Christmas Decorations in Hong Kong

The thing I remember best, from having lived in Hong Kong for three years and having visited during December a couple of times, is the extent to which Christmas is marked by decorations, displays, parties and all the usual commercial razzamatazz.

Even 30 years ago, several whole blocks of twenty-plus-storey buildings on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront were festooned from top to bottom with Christmas lights. The shopping malls competed with each other to have the best Christmas displays, the smallest shops seemed to play Jingle Bells non-stop while even the market stalls sold miniature Santa outfits and decorations.

Certainly the holiday is not as important or as well-marked as Chinese New Year when the city comes to a stop for several days and family reunions and traditional celebrations take precedence. Then, the illuminated displays are huge, seriously good.

Anyway, I thought I'd trek round the major shopping malls and see how they were doing for Christmas decorations this year...

My local shopping centre, Tai Koo Shing, hasn't made much of an effort this year, but at least they had local children's choirs singing carols.

And Alexandra House in the centre of the island isn't much better, rather traditional.

Chater House has a veteran motor car (second oldest in the world) on display, with a teddy bear driver and passengers...there's a theme emerging here.

Prince's Building (also in Central) has a couple of trucks carrying teddy bears accompanied by wrapped gift parcels.

Over in Tsim Sha Tsui the decorations outside the Harbour City shopping mall were, frankly, pathetic. I've never been impressed by their decorations (the last time I was in Hong Kong, a couple of years ago, they had a display of giant-size Taiwanese comic dolls...enough said!). This winter they couldn't even meet that low standard.

Fortunately for the good name of Tsim Sha Tsui, Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong more than makes up for Harbour City's omission. There were at least two major displays with Christmas trees, ice floes and penguins.

Back to Hong Kong Island and what may be one of the largest malls on the Island, Times Square, nine stories of shopping. Here the display is based on...Star Wars? Yes, I know the latest film is due out soon...but Star Wars instead of a proper Christmas display? 

...and Pacific Place was no better...Yes, The Little Prince is the third most-translated book in the world, translated into 250 languages...but what has it got to do with Christmas?

Fortunately, the reputation of Hong Kong has been saved by The Landmark, the Grande Dame of Hong Kong Island's shopping centres, not the largest but possibly the most prestigious, with 32 jewellers and watchmakers shops (including famous brands like Cartier; De Beers; Patek Philippe; Tiffany, and Van Cleef & Arpels) plus over 70 fashion stores (including Alexander McQueen; Brooks Bros; Chanel; Diane Von Furstenburg; Dolce & Gabana; Giorgio Armani; Jummy Choo and Louis Vuitton), plus dozens of other places that relive shoppers of substantial amounts of money.

I'm not a brand shopper (except for cameras) but I love to peer into Davidoff's cigar store and eye the wooden humidors, the gleaming cutters, the work-of-art ashtrays and the huge range of cigars – it's like stepping back 100 years.

As you might expect, Landmark's decorations are rather grand; the centrepiece is a huge mechanical whirligig that plays vigorous and tuneful music like a brass band, operated by a dozen teddy bears pulling levers, while strange sailing vessels circle above, crewed by more teddy bears.

And what about the decorative lights on the side of twenty-plus-storey buildings that I remembered so well from earlier years?

Well, Hong Kong Island at night still makes a decent sight, although there isn't much in the way of Christmas decorations – yet.

I was even lucky enough to catch the last remaining sailing junk motoring through the harbour as I took some evening photos. Pretty, isn't she?

Over in Tsim Sha Tsui they are beginning to put up the Christmas decorations on the side of tower blocks...but, come on folks, you can do better than that, don't rest until you've covered at least ten blocks - like you did so brilliantly and memorably 30 years ago!

...and a late entrant...sorry, I know gold is very attractive but as a Christmas decoration it just doesn't have that seasonal resonance. Ferrero Rocher anyone?