Yalding Yuletide Market

Yalding Yuletide Market Fantastic local Christmas market. Great shopping, festive entertainment and delicious food and drinks. High Street closed for safety. FREE Parking nearby.

Yalding High Street from 5pm-8pm Saturday 6th December 2025. Small entry donation please.

09/12/2025

It's a wrap for 2025! Yuletide ran smoothly despite the rain and we saw a good number of visitors this year. We would like to thank everyone involved in planning and running this popular event, and in no particular order:

You! Our residents, families and visitors for supporting the market. For moving cars. For manning road barriers and car parks. For running stalls and supporting our local organisations to raise money.

(On the subject of raising money, thank you so much for your donations via our barrier buckets. This is a mandatory requirement of our event license, and remember if we make a surplus then we get to help local organisations with the funds!)

Our High Street residents; for generously providing power, space, garage, driveway and cart space (this year we had an improvised baby changing area!)

Our band of marshals, ensuring everyone stayed safe and enjoyed a good old Yalding welcome.

The Tea Rooms and Post Office: for collecting and storing bottles for our cornerstone attraction and fund raiser, the bottle raffle stall.

Martin Traffic Management: for providing a seamless professional road closure to ensure we comply with the regulations. We had the obligatory ambulance wanting to pass through - not a challenge to these guys!

Church House: generous offer of storage, strategic parking for stock storage, power and the much needed refreshments in the warm following the deconstruction of the market.

Lupofresh: another year of generosity in offering their large HGV yard as free parking for the public, ensuring safe areas to park and a value added proposition compared to some events where you have to pay to park your car.

Yalding Parish Council: guidance, regulatory support and ongoing advice in running a safe compliant event.

Our stall holders: without you there wouldn't be a market in the true sense of the word!

Our food and drink vendors: an ever increasingly important part of a Christmas market, especially against increasing costs and competition. Thank you for bringing quality and variety to our adoring public.

Our entertainers: who will forget Dame Daphne - luckily you'll be able to see her again very soon. Shine, our very own performing arts children! And Jimmy Winch the 13 year old musical maestro. Not to forget Magic Moments with their super slick Melodys! Finally, Santa himself!

As always we would love to hear your thoughts on this year, positive and suggestions/improvements. You can message Dee Ann or leave comments here; they'll find us!

Thank you all from the Yuletide team!

27/11/2025

Last minute update guys!

You have a few days left to donate bottles for our much loved bottle stall. Please leave them in the Post Office or Tea Rooms. Remember we can also do house calls!

Santa will be both in the High Street and the Library on the night but not in the grotto. You can catch him still, so bring your Christmas lists if you have one! Any donations anyone made to the previous grotto plan will be donated to local charities. Watch this space for details!

We do still need barrier marshals so please let us know if you can spare an hour. Free drink for your choice for your help!

Thank you all for your much needed support regardless of how you provide it! We appreciate all of it in the lead up to the biggest event of the year!

26/11/2025

Hello lovely residents and families of Yalding and Laddingford Parish. Last minute appeal for willing volunteers to offer 1 hour of their time for road closure marshalling or car parking duties (at LupoFresh) on the 6th December at Yuletide.

In return you will help raise funds towards our ever increasing costs, help the visiting public find their way to all the action, and receive a drink on us from our volunteer run bar!

The event depends on willing volunteers. We have a Parish Council backed team of local motivated volunteers to organise Yuletide but really do need some more to help with the event marshalling.

You'll also get to wear a high vis vest and might even be able to say "over" and "roger" into a walkie talkie!

Please message me, Dee Ann or speak to Christine Walker if you can help.

This is the last call and we really do need some more help, please!

Thank you 👍👍

23/11/2025

Hello everyone, please let your intended visitors to Yuletide know that we will be asking an admission fee of 1p upwards. This can be made on the way in and of course any loose change available on the way out is very welcome. Our volunteer barrier marshals will be asking for this as well as handing out information and signposting visitors.

This is not our decision but a requirement from MBC who license the event for street trading.

The admission fee itself is a requirement. The amount is up to you. Of course you have the option not to pay it, but please remember:

1) We have to do this to comply with licensing conditions.

2) We are not like certain other Xmas events charging up to £17 per person to enter (as one nearby does I'm told).

3) Once we count up what's come in via our admission buckets, add it to other revenues and deduct our (ever increasing) costs - we donate to local organisations through the Yuletide Grant Scheme, established in 2023.

So the more we gather through the mandatory admission process, the more potential there is to help local organisations. Last time we shared the excess with Yalding and Laddingford primary schools.

Thanks for reading and thank you in advance for your 1p upwards admission fee on the day.

20/11/2025

Hello and good morning, just a couple of things to mention as we get even closer to the big day (6/12 4:45pm in case you hadn't heard).

Santa will be switching on the lights following the carols at the War Memorial. After this he will meander down the High Street where you can catch him and wish him a Happy Christmas. He will then call in at the library in time for story time (5:30pm). He will then wander back up the High Street where you'll have another chance to chat with him!

Also, thank you for your donations to the bottle stall so far. Remember you have all of November to offer donations of booze or other bottled goods but please no food and please in date! You can drop off at the Post Office or the Tea Rooms. We will even do house calls if you're unable to get out but still want to help with a donation!

We will be out and about measuring and marking up in the next couple of weeks. Stop us if you have any questions or suggestions!

Thanks and see you all soon!

14/11/2025

Hello lovely residents and families of Yalding and Laddingford Parish. Last minute appeal for willing volunteers to offer 1 hour of their time for road closure marshalling or car parking duties (at LupoFresh) on the 6th December at Yuletide.

In return you will help raise funds towards our ever increasing costs, help the visiting public find their way to all the action, and receive a drink on us from our volunteer run bar!

The event depends on willing volunteers including myself. We have a Parish Council backed team of local motivated volunteers to organise Yuletide but really do need some more to help with the marshalling.

You'll also get to wear a high vis vest and might even be able to say "over" and "roger" into a walkie talkie!

Please message me, Dee Ann or speak to Christine Walker if you can help.

Thank you 👍👍

05/11/2025

We were delighted to get this feedback from a representative of Yalding Primary School regarding last years' Yuletide Community Grant scheme! They invested in a cool outdoor playhouse and had this to say about it:

"The children use it for role playing, and most recently have been using it as a veterinary surgery! It is a much loved addition to the play area, and we are very grateful for the grant that we were given."

This year we have fresh applications for our popular scheme. Watch this space to find out who the 2025 lucky village organisation is!

Remember yours and our visitors' kind donations into our entry fee collection buckets do two great things: 1) contribute to our increasing event costs, and 2) any surplus revenues after all costs have been deducted allow us to give back in this way. Small change on the way in or out (shrapnel, anyone!) is very gratefully accepted!

It really is a win win! See you there!

31/10/2025

Hi everyone, if you live locally you'll see a leaflet pop through your door. It's an appeal for donations of bottles for our Yuletide Bottle Stall.

This is a raffle where for just £1 you can win various bottles of booze, oils, soft drinks, sauces etc.

We ask for donations to keep the costs down but we do also spend a significant amount on stock to make the stall an attractive option for our visitors.

Revenue from this, plus the stalls, plus the small change donations we ask for as you enter or leave (the infamous bucket collections) go towards offsetting the charges to stage the event. If we have any left after costs, we try to donate that to deserving local causes. Costs are going up all the time, just like everything else!

So, please consider donating to our bottle stall. It's a small but effective way to help us manage our finances and keep this much loved annual event going for the parish.

Have a great Friday!

29/10/2025

Hi guys, here's a quick bulletin regarding this years Yuletide market on Sat 6 Dec 16:45 in the High Street, Yalding.

1) We have space for a few more gift sets of food, drink, olives, cheeses or similar. Things that people may wish to buy as 'different' Xmas presents. If you want to sell this or know a stall holder that does, please contact Rachel Gosden. Note that stalls need to comply with our terms and conditions, a copy can be provided on request.

2) We have space for more Yuletide Grant applications. This unique scheme aims to give back a proportion of any surplus income we generate, after all costs, to deserving local causes. You can apply via contacting Charles Lister or through the form in the Parish Magazine. Last time we helped out both the primary schools in the parish. Don't miss out!

3) We need your help! As always we need more volunteers to man the road barriers for 1 hour shifts. Your duties will include checking for any suspicious behaviour or packages, advising visitors where to go, and shaking our admission buckets to gather small donations towards the event costs. For your time and trouble you'll be able to enjoy a beverage of your choice from our bar. On us! Contact Christine Walker or me if you can spare some time for this highly important and extremely sociable activity.

We look forward to seeing you there! Thanks for reading!

27/10/2025

I was asked last night "is Yuletide going ahead this year?" Well unless you've been away or had your internet turned off, the answer is a resounding YES!

I wanted to let you know about some of the stalls we have booked in (subject to change):

Bottle Stall - win alcohol or other bottles for just £1 tickets!

Cards
Candles
Artisan gifts
Xmas decorations
Baby clothing
Christmas wreaths
Pottery gifts
Mugs
Honey and beeswax products (local of course)
Cobnuts
Teddy bears
Christmas themed gifts
3D printed gifts and items

Food wise we have a range:
Crepes
Pizza
Hog roast
Pork and apple burgers
Sausages in baps
Fish and chips
Crispy duck wraps

Drinks wise we have:
Yuletide bar
Prosecco
Mulled wine
Local artisan ciders
Apple juice

If you want to trade there's still room! We are especially interested in food and drink gift items to buy and take away for gifting. Selection packs, gourmet food to eat later, that kind of thing. You'll have to move fast though as enquiries are coming in all the time!

If you have any questions or suggestions please contact one of the Yuletide team: myself, Rachel, Charles, Christine, Clare or Anita. Or go to the chair directly; Dee Ann!

21/10/2025

Not long to go now! If you're quick we still have room to squeeze in a few more stalls!

Stalls are 3m x 3m in the High Street.

We are expecting good footfall and there's a schedule of entertainment to attract and keep visitors at the event!

Please DM me and tell me what you'd like to offer and we'll let you know ASAP.

Date and time 6 December starting 5pm running until 8pm.

Address

High Street, Maidstone
Yalding
ME186

Website

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