Christmas and New Year is always a special event for Kolkata. With busy areas like Park Street, being converted to a ‘walk-only’ road, to brightly lit- up streets, Christmas decorations, Christmas carols, and decorated churches, Kolkata gets in a different vibe altogether. With winter chills settling in, Kolkata gets in party mood when it comes to December. Preparations for the festive season starts as early as late-November. People pour in from all over the city and celebrate Christmas and New Year in central Kolkata, and the city’s restaurants and pubs see a record-high footfall.
Kolkata’s diversity ensures that every religious festival is celebrated, and thus round the year people have a reason to celebrate. Although Kolkata has a soft corner for Durga Puja, Christmas acts as the cherry on the top of the cake of Kolkata’s festive calendar. If you are in Kolkata during the Christmas and New Year week, your celebration will always remain incomplete if you don’t visit Park Street during the holiday season.
Esplanade
Hawkers line up with several Christmas accessories, adding to the Christmas vibe.
ALSO READ: 10 Different & Surprising Christmas Traditions Across The World
Crowds pour in from all over the city to The Esplanade and New-Market area.
Several stalls are set up which sells trendy posters and postcards.
Park Street
Once you take the turn towards Park Street, you walk into a different world altogether.
With roads filled with Christmas decorations, roads brightly-lit with Christmas lights, visitors flood the area to take part in the holiday celebrations.
As you walk towards Allen’s Park, you get to see people, all of them wearing Santa-caps, and on top of the hundreds of bobbing red-heads, you have a blanket of light, covering up the streets.
Kolkata starts preparing for this set-up a month in advance, for come Christmas, this street will be ‘No-Entry’ zone for all cars and it will turn to a ‘Walk-only’ road.
Christmas will remain incomplete without Santa. And, if you are in Park Street, you can’t miss the Christmas decoration of Santa and the Christmas tree in front of Apeejay House.
Many shops set-up stalls, which sells a wide range of items like – cakes, sweets, fries, and even Christmas decorations.
Although Park Street’s Oxford Bookstore is one of my favourite places in the city but with Christmas, it becomes all the more special. Although frequented by people all through the year, this place has a different ambience in the Christmas season for the decorations the shop puts up.
Close to Oxford Bookstore, you will find several bars, pubs and nightclubs which are loved by the young crowd in the festive month. During this festive season, Kolkata’s nightlife is way more energetic and if you are into partying, you will love the ambience of Park Street.
Christmas in Kolkata means – a visit to Park Street. And, Christmas celebration remains incomplete without Allen’s Park
Allen’s Park Christmas decoration of baby Jesus, mother Mary and the Magi adds to the whole holiday mood.
Allen’s Park light decorations are one of a kind.
Every year in December, Kolkata lights up and gets in a festive mood. For Kolkata, December means, cold winter mornings, Christmas and welcoming a new year while forgetting all the bad things that it has gone through in the previous year. No matter who you are, which community you belong to or even how busy you are, visiting Park Street in Christmas is a ritual for the people living in Kolkata, and this tradition has been there for quite a while. If you are having a mundane month and hoping to get involved in something cheerful, there’s no better place for you to be than Kolkata’s Park Street. Hoping Santa brings you everything you have wished for, here’s ED Times wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance.
Image Credits: Google Images and Author
Find The Blogger: @AyushArcher05
OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS :
