KARACHI: This is Christmas Eve and the main downtown Saddar market, especially Bohri Bazaar, is abuzz with Christmas shoppers looking for best last-minute bargain deals.

Preparations for the celebrations are in full swing in the metropolis.

As churches in the city are decorated with special colourful lights with Christmas Star on the top, shoppers flock markets to purchase Christmas gifts for their loved ones.

For most families, the celebrations are, however, incomplete without a Christmas tree and of course a decorated one.

For Christmas decorations, colourful glass balls, decorative gold and silver bells, reindeer, wreaths, fairy lights, stars, other decorative tree hangings and of course a Christmas tree are all the must haves.

While queues at bakeries get longer, Christmas tree prices go up

The shops at Bohri Bazaar have all the variety to make merry Christmas merrier.

The bakeries around Saddar, too, are busy preparing and selling plum cakes as well as other cream cakes with Christmas decorations.

If you go to any other part of the town for Christmas shopping, neither are you going to find so much variety at confectioners, nor at the shops and stalls selling decorations. And what’s more, the prices also are not the same.

A nice stall selling Christmas stuff outside a supermarket in Clifton will try to sell you a plastic Christmas tree, made in China, for Rs9,000.

A raised eyebrow gets you the following answer: “It is eight feet tall madam.”

Then as you turn your attention to a shorter, five-feet tall tree and inquire about its cost, you are informed that it costs Rs10,000. The explanation: “It’s a decorated tree, madam.” Well, yes. If you can call four to six small glass balls and a string of beads carelessly wound around it, a decorated tree, then you also don’t deserve to part with Rs10,000.

But if you are wise and brave enough to fight the traffic which you are sure to run into on the way, you may drive to Bohri Bazaar, and get to choose from an extensive variety of Christmas trees, all plastic though, all Chinese, too, but more reasonably priced.

There are bright green ones, dark green ones and snow-covered ones in various heights, including cute baby Christmas trees which can be placed on tables.

When the guy at the stall in Clifton was asked what was new this year, he pointed to the big red Christmas stocking that he was selling also. They looked slightly old and used but the fellow insisted that they were new. “Look, they didn’t sell last year so the faux fur looks old and ruffled,” he explained while quoting Rs200 to Rs250 for each.

In Saddar, the same old stockings are on sale for Rs150 or Rs100 each, depending on your bargaining skills. And they will also throw in a red Santa’s cap while admitting that it is all second-hand stuff.

Bakeries

Meanwhile the bakeries in Saddar paint a different picture from the bakeries in other parts of the city where they won’t have Christmas cakes at all. And those that might have any will be extremely expensive. “It’s because the Saddar area has many Christian residents,” explained the gentleman minding a counter of United Bakery in Saddar.

At the historic Misquita Bakery, again you will see the lines and queues forming, similar to what you encountered around Good Friday and Easter for the hot cross buns. This time it is for their sweet plum cakes.

More and more now, the joy of Christmas is also spreading among non-Christian families, who have developed a taste for Christmas cakes and find them absolutely delicious and mouth-watering. Many people also buy and decorate Christmas trees because they want to be included in the festivity too as Muslims also share the joy and happiness with their Christian friends.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2022