This year was my first show and I brought the BF here and surprisingly he wasn't bored or complaining during the entire outing, so that tells me a few things - there is something here for everyone and for every budget.
I managed to pick up stuff for the women on my Christmas list this year, plus eyed some prospectives for the guys.
The most crowded areas are the food section, which I think is due to the sampling that are being offered.
I would probably recommend that you go earlier rather than later, since there are some artisans that are not local, so if they run out of stock - you might be out of luck.
Crowd wise - I thought it was going to be a logjam, but it wasn't
My picks for Favourite booths -
Lilliput hats - I've known they've had a retail store around College and Spadina, but it's hard for me to get to their store. Finally replaced my lost Enfield cap that I lost 5 years ago at an office Christmas party and my new one is identical to the one I lost. Plus found some other hats that I might purchase at a later date.
Tresnormal - for the BF, but they didn't have the size I wanted; which is what I meant about going closer to the show start rather than the end - because they ran out of sizes in the design I wanted.