Christmas medleys take centre stage
Carols and the bells, lights and flowers.
Hotels, restaurants, gift shops and decorators are ready to welcome Christmas, with a bow.
Celebrations have already kicked in with dining out and entertaining guests. However, sales of new clothes and accessories are insignificant at the time.
The day is most special for children, and five-star and three-star hotels in Dhaka are eagerly waiting to entertain their young guests, along with their parents, with a line-up of several programmes.
MA Awal, sales director of Sonargaon Hotel, said the hotel would organise several events, mainly for children, regardless of religion, on the day.
Sonargaon will organise Christmas parties and carols at all its restaurants. "We are planning something different for our guests, and we try to give them a flavour of Christmas by decorating the hotel with a Christmas tree, lights and flowers, and arranging different programmes.”
It would also host a children's pool party, where Santa Claus will make an appearance, a magic show, a puppet show, fortune-tellers, live piano music and a fairy's wheel, entry to which would cost Tk 800 a person.
The hotel also spreads a special Christmas buffet at Café Bazar on Christmas Eve and a traditional Christmas buffet feast on Christmas Day.
"On the Christmas Day, our main revenue comes from restaurant sales, because most foreign guests tend to celebrate the day with their families in their home countries," Awal said.
It means there will be a 40-45 percent cut in the hotel's occupancy during this time, he added.
Shahidus Sadique, marketing manager of Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, said the hotel has also geared to cater to the growing number of guests on Christmas Day (tomorrow).
"Christmas Day celebrations are part of our promotional activities, and not for profit. We organise different programmes on the day mainly to offer an essence of Christmas to the local Christians and foreign guests.”
The hotel would be humming with a Christmas Children's party at the Ball Room and a special Raffle draw. It will also host a children's party at Lobby Café, where the entry fee is Tk 500 a person.
Sheraton would serve dinner at Vintage for Tk 3,500 a person, and a special lunch and dinner at Bithika for Tk 2,000 a person and Tk 1,500 per child.
On the other side of the city, Radisson Hotel, The Westin and Dhaka Regency are also adding glitter to their celebrations by organising similar programmes, mainly to cater to foreign guests residing in the diplomatic zone in Dhaka.
Also, restaurants, including Bella Italia, Coffee World, Voot, Pizza Hut, KFC, Flambe and Nando's, are ready to cook culinary feasts for the day.
Gift shops are also abuzz. Archies Gallery and Hallmark, two of the oldest gift shops, are eyeing a handsome sale from card and gift.
"People prefer cards to greet family and friends on this occasion. We started getting orders for cards and small gifts from corporate houses that want to greet their clients on the day," said Jamil Ahmed, shop in-charge of Archies Gallery in New Market.
Flower sales have also shot up at high-end shops, like Ferns n Petals, a flower shop that imports flowers from India and Thailand. The shop received a large number of advance orders for bouquets and decorative flowers for the day, said an executive of the shop.
The aroma of fresh bakery items fills the air as sales orders are mounting at bakeries, and many expect to earn handsome revenues.
"We received orders for about 1,000 cakes for Christmas. There is a large Christian community residing in this neighborhood, and a cake is a must for the day," said Ahmed Ali, manager of Coopers at Farmgate.
Interestingly, commercial decorators are also busy these days, as residences, hotels, restaurants, gift shops and offices are using fairy lights to decorate their premises.
"The trend of lighting one's house or commercial building on Christmas Day is growing, and so is our revenue," said Abdus Sakur, owner of Rafayel Decorators at Baridhara.
He received orders for decorating 20 houses and 15 commercial buildings, mainly in Baridhara, he said.
Sakur said he charges between Tk 5,000 and Tk 20,000, depending on the size of the building. "Most of the time, people take our services for two to three days, so the charge varies."
Source : the daily star.
