KARACHI: Like Santa Claus, reindeer, gifts, hymns and jingle bells, the Christmas tree is also a huge part of the holiday cheer. Most households in the West get real cut Christmas trees to bring inside their homes but here in Pakistan we mostly have plastic or paper trees to make do with.

The biggest market for these, mostly made in China, plastic trees is Bohri Bazaar or the Paper Market on Hasan Ali Effendi Road, where walking on the footpath feels like passing through a jungle of lush green, dark green, green and white, snow-white and glittery Christmas trees of all heights and widths.

Ms Zaki, who runs a shop specialising in Christmas decorations with her husband and son in Bohri Bazaar, said that they had been selling all kinds of Christmas trees from the beginning of December.

“The lush green ones are the most in demand as well as the most expensive. But then we get customers who bought that one earlier and are looking to go with something different this year. For them we have the dark green ones, better known as green-black or green and white as well as glittery ones. Since last year, there has also been a demand for snow-white Christmas trees,” she said.

“You decorate a snow-white Christmas tree with bright red glass balls and blue lights then see how pretty it looks and how beautiful it turns your surroundings,” she suggested. “You’ll feel like you have a white Christmas.”

The plastic tree prices range from as reasonable as Rs100 to as expensive as Rs8,000. “There are categories such as ‘A’ and ‘B’,” said Ms Zaki’s son Hussain. “Category ‘A’ costs more as the trees in that category come in brighter shades of green with broader leaves. They come with a sturdy iron stand, too. As for category ‘B’, well, they have all those which don’t come under category ‘A’,” he pointed out.

The tradition of the Christmas tree, other than storing presents under it, really has to do with life as Christmas trees are evergreen. They remain lush even in extreme cold weather when many other trees are losing their leaves or the leaves have changed colour from green to amber.

The Christmas tree grows well in Karachi. Yameen Ahmed, owner of the Sailors’ Nursery on Korangi Road, said that he first brought saplings of the Christmas tree, namely Araucaria heterophylla and Cycus, which is referred to as ‘kangi tree’ in local lingo because the texture of its leaves resemble a comb, to Karachi from Bangkok, Thailand, some 40 years ago.

“They grow quite well in our weather. A one-foot-high tree can grow up to 12 feet in three years. And saplings can be bought for Rs60 or Rs70,” he said. “Apart from these two, there are now so many other varieties of naturally shaped evergreen trees that don’t need to be trimmed like Christmas trees here.”

But plastic trees fulfil the ‘evergreen’ requirement, too. As Father Mario Rodrigues of the St Patrick’s parish here said that the cathedral also decorated a big plastic Christmas tree. “Actually, we have three real Christmas trees, too, planted by Bishop Joseph Coutts a while back in our yard but they are still quite small in size. Two of them are growing in pots so when they grow up to 10 feet or higher in height, I will surely bring the taller of the two inside for Christmas. Until then, we can make do with plastic Christmas trees,” the parish priest said laughing aloud just like Father Christmas.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2015