Park Street, decked up with fairy lights on Christmas Eve is graced by Santa.

Owing to its colonial legacy, Kolkata has a nostalgic relationship with Christmas. Christmas, although a festival of Christians, gets an entirely cosmopolitan dimension in here. For Kolkatans, Christmas is synonymous with yummy cakes and pastries from Flury’s, Nahoum’s or Kathleen, Santa Claus replicas in New Market and glittering decorations along Park Street.

Not just members of the city’s Anglo Indian community, but people from other communities also attend the midnight mass at St. Paul’s Cathedral, sing hymns and offer prayers thanking the Lord. This is followed with an exchange of greetings and gifts, feasting and celebrations. Localities with a Christian majority are decorated with lights and streamers, with little Christmas trees adorning the streets. A visitor to the city at this time of the year will find Kolkata all decked up, togged in mistletoe and illuminated to usher in Christmas and New Year.

As the malls, bakeries and hotels arrange their fairy lights, event management companies gear up with plans for Christmas balls and parties, and shops get ready for big time sales. A month prior to Christmas Eve, special discounts and promotional gifts are offered by shopping malls and corporate giants. The city gears up for a shopping spree and people of all ages, irrespective of their religion, throng market places in a bid to grab last minute deals.

For Kolkatans, Christmas means New Year is around the corner and a general feeling of winding down is evident in all. Traditionally, Christmas is known as ‘burra din’ in Kolkata as days start getting longer from the 25th December. It is also a day for organising picnics, or a trip to the zoo or other such activities to end the year on a cheerful note.