Christmas Market 2019 at the Toronto Distillery District
The Holiday season is here with all the cheer and joy !!! So what do Torontonians do to celebrate? They go to the Distillery District to enjoy the annual Christmas Market. There are stalls for great food, bars with warming fires mulled wine and cider, shops full of different Christmassy bling and sparkle and off course plenty of other curiosities.
The Christmas market in Toronto is a relatively new phenomenon that started in 2009 but the location has a history that goes back to 1832 almost two hundred years. Gooderham and Worts Limited was founded by James Worts and his brother-in-law William Gooderham near the Don River to take advantage of wheat produced in Ontario at that time. It began by the establishment of a flour mill but later the owners realised that they could use the excess wheat to produce whiskey and founded the distillery in 1837. Business prospered for the Gooderham’s. Later in 1859 they started work on a new distillery complex built near the river and with access to rail lines. It started operations in 1862 and in its first year of operations produced a quarter of all of Canada’s whiskey and would go on to produce nearly half of all Whiskey produced in Canada becoming one of the largest employers in Canada at that time. Later in the 1892 they move their HQ to the iconic Gooderham building. During Prohibition the Distillery survived by exporting outside of Ontario. But over the years as beer and wine became more popular business gradually declined.
In 1990 the brewery and distillery was closed and repurposed to create the Distillery district an arts and culture hub. Later in 2006 the Young Centre for the Performing Arts was opened. Now the Christmas Market has become the biggest attraction for the area with more than 655,000 visitors visiting it last year. All thirteen acres is a national heritage site and the largest Victorian Industrial complex still standing in all of North America. National Geographic listed the site as a must see for anyone visiting Toronto.
Below you will find more photos of the market for you holiday cheers. Enjoy!!!
