Christmas Shopping in Glastonbury 2023

Getting here, what’s on, the best of Glastonbury’s Christmas Windows and some shopping suggestions.

Glastonbury is a brilliant place to do your Yuletide shopping, the town is bursting with independent retailers making it the ideal place to buy a unique gift. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not all crystals and joss sticks, you’ll find gifts to please all but the most normal family member here (besides, Clarks Village in Street is only a couple of miles away and is packed with the most normal shops you could imagine).

Christmas shopping in Glastonbury is a gesture of support to the local community, helping to maintain the town’s vibrant and thriving shops, local creatives and small independent businesses. Glastonbury is a fairly small town, so whatever the weather you can easily get around the shops and stop for drinks and food. Don’t forget to fully explore the town – the shops aren’t just in the High Street, there’s plenty to see in Magdalene St, Benedict Street, Northload Street, Archer’s Way, Church Lane and the arcades – the Gauntlet and Abbey Mews. Do venture up past the Post Office on the High Street too, where you will find more quirky retailers and lots of vintage fashion. I’ve even suggested a few places that are off the beaten track further down in this piece.

Don’t expect festoons of Christmas lights, the Town decorations are limited to the Christmas Tree on the Market Cross and some illuminated trees above the shop fronts. This year’s Christmas Tree is magnificent, as you can see in this photo taken at the recent Frost Fayre. Thanks are largely due to our Town Clerk, Conor, who got up very early in the morning for a muddy trudge through the woods to select it.

Some of the window displays in Glastonbury rival Oxford Street in imagination and flair, for the full effect make sure you are here after dusk.

Here’s a selection of photographs of this year’s Christmas windows, my photos don’t do them justice so you will have to come and see for yourself.

Glastonbury Town Christmas Windows 2023

A special mention to Yin Yang in the High Street, whose Christmas windows are always stunning and innovative, this year they’ve created a wonderful pink window and a very clever tinsel yin yang.

Here are some of my other favourites, click on them to see them bigger and find out where they are, come to Glastonbury to see them to full effect and see the rest!

Getting Here and More

The run-up to Yule also sees markets around the town, you’ve missed this year’s Frost Fayre, but the town’s regular Tuesday markets at St Dunstan’s Car Park, the Town Hall and The Assembly Rooms will feature oodles of gifts from local creators. There will be extra markets too, for instance, the Wytches Market will be hosting their event on Saturday 9th December in the Town Hall.

Getting Here – If you haven’t got far to travel to Glastonbury, consider coming by bus, fares are capped at only £2 on First Buses. There’s usually free parking in the town’s car parks in the week leading up to Christmas, but that has not been announced yet.

Local eateries will be hosting slap-up Christmas dinners (the Queen of Cups Christmas Menu is inspired by Middle Eastern flavours and looks awesome), the pubs will be serving Mulled Cider, Hot Spiced Wine and Mead if you’re lucky, and there will be the usual great entertainment on offer at local venues. Go to Glastonbury Online’s What’s On guide for event listings.

If you are buying online from one of Glastonbury’s small businesses, please remember last second-class postage date for the UK is 18th December. Please don’t leave it to the last minute to order, small businesses (like mine!) can’t afford to have Christmas stock left over, so we often run out of popular items, plus having to run to the Post Office with a huge pile of orders at the last minute makes it near impossible to manage our time, stock and cashflow!

A Few Shopping Suggestions

This year I’m highlighting just a few of the more tucked-away shops in the town, to give you a flavour of what’s available.

Glastonbury Galleries, Assembly Rooms Alleyway, High St

Glastonbury Galleries offer a cornucopia of Christmas gifts and decorations. They’ve got more baubles than most, plus ornaments, a fantastic range of cards, wrapping paper, socks, shawls, wall plaques, locally made art, planetary globe lights, decorative door stops and crockery. You’ll find them tucked away in the Assembly Rooms alleyway off the High Street, but they are not too hard to spot, as the lovely proprietor Ruth fills the alley with twinkling Christmas lights. Instagram @glastonburygalleries Facebook www.facebook.com/Glastonburygalleries

Unit 3, The Gauntlet, Glastonbury High Street

Steve, Jan and Bethany have an ever growing mini shopping empire in the town, their latest shop is Unit 3, on the High St end of the Gauntlet and they offer a fantastic range of menswear and unisex clothing. You’ll find their other shops int he Gauntlet too – Acsockerise and Bethany’s, plus Janet Made This in Magdalene Stree, which offers Janet’s designer ladies wear and ritual cloaks. Unit 3 is the only shop in town to sell the full range of Normal For Glastonbury merchandise. Find them on Facebook.

Kev Pearson Photography, 16 to 18 The Gauntlet, Glastonbury High Street

Glastonbury photographer Kev Pearson has asked me to tell you about his fantastic range of stocking fillers, all featuring his wonderful Glastonbury images, including coasters, placemats. keyrings, fridge magnets and more.

There’s also his ‘Avalon Waters’ 2024 calendar plus a range of canvas prints for all budgets.

You can find him at his shop in The Gauntlet, or order online from https://www.kevpearson.com/. Last orders by 15th Dec for guaranteed Christmas post.

Emerald Heart, Assembly Rooms Alleyway, Glastonbury

A hop, skip and a jump away from Glastonbury’s High Street, there’s a door to a magical realm. Once inside, you’ll discover that fairies are real and that a surprisingly large range of things come in the shape of a mushroom.You’ll be surrounded by a whole menagerie of woodland animals, and while sat posing on Emerald’s throne for a photograph, might easily imagine yourself Queen of the Woods. When you leave, you’ll have a spring in your step, sparkles in your hair and a trail of magical glitter. You’ll find Emerald Heart in the alleyway that leads to the Assembly Rooms, off Glastonbury High Street.

Facets of Avalon, 1 Archers Way, Glastonbury

Facets of Avalon is run by mother and daughter artist partnership Jan Billings and Rachel Reilly. Rachel creates unique jewellery and sculptures with knitted copper wire in an array of beautiful colours, while her Mother Jan’s mixed media artworks often feature Torscapes. You can find out more about their work in my Facets of Avalon blog post. Or check out the Facets of Avalon website

The God’s Gift Emporium, 3 Archers Parade, Glastonbury

God’s Gift Emporium is just past Facets of Avalon on Archer’s Way. This colourful and quirky shop is packed to the brim with ladies and gents clothes and accessories, many of which are designed by proprietor Tanya Guildford. It might be winter but there’s always a feeling of Summer sunshine and tropical beaches in her shop. Check her out on God’s Gift on Facebook.

Winter Solstice Carols

Lastly, if you want some genuine Glastonbury Winter Solstice vibes wherever you are, I can highly recommend downloading this excellent album of Pagan carols ‘Carols for Solstice’ from my friend Tim Hawthorn and the Silver Twiglets. It’s only £5 for the whole album:

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