact on something other than your credit card bill, buy some pressies at the Blak Markets — a micro-business hub for Indigenous Australians that helps the economic development of the country’s most disadvantaged group. Twenty-five stallholders will bring their bush foods, arts and crafts, skin products and accessories to Barangaroo on Sunday December 3.
Hickson Rd, Barangaroo NSW, +61 2 9255 1700
Blak Markets at Barangaroo | Courtesy of the Blak Markets
The 200-year-old Hyde Park Barracks were originally lodgings for convicts and immigrants, then the home of local courts, and they’re now a museum… plus, for one night each December, a Christmas Market. Create your own gourmet gift hamper with the fresh produce and hand-made treats dished up by a selection of 50 local artisans, then have a drink while enjoying some live entertainment, too.
Queens Square, Macquarie St, Sydney, NSW, +61 2 8239 2311
Christmas Fare at the Hyde Park Barracks | Courtesy of Sydney Living Museums
It might not strictly be a Christmas Market, but Sydney’s premier markets are a great place to pick up a stocking-stuffer. The lawns of Glebe Public School are a hub of activity every Saturday with trendy crowds hunting a bargain at one of the 200 stalls overflowing with second-hand clothes and books, locally designed jewellery and handicrafts, as well as food stalls and live music.
Glebe Markets | Courtesy of Glebe Markets