People shop for Christmas decorations after a long period of social distancing. A view of Hàng Mã Street in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo

Minh Hương

HÀ NỘI — Without a significant Christian community, the purchasing power for pine trees and decorations for Christmas was still expected to increase in Việt Nam as people long for a festive season after a long period of social distancing.

Since the beginning of December, decoration shops in Hà Nội and HCM City have been bustling with products and services for the Christmas season of 2021 as people love the festival atmosphere.

Buying a bunch of decorations for her used-tree in Hàng Mã Street, Hoàng Diệu Quỳnh, told Việt Nam News: “I buy all the colours to lighten my room until the New Year to forget the days staying at home with no one around.”

Quỳnh also bought other decorations and a lot of lights to make her room full of shiny items, saying: “I will hold a party for me and some friends at home at Christmas. I never feel like celebrating Christmas usually, but now I love it.” 

In HCM City, District 10, Nguyễn Thành, a wholesale market trader specialising in the flower business, said: “We have diversified products for this season,” adding that products and services for the season had flooded the market and purchasing power was increasing day by day. 

Thành also recognised people needed to shop and decorate for Christmas at home instead of having outside entertainment due to social distancing.

With an online store on Shopee, Trúc Anh told Việt Nam News: “I have shipped hundreds of orders for Christmas items to customers' homes since earlier this month.”

While most shop-owners in Hàng Mã, the most well-known place for decorative products in Hà Nội, saw fewer buyers due to the pandemic, online shop-owners like Anh gained by selling the same items on e-commerce channels.

E-shoppers have also taken advantages of the recent December 12 promotion offered by most e-commerce floors in Việt Nam to buy items like laurel wreaths, Santa Claus models, pearls, tinsel, and LED string lights.

It is easy to see online selling channels like Shopee, Tiki, Sendo, Lazada offering Christmas products with exclusive discount items to attract their buyers, not only on their own sites but also through popular networks such as Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube.

As a new generation of e-seller, Tâm Nguyễn, who sells Christmas items offline in HCM City and on Shopee, is also active on most current social networks to access more customers.

These networks are where Tâm shows how he decorates his room with a festival atmosphere, and how much items at his shop cost.

Tâm knows the importance of a festival atmosphere at such a time. He told Việt Nam News: "Most of the people, especially the younger ones who are still single feel bad about staying at home, have decided that now is a good for them to decorate their homes with colour."

Under the influence of COVID-19,  the prices of many Christmas products have also increased by about 10 per cent from last year. However, most shops try to keep prices as low as possible, while launching a variety of ready-made decorative pine trees in different sizes to create favourable conditions for customers.

Prices for ready-made decorative pine trees range from VNĐ150,000 to VNĐ1 million each for small sizes and around several million đồng to more than VNĐ10 million for big sizes, while decorative items for Christmas ranged from as few as VNĐ10,000 per item.

Stating that many people in HCM City finally feel their freedom and could go out shopping, but were still concerned about crowds gathering, Tâm added that he received more individual customers and fewer business customers such as cafes, restaurants and shops this year.

Tâm said most people now bought items for celebrate the season at home with their families. — VNS