Experience Christmas in Oxford

We have teamed up with Oxford City Council, The Oxford Times and Experience Oxfordshire to create a campaign to support Oxford indies this Christmas, working together to promote businesses during the lockdown by encouraging people to support local traders by shopping online.

With non essential shops now open again, the campaign will highlight Oxford indies to encourage residents to support Oxford city businesses this Christmas, and experience some of our cities great attractions from alternative points of view.

As part of the campaign, we have created an Experience Christmas in Oxford map, to promote shopping in the city.

The map includes videos and audio recordings with some of the shop owners, alongside location, contact details and social media information about the businesses.

The run-up to Christmas is a crucial time for businesses, with many making the majority of their year’s revenue during this ‘golden quarter’.

Find out more about the history and people behind some of Oxford’s best loved independent shops with our video stories, created by Freddie Jewson. Hear from The Garden, Bonners, The Jam Factory, Sanders of Oxford, Objects of Use, Modern Art Oxford, Broad Canvas, The Project PT, Payne & Son and Jericho Coffee Traders.

You can also hear audio stories from Shop at the Old Fire Station, Fairtrade at St Michaels, The Oxford Castle and The Story Museum.

Experience Oxfordshire

Experience Oxfordshire have launched a new website to encourage people to do their Christmas shopping in Oxford, including The Covered Market, and it also includes information about the wider city centre offer, including socially-distanced walking tours, museums and galleries.

Wider campaign

Over the last month, the City Council, The Oxford Times, Experience Oxfordshire and Independent Oxford have been promoting the city’s businesses.

The focus of the campaign has been a directory Oxford businesses that have been operating online during the lockdown: www.oxford.gov.uk/openonline.

The campaign has also included:

• The City Council promoting the online directory and the Covered Market’s website through online and offline advertising
• The Oxford Times, supported by the City Council, offering free advertising opportunities in the paper to Oxford’s businesses
• Experience Oxfordshire and Independent Oxford promoting the campaign

Separately, the City Council is working with Oxfordshire County Council to support Oxford’s businesses by offering free parking at park and rides, and pedestrianising areas of the city centre to provide cafés, pubs and restaurants with outdoor seating areas.

This Christmas, it’s more important than ever to support our local businesses. Independents are at the heart of our communities, and add so much colour and character to our city. Both lockdowns this year have highlighted how essential they are to the vibrancy of our city centre, and it’s vital that we support them through this difficult time. If you are able to, think about pledging to shop small this Christmas, and make sure we keep the community of indies that we hold so dear, alive. We’re passionate about supporting independent businesses at Independent Oxford, and are delighted to be working with Oxford City Council, The Oxford Times and Experience Oxfordshire in showcasing Oxford as a wonderful place to visit and hope our interactive map will help you to discover an alternative side to our beautiful city this Christmas.