or: Do Shopping Malls Coordinate Christmas Displays?
It’s no secret, one of the 974 things I like about Hong Kong is how the shopping centres / malls / areas decorate for Christmas.
Over the years, they have become increasingly over the top which is a big thing to say about any form of decoration in HK. This is a country that just looks for an excuse to decorate… and make money.
It seems four of the major shopping areas have worked together this year to come into some kind of unusual alignment. There is almost a theme. Floating and snowmen.
Times Square – floating snowman inside, outside is a massive snow dome watched over by a polar bear while children play inside and can build their own snowmen and have a slide down a little hill too. Yes, it’s a living snow dome. Advertised as a White Christmas.
Landmark – it’s a circus. I’m not sure what this has to do with Christmas though in the display there is a Santa, a reindeer, a snowman, yet also some rabbits, a hippo, ostriches, elephants and a lion or two. Some of these are also floating though that’s probably too strong a word for the tightrope walking elephant. There’s also a fundraising element for Make-A-Wish Foundation.
IFC – they’ve gone polar too and have puffins ice skating. There is a puffin in a hot air balloon suspended from the ceiling. The only apparent nod to Santa is in one of the other displays in the mall where his clothes are hung out on a washing line which is being monitored by another polar bear. Clearly polar bears are the guard dogs of the North Pole. This display is being advertised as a Polar Resort.
Heritage 1888 – another massive snowman which people can walk through, nothing suspended but they do have snowmen snowboarding in a figure of eight pattern down a little mountain.
January this year was pretty cold and some reported seeing a few flakes of snow. Not enough for a snowman. Not even enough to settle on the ground. December so far has been unseasonably warm so it doesn’t bode well for all these snowmen, though with the air-conditioning set to ‘polar’, perhaps they will be alright.
So all of this has me thinking:
1. Do all these shopping complexes use the same decorator? If yes, do they get a discount in buying snow in bulk? If no, that’s lousy negotiation tactics.
2. I can suspend (no pun intended) my belief of the ostrich trapeze and the elephant on a tightrope, a lion doing tricks while hanging by balloons, but I’m really not sure what these animals have to do with Christmas.
3. How many red suits does Santa own? I haven’t seen him yet and I’ve seen one set hung out to dry at the ICC so I’m guessing he’s either wandering around outside in his boxers (he doesn’t strike me as a y-front man. I’m not sure why or why not. Further thought may follow on this one) as it’s too cold to stay inside or he has found a shop with heating.
Or does he have other clothes?
* Thanks to Missy Higgins for the title to this post. She’s touring in Australia at the moment and has some dates set in the US for next year. She hasn’t been there for a few years so it looks like some have already sold out! Impressive effort.