London Christmas Markets: 44 events this week (29 Jul to 2 Aug)

Christmas markets start creeping into London from mid-November and by December the city is full of them, from big riverside sprawls to small church-hall stalls you'd only find by accident. The trick is knowing which kind you're after, because 'Christmas market' covers a lot of ground here.

South Bank runs one of the biggest and most reliable, a long stretch of wooden chalets between the Thames and the Southbank Centre, good for mulled wine and gift browsing with a view. Leicester Square and Covent Garden do a flashier, more central version, useful if you're already in the West End for a show. Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland is less a market and more a whole event, with rides and food halls wrapped around the stalls, so go in expecting a full afternoon rather than a quick wander.

Further out, look to Greenwich, Kingston and the smaller borough high streets for markets with more local character and shorter queues. These tend to lean on independent traders and craft stalls rather than the standard mulled wine and bratwurst circuit, and they're often free to just wander through even if you don't buy anything.

Weekday evenings after work are the easiest time to get around a market without fighting crowds. Weekends, especially the two before Christmas, get packed, particularly the big central ones, so if you want photos without a hundred strangers in them, go earlier in the day or on a weekday. Most markets run food and drink stalls alongside the shopping, so you can treat it as a meal out as easily as a gift run.

Layer up. Most of this is outdoors, standing around, and London in December is damp more often than it's cold in a dramatic way. A market is also an easy one to build an evening around, pair it with dinner nearby or a walk along the river once the stalls close.