Pune, 22 December 2025: City has slipped into full festive mode ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations. Bright electric lights outside churches, malls, hotels, and cafés, bakeries filled with cakes and pastries, and street vendors selling Santa hats and masks have transformed the city’s atmosphere.
With new and attractive decorative items arriving in markets, shopping activity has picked up across key commercial areas.
As December begins, excitement around Christmas builds among people of all ages. Major marketplaces are now stocked with a wide range of decorations, including musical and dancing Santa figures, Christmas trees, candles, stars, bells, snowmen, wall hangings, artificial flowers, reindeer, and nativity scenes depicting the story of Jesus Christ.
Shops are also showcasing decorative lighting, greeting cards, gift items, chocolates in attractive packaging, and colourful candles.
Decoration items are generally priced between ₹400 and ₹1,300, while nativity scenes are available from ₹500 to ₹4,000, depending on size and detail. Santa figurines, stockings, masks, toys, dolls, Christmas trees, chocolates, gifts, and cards range from as low as ₹30 to nearly ₹15,000. Larger Santa statues, often used for public displays, are priced between ₹850 and ₹1,300.
Alongside decorations, plum cake remains the star of the season. Bakeries are seeing strong demand for traditional plum cakes, rum cakes, dry fruit variants, and newer options such as chocolate brownie, honey plum, mixed fruit, real plum, and rich plum cakes.
Special orders for Belgian chocolate, pineapple, and customised chocolate cakes are also increasing. Sweet marts, bakeries, gift shops, and even home-based bakers report a steady rise in orders. Popular bakery hubs include Camp, Viman Nagar, Aundh, Baner, Bavdhan, and Prabhat Road.
New trends this year include golden and silver fabric flowers for Christmas trees, inflatable Santa figures displayed outside shops and malls, and innovative tree designs such as folding trees, table-top trees, foam and cherry trees. Decorative items like dancing Santas and reindeer in multiple sizes are also drawing attention.
Shoppers say the festive decorations add to the joy of the season and are available at reasonable prices. Many families are buying Christmas trees along with ornaments like balls, bells, and stars for home décor.
Traders note that children and parents are the most enthusiastic buyers, while hotels and malls are placing bulk orders for decorations. Overall, strong public enthusiasm has translated into healthy festive sales across Pune.