The bright Christmas lights around the city

HK is especially beautiful this time of year with all of the Christmas decorations up. I must have taken dozens of photos of the various decorations and displays around the city. Every year the malls and other tourists attractions try to draw in the largest crowds with the best displays. Here's around up of my favourite Christmas decorations for 2014.

#5 The LED maze at Shatin's New Town Plaza

Although not particularly a Christmas theme, these LED flowers(?) dangling outside of the maze are still very pretty (Photo: CathC) 

Hard to imagine this 8000ft^2 maze is actually on the roof of the mall (Photo: CathC)

#4 HK Skyline along the Victoria Harbour

The Christmas signage on the city's skyscrapers make the light show extra special (Photo: CharK)

#3 The multi-storey Christmas tree at Kwloon Tong's Festival Walk

You can take a photo with Santa Claus inside the castle at the base of this brilliant Christmas tree (Photo: Cath)

#2 Christmas Snoopy at Kwun Tong's APM

There are literally dozens of these life-sized Christmas Snoopy around the mall (Photo: CathC).

#1 The Christmas snow global outside Hysan's Place in Causesway Bay

The details on the house make the whole thing look so delicate (Photo: CathC)

Seeing these decorations make me extra happy during the festive season. Hope you've enjoyed them as well--Merry Christmas everyone!

Wandering around the HK brand and product expo

Today was my first time attending HK's annual produt and brand expo at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. The fair gathers around 2 million people (according to an SCMP report) every year as people are eager to get deals on everything from groceries (e.g. shampoo, sauces, and dried seafood) to electronics and cookware. This year on opening day one local firm offered their air conditioning units for 1 HKD for three lucky buyers.

Although the line was constantly moving, I was still in line for about 30 minutes (Photo: CathC)

Aside from deals on groceries, I was most interested in trying some street food. Something I was not expecting was darian flavoured egg tarts. I've tried the Portuguese egg tarts and milk tarts before, but darian was a new flavour. It had a very pungent smell and creamy taste like the filling in darian pancakes. 

I liked the creamy Portuguese tart on the top was better than the smelly darian one (Photo: CathC)

After dessert I moved onto the savory X.O. sauce white raddish cake. Not surprisingly the crowds to these food stall were pretty large. By 3pm the rice noddles were all sold out at one particular food stall. I love the fact that street food is just grab and go, that with all the people there the wait for a snack is minimal.

Braving the crowds for the street food stalls (Photo: CathC)

Spicy white raddish cake (Photo: CathC)

After fueling up with this and other street foods like tofu skewers and green apple ice cream I was ready to walk around to do some shopping. I was impressed by all the shopping carts that people were lugging around to stock up on groceries. Chinese woks were another popular item that people were buying. I ended up getting a variety of Chinese soup mix bags and some Macanese peanut candy, which were about 10~ off. Even though this trip didn't end up being a big haul it was still a fun even to walk around.

Lots of local HK companies and manufacturers set up booths at the event (Photo: CathC)

It's a Snoopy Christmas

The malls are filled with Christmas decorations once again and the Snoopy Display at Kwun Tong's APM is my favourite so far. What's great about the display is that aside from Snoopy, his siblings; Andy, Marbles, Olaf, Spike; and Belle were also featured.

I thought the toddlers standing among the dozens of life-sized Snoopys made for an adorable photo-op--so did most of the families there. There was a constant stream of parents waiting to have a close-up of their kids and the Peanuts Gang.

Seeing these life sized Peanuts characters made my day (Photo: CathC)

I also liked the fashionable Snoopys and Belles that were on display. Famous designers like Nina Ricci and Enrico Coveri put together outfits for the famous duo. These outfits were so colorful and fun!

Snoopy and Belle are dressed by famous fashion designers (Photo: CathC)

Nearly 2-storey tall Snoopy Christmas tree (Photo: CharK)

In addition to the Christmas display, various Snoopy models were placed around the mall. I came across another one featuring Snoopy from different decades. I was surprised to see how different 1950s Snoopy was from the rest. He looks very young to me, almost like a puppy compared to the others!

Snoopy through the decades--1950s Snoopy looks so young compared to the others (Photo: CathC)

The Snoopy display was a nice way to start off the competition for holiday displays. Can't wait to see what else is in store for the reason of the season!