While everyone is busy celebrating Christmas, retailers are the busiest: making reductions and doing promotions, because they know Santa Claus will bring them a fortune too. A Christmas economy is already here even before the Santa.

This is a big shopping mall located in downtown Shanghai. The off-work hour hasn't come yet, but streams of people are already warming up the shop. Flags are hanging everywhere with waving Santa Claus on them, and a miniature of his sled is given a prominent position on counters. Even his hat is now becoming the shop assistants.

"We asked every counter to set up the basic decorations, and they can add more according to their need. Every year, we spend a considerable sum of money on these decorations, I believe it is worthwhile, because the atmosphere can drive people to buy." Said Zhang Jing, manager of the first floor of the Pacific Shopping Center.

But customers who want to spend money at Christmas are not looking at how beautiful the decorations are, but how much the reductions are.

"We give out gifts together with out products, at the same time, we offer a much lower price than usual. A lot of people have dropped by during this period. " said a sales girl promoting a camera studio in a leisure center plaza.

Festivals generate huge spending and in recent years, the western traditional festivals have found fanatic followers in China. Christmas, Valentine's Day, Father's Day and Mother's day, businessmen would not let go of a good opportunity. The preparation work also starts early.

"The Christmas promotion started on the 13th, and before that is our company's anniversary promotion, the two happen to coincide. Every year around this time, we can expect a huge growth in profits." Zhang Jing said again.

Restaurants, too, are attracted by Christmas. They put up advertisements of booking Christmas Dinner and Christmas Parties as early as a couple of months ago.

"We put up our advertisements in November and got quick responses. Christmas Eve has been booked out by a large group of over 100 guests. That is before eight o'clock in the evening, and the rest of the time is booked by another group of 20 people." Said Lucy, owner of a restaurant named Pink Bar by the side of a noisy street.

Last December, retail sales across the country reached 440 billion yuan, or about US$53 billion, which was an increase of about 20 percent from the previous month. And this year, retailers are making another Christmas wish.

(CRI.com December 25, 2004)