KARACHI: There was plenty of joy and good cheer, bringing together the diversity of the city, at the Christmas Market spread out on the Pakistan American Cultural Center (PACC) lawn on Saturday.

Organised by the Media Republic Team, the market comprised little stalls neatly lined around the lawn, selling cute Christmas tree ornaments, baked delights, jarred preserves such as pickles and chutney, bags, handicrafts, decoration pieces, woollen caps and little booties for babies, real as well as imitation jewellery, gemstones and cosmetics including moisturisers, lip balm, etc. There was also a Santa Claus present to note wish lists of the children.

Most of the sellers at the stalls wore reindeer headbands. Mehtab Tariq Pirzada also had pretty handmade reindeer ornaments, which could be hanged on a Christmas tree or could be used as a keychain. Everything at her stall was handmade, including the bags made from date palm leaves and spray painted, wall hangings and the felt and wool balls. “I’m 66 years old, living in an empty nest. And making handicrafts is my hobby. It keeps me busy and happy and now I’m also empowering artisans from Sukkur,” she said, adding that half of the proceeds from her stall go to the artisans.

At the Kiran Foundation stall, you met Saima Khatri and Tehmina Baloch, who said that they were mothers of children who attend the Kiran Foundation School in Lyari, and were brought into entrepreneurship by the school founder Sabina Khatri. The red rose hair clip combs at their stall were selling for Rs800 a piece making the ladies very happy.

At the MAGS stall, there were very reasonably-priced earrings and bracelets starting from Rs250 up to Rs450. The stall was set up by young Mariam Anis, who had designed and made most of the jewellery herself, and her parents Hina and Mohammed Anis. The stall also had some scented wooden bead bracelets made by the father.

Afsheen Asif at the corner Beads Desired stall was selling both real as well as imitation jewellery along with precious and semi-precious gemstones such as rubies, emeralds, sapphires, topaz, lapis, etc. There was silver jewellery and long beaded strands along with rings all for sale at her stall.

Mahnoor from Mahnoore’s Mirror Magic had a stunning collection of glass and mirror decoration pieces for sale. There was a decorated glass bottle which she had turned into a lamp, several hand painted wine glasses and vases ranging from Rs1,000 to Rs2,000. The cheapest thing at this stall had to be the prettiest mirror fridge magnets selling for Rs250 each.

At the Seen Meem stall, there were natural and chemical free cosmetics including moisturisers, body butters, lip balm, hair oil, soaps, etc, made with a lot of love and care that were very much appreciated in this cold and dry weather and were selling like hot cakes. Made for both men and women, the products also included beard oil.

Gourmet Christmas cookies baked by Faria Syed and sold at the Brittle Sweet stall finished too soon, as did her citrus stars made from grapefruit. She was only left with her hand-embroidered cushion covers to fall back on!

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2021