Christmas colors fill the streets

(Baonghean) -Imported from the West, a holiday of Christianity, but today, Christmas has gradually become a public holiday for everyone. There are still 2 weeks left until Christmas but the market for decorations, souvenirs... has flooded the market more than 1 month ago. It is worth mentioning that Vietnamese goods have dominated, not only in terms of diversity in designs but also in many new and unique products.

Supermarkets and bookstores are the first to start selling Christmas goods. From the beginning of December (DL), Big C supermarket has prepared goods and reserved the best locations for display. Flower gates, Santa Claus, pine trees of all kinds and decorations are ready to meet all customers' needs.

Christmas trees - one of the main products to celebrate Christmas, are currently selling quite well in most stores. If last year, to create a new impression, many stores imported Christmas trees with all kinds of colors, however, the shopping demand of customers was not high, so this year, most of the stores only imported green-leafed pine trees; in addition, there are snow-spraying pine trees with attached fruits, pine trees with strings, pine trees with LED lights... Currently, there are many sizes for customers to choose from, depending on the style and material, the selling price is different; the type of pine tree from 1.5 - 3m high has an average price of 650,000 - 2,400,000 VND/tree, not including decorations.

Usually, customers buy decorations themselves, but many people also order them from stores. Depending on each store, the pine trees are decorated differently, so the selling price is quite different, from a few hundred thousand to 1 million VND/tree. Mr. Ngoc Tuan - the owner of a pine tree and accessories store (on Le Huan Street, Vinh City) said: "The most expensive are the types of pine trees that are custom-made, the product price is up to tens, even hundreds of millions of VND, so the main customers who order are restaurants, hotels and large companies. Compared to last year, domestically produced goods this year are dominating and have a price about 20-30% higher. Currently, the market is only focusing on wholesalers, businesses, and agencies who come to buy early for display; while retail customers buying to decorate their homes will only really be active closer to the holiday."

This year's decorations are also more beautiful and eye-catching. For laurel wreaths, in addition to plastic braids and ropes, there is also gold-plated steel; the accompanying decorations are no longer simply pine leaves and pine cones, but are accompanied by small, pretty gift boxes, snow globes, and colorful sparkling bells. Even more special are the laurel wreaths hung with reindeer, Santa Claus, and Snowman in many different shapes; the selling price ranges from 320,000 to 500,000 VND/piece depending on the size. The balls are also designed in many styles (such as rough, smooth, wrinkled) with a variety of bright colors, priced from 2,000 to 15,000 VND/ball. The tinsel strings cost from 5,000 to 15,000 VND/string; strings made of pine leaves cost from 50,000 to 100,000 VND/string depending on the type...

Christmas gifts for children are usually stuffed animals such as Santa Claus, snowman, superheroes... Children's costumes disguised as Santa Claus, snow princesses this year have also been improved a lot from quality to design. If in previous years, the traditional style of Santa Claus's clothes or dresses for girls were quite monotonous with felt material, this year they are mainly made of thin velvet fabric with very diverse designs; especially the dresses for girls are sewn quite elaborately, such as: 2-strap model, bib with snow princess coat... Compared to the old product model, the price of this product is quite high, from 100,000 VND to 160,000 VND/set, depending on size... In addition, there are unique products such as the set of 3 Santa Claus (old wizard, old man playing trumpet, old man riding reindeer) priced from 80,000 - 300,000 VND.

Christmas is also the occasion to celebrate the New Year, so it attracts many people to go shopping for gifts, especially young people. On this occasion, everyone wants to send each other good wishes and small gifts as souvenirs. Themed gifts for this day are also very diverse. To compete with each other, businesses try to "hunt" for unique models or design and manufacture their own products. Young customers often choose to buy unique gifts such as snow globes, products made from real pine cones, night lights shaped like Santa Claus, pine trees... currently priced from 20,000 - 120,000 VND/product.

Greeting cards are also indispensable on this day. In addition to being used to decorate the Christmas tree, cards are also used to send each other good wishes and peace on Christmas and New Year. In addition to music cards priced from 15,000 - 30,000 VND/card, handmade cards priced from 20,000 VND/card or more are also being chosen by many customers. This year, young people tend to hunt for cards made from textured paper, oil paper, oil paint, plants, flowers, dried leaves... instead of silk paper like before. Because these types of cards are handmade, have beautiful designs, and are uniquely decorated, they cost from 10,000 - 30,000 VND/card, suitable for students' budgets, so they sell quite well.



Pine trees for sale on Tran Phu Street (Vinh City) are expensive.
from 650,000 - 2,400,000 VND/tree, not including decorations.

Many stores decorate for Christmas very early.

This year, Nghe An Provincial Post Office continues to open the "Christmas Gift" service.
for young customers.

Along with sales, gift shops also offer Santa Claus home delivery service, and this service is increasingly popular with customers and at this time the shops have started receiving goods. This year, Nghe An Post Office continues to deploy the service "Santa Claus's gifts for young customers". Parents can bring gifts or choose to buy them right at the post office counter; service fees are calculated according to the following levels: Before December 23 and 25, the price for offices and schools is 35,000 VND/gift; private homes are 45,000 VND and after 7:00 p.m. is 55,000 VND/gift. On December 23 and 24, the corresponding prices are 40,000, 55,000 and 65,000 VND/gift. If customers register to send to 10 different addresses at once, they will receive a 30% discount on the basic price (excluding tax)...

Christmas is coming very soon and the shopping atmosphere is also getting more and more exciting. Although the prices of traditional items this year are higher than every year, it certainly will not affect the meaningful Christmas atmosphere of everyone, every family.

Article and photos: Ngoc Anh