Mumbai: As Subhash Malge hurried with his purchases of three Christmas trees, he was not worried about decorative items being sold out. Mr Malge's friend of many years makes it a point of setting aside decorative items keeping his taste and preferences in mind. On Friday, Hill Road in Bandra wore a festive look with people moving around to buy the choicest decorative items.
Christmas trees with artificial snow, snowmen, Santa caps with ears, pillows with Santa's face, Santa outfits, hair bands with reindeer horns, elves and streamers were among the more popular items this year. “We keep exclusive items for Christmas. This time too, many of them have been sold out. Reindeer, elves and snowmen are among the prominent things on sale this time,” said Rajiv Shah, owner of Mota's Party Kingdom on Hill Road.
Prices shot up say both sellers and shoppers
While there was variety, both shoppers and some sellers said the prices had shot up by 25% this year. “There is a nice variety here but items are also expensive. Shops that would sell decoratives cheap have now grown to four shops and have priced the items very high,” said Francis Tellis, who had come from Andheri to shop in Bandra.
As Tellis shopped for home decorative items, Joyeeta Miranda too bought some for her children. “My children are small and they like reindeer and Santa so I have purchased some items for them,” she said.
Child focused decoratives in market for sale
“There is a specific focus to attract children. Many of the decorations look to attract kids,” said Nandkumar Shinde who sold several of the items at a large stall on Hill Road. The area that sees many temporary stalls put up had those like Afzal Mansoori who could not speak. They instead conversed with people in sign language and relayed prices either by writing or typing on a calculator.
Food items having great demand too
Food items were also in equal demand, including jujubes, kalkals, milk fudge, cashew fudge, walnut fudge, neureos, marzipan, rose cookies, marshmallows and plum cakes. Suhana Khan, who celebrates Christmas as part of a secular festival, said she had purchased jujubes, guava cheese and some plum cakes. “We normally have some decorations and celebrate at home,” she said.
