Business
Christmas decorations on the rise
  • | Saigontimes | December 08, 2011 11:45 AM
If you stroll HCM City's downtown these days it’s not hard to recognize that the festive season is upon us, with colorful lights and decorative images of Santa Claus, reindeers and snowmen outside shopping malls and buildings.
 
 A shop owner in Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street decorates a Christmas tree for a guest on order. This tree, which is 2.1 meters high, is priced at VND1.8 million
However, this year the market for Christmas decorations has seen a whopping rise of  15% to 20% compared to last year.

The shops on Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street in District 5 are well known for its diverse Christmas decorations and wholesale business. Gold/silver tinsel costs from VND10,000–12,000, while boxes of six colorful Christmas baubles are priced from VND20,000-30,000. A pair of bells is priced from VND5,000 for small ones to VND189,000 for large ones. A Christmas tree is priced from VND150,000 for a 60 cm tree without decorations to VND1.5 million for a 2.1 meter tree.

According to a seller at Vinh Thanh Shop in Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street, this year the price of a Christmas tree is 20% higher year-on-year due to a rise in the price of decorations and materials. Most of the Christmas items were imported from China while some were made by Vietnamese-based Chinese companies.

“From mid-November we have already sold lots of Christmas trees to individuals and retailers,“ the seller added.

As the Daily observed in just half an hour there were around 20 customers visiting the shop for decorations and Christmas clothes for their children at Vinh Thanh Shop and its two neighboring stores.

At the city’s well-known gift shop Hannah, a popular Christmas tree is priced from VND650,000 to VND2.6 million for an original and already-decorated tree respectively. Customers can buy Christmas trees from available designs or they can design their own styles and receive their tree 24 hours later.

So, despite the economic slowdown Christmas still has an irresistible attraction to Saigonese as they are willing to splash out from their smaller budgets this year to prepare for the festive events.

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