I found the Market Square very stylish, beautiful I can't call it historic because the buildings were obviously rebuilt post-WW2 , clean and I felt pretty safe.
There are regular patrols by police and most Polish people in Krakow speak decent English, the young people speaking fluent English in the main. The shops are a bit of a mish-mash of tourist trap junk and vastly overpriced tat. Krakow has many small independent shops and if you have the time, walk through and chose what you wish. There is an excellent shopping centre next to the railway station too, which is about metres away. Polish city centres have a problem with hawkers for strip clubs approaching you.
It is not as bad in Krakow as other cities that I have visited as they only appear in the evening and don't appear to approach men with families but I find it annoying and I have heard tales of gullible men being tricked into entering Mafia clip joints, being hit with atrocious bills and the police saying that they have to pay up.
Say no thank you and walk away, and they will leave you alone for a while. If pretty girls approach you, they are probably strip club hawkers too. Polish girls are quite conservative in public, Poland being a very Catholic country. Barring this serious problem, I would recommend the Market Square, especially in the daytime.
It is much like visiting Covent Garden in London. This was a wonderful area in central Krakow. We were up fairly early on a Saturday morning, when there weren't too many about. As a result, we were able to take a lovely leisurely stroll around the square without too many crowds. It got remarkably crowded just an hour or two later. Soak up the atmosphere! I believe it is lovely before Christmas. Also, I'd imagine it'd be nice to sit out in during a sunny summer's day. The main market square looks beautiful with all the buildings very busy area lots going on with stalls, down the side streets there's many small pubs and restraunts, there some gems we found like the Buddha which was a lovely wee bar definetly worth a visit!
