Where are you going for the Manchester Christmas lights?

Right, I need your help. Every year we promise we'll do the Manchester Christmas lights properly, and every year we end up on the same circuit: tram in, queue for a bratwurst, lose sight of one child between the stalls, tram home with a paper cone of cold chips. It's a good night. It's just the same night, every December. So this year I'm asking people who actually know the city: where are you going for the Manchester Christmas lights?

Leave a comment if you've got a spot worth the trip. I'm especially after quieter squares, sensible parking, and anywhere that doesn't charge a small fortune for four hot chocolates.

The loop we always end up doing

We come off the tram and hit St Ann's Square first, because it's right there and the kids smell the food before they see it. Then we drift through Exchange Square, along New Cathedral Street and down towards King Street, and finish at Albert Square if the layout allows it. Albert Square has been half building site for years because of the Town Hall work, so what you get there changes from one year to the next.

Which is the problem. Most of the evening is spent walking in a circle and buying things we could have bought in the Arndale for less. The lights are free at least, and that's the bit the kids remember anyway.

Where the Manchester Christmas lights are worth the walk

This is my honest ranking after too many years of doing it.

• King Street. My favourite for the lights themselves. They hang right across the street, you don't have to buy anything to enjoy them, and the buildings do half the work.
• St Ann's Square. Busiest of the ones we do, but it's the one that feels most like Christmas. Go early or don't go.
• Cathedral Gardens. Quieter end of town and better for small legs that need to run about. We usually finish here rather than start.
• Deansgate. Good for walking rather than queueing. Fewer stalls, less pressure to spend.

If the big wheel is back this year I'd like to know whether it's worth the queue, because I've talked myself out of it three Decembers running.

Taking kids without losing your mind

A few things that have worked for us:

• Go on a school night, straight after pickup. Saturday afternoon is a different, much worse event.
• Tram in and use a Metrolink park and ride. City centre parking in December is its own advent calendar of misery.
• Pick a meeting point before you set off, and say it out loud twice. Ours is the front of the Arndale.
• Feed them before you leave. Hungry children plus market prices is a bad combination.
• Take a flask. I know. I've become that dad.

The version without the kids

Once a year my wife and I go back on our own, and it's a completely different night. Mulled wine, a slow walk through Spinningfields, and a proper sit down somewhere warm rather than eating standing up in a crowd. If you've got a pub near the markets that stays quiet in December, I want the name.

So where are you going?

That's the whole post, really. I've given you our loop and my half-considered ranking. Now tell me where we should be going instead.

Specifically, I'd like to know:

1. Which square you rate highest for the Manchester Christmas lights.
2. Whether the switch-on night is worth braving with kids, or best watched on the local news with a brew.
3. Anywhere outside the city centre that does it well, because we're not above a village lights switch-on with a brass band.

Drop it in the comments below or find me on the Corporate Dad socials. Whatever gets suggested most, we'll do it, and I'll write up how it went, queue times, parking and all. First family to recommend somewhere brilliant gets the credit when I tell my kids it was my idea.