Harrogate Christmas Market offers free support for businesses during lockdown

Harrogate mother's plea for action as she goes without food and heating to feed her child

This year's Christmas Market has moved online, with the website offering a list of stall holders and links to their online offerings in a bid to boost their festive trade.

But with the four week coronavirus lockdown coming into force yesterday, Thursday, the team is keen to help all businesses across the area who may well be feeling the strain of having to close their doors so close to Christmas.

Organisers are now using the event's social media platforms to repost local businesses and shops who are battling to survive the lockdown, even those not registered for the Virtual Christmas Market and will continue to do so until the end of the year.

They are also calling on the public to support traders as much as possible during this difficult time.

A blog post reads: "If you are able to do so, over the next four weeks in particular, please support these Traders in buying your Christmas presents from them – or ordering a takeaway – most are selling online, offering delivery or click and collect services.

"We have already been sharing posts for the last couple of months, and have had positive feedback from several businesses who have found their reach and followers have increased after we shared their posts – we have seen some posts go from a reach of 150 to over 1,500 in a matter of minutes.

"However, it can be difficult to find all relevant businesses, so we are asking businesses to tag us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and we will share their posts to more than 14,000 potential customers across all three platforms.

"This is a FREE service, even for the market traders, who have not been charged to be included in our online Virtual Harrogate Christmas Market.

"If everyone helps each other we can all get through this together."

These photos show Harrogate's empty streets as businesses close and lockdown begins

To get involved, tag 'Harrogate Christmas Market' on Facebook or @HGChristmasMkt on Instagram or Twitter.