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hristmas will soon arrive followed by the new year. Jakarta’s malls, plazas and shopping centers are competing to make their most attractive and unique offers to usher in Christmas and new year with their designs, decorations, entertainment and great discounts.

In Jakarta, the center of Indonesia’s malls, the lively atmosphere of Christmas can already be felt when one enters the main entrance of Sarinah, Senayan City, Plaza Senayan, Plaza Semanggi, Plaza Indonesia, Grand Indonesia, Blok-M Plaza, Ciputra Mall, Kelapa Gading Mall, Pacific Place, Arion Mall, Cilandak Town Square, Pondok Indah Mall, Gandaria City and many others. These malls offer special themes and programs for this year’s Christmas and New Year. The Christmas tradition, which is associated with exchanging gifts, ornamental Christmas trees, Santa Claus and his reindeers have inspired the malls for their Christmas shopping promotions.

One example is Plaza Semanggi with its theme “Christmas Joy”. There is a parade led by Santa Claus followed by a marching band, juggler, magician and beautiful girls (finalists of Plangi Model Hunt 2011) going round the entire Plaza Semanggi singing Christmas carols while giving away free gifts to visitors. Other programs available at Plaza Semanggi are Christmas Caroling, Christmas Music performance, Meet and Greet with Santa, Christmas Choir and photos with Santa.

Ciputra Mall Jakarta is presenting a series of programs called “Voices of Angels” including Christmas carols sung in turns by dozens of choirs and popular artists for December 2011. To make the shopping here more lively Ciputra Mall Jakarta is presenting Friday Crazy Shopping (FCS) with a lucky draw of 50 units of BlackBerry Dakota and there is also Saturday Marathon Shopping with 60 32 inch LCD TVs as prizes.

Pacific Place Mall has the year end program called Sparkling Moments as holders of certain credit cards and debit cards will get a special discount and a lucky draw as well as two lucky dip coupons.
Winning the lucky draw means flying to and shopping in London and staying at The Dorchester. The other prize for the lucky draw is flying to and shopping in Sydney and staying at The Darling Hotel.

Meanwhile winning the lucky dip also means a chance of winning one among the following: four diamonds, four units of BlackBerry Dakota, various Etro products, North Pole dolls and still many others. Pacific Place Mall has prepared an entertainment program called “North Pole Christmas” where visitors can feel snow while watching a musical, posing with Santa Claus, a magic show, a Christmas choir and have photos taken at the photo booths.

Meanwhile at Plaza Indonesia customers get discounts of up to 80 percent. Also available is Late Night Shopping with free parking, Amazing Audi Draw, The Gift Gallery and Fashion Market. Plaza Indonesia’s theme for its Christmas program is “The Joy of Giving”.

There are still many more Christmas and New Year programs at Jakarta’s and other major cities’ malls with hundreds of giveaways for customers and visitors alike to draw as many shoppers as possible and to share the spirit of Christmas. At the same time huge discounts are available alongside various entertainment attractions. Visiting a mall nowadays is not about shopping, because recreation and entertainment is also on offer. And most importantly, malls provide the space and ambience for you to enjoy Christmas and new year with your family and loved ones.