{"id":30532,"date":"2025-12-07T15:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T15:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=30532"},"modified":"2025-12-07T15:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T15:04:11","slug":"christmas-comes-alive-in-karachi-at-festive-winter-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=30532","title":{"rendered":"Christmas comes alive in Karachi at festive winter market"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Karachi welcomed the festive season with a lively Christmas Market at Alliance Fran\u00e7aise de Karachi. Inspired by traditional European Christmas markets but infused with distinctly local colours, the one-day event drew large crowds from across the city.<\/p>\n<p>The venue was adorned in classic Christmas shades of red, white and gold, while live performances by Nixar Records, the St Anthony\u2019s Choir, and The In Time Band kept the audience entertained throughout the day.<\/p>\n<p>The storytelling segment featured Nida Farid, who presented The Extraordinary Life of Riz, a session warmly received by both children and adults.<\/p>\n<p>Food stalls offered an impressive mix of traditional and international tastes,\u00a0classic Christmas turkey, flatbreads, birria tacos and charcoal-grilled burgers to pani puri, dumplings, cinnamon rolls, brownies and Christmas-themed coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For families, the market served as an ideal weekend outing. Children took part in Santa\u2019s Treasure Hunt, Christmas crafts, mehndi, Pot-A-Plant and Spin the Wheel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Among the many stalls, one that stood out belonged to Genesis, a shelter home for girls who have survived forced conversions and early marriages.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Express Tribune, Genesis representative Sijal Shafique said:\u201cWe\u2019ve launched a small brand for these girls. They were once victims, but today they are survivors. They\u2019ve created small handicrafts\u2014bracelets and other items\u2014and they want to sell them so they can earn independently, regain confidence, and support their families.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said, \u201cThe beauty of this market is that although the organiser herself is Muslim, this is a Christmas Market and minorities are welcomed here with open arms. You don\u2019t usually see Christmas being celebrated like this in Pakistan, especially in Karachi. Here, people were singing carols together without any discrimination something rarely witnessed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sijal said that the event is inclusive in every way, \u201cIt\u2019s not only Christmas-themed products. You\u2019ll find regular clothes and everyday items as well. It\u2019s like any public festival where anyone can come and buy anything. We call it a Christmas Market simply because it\u2019s held during the Christmas season.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In conversation with The Express Tribune, the event organiser Irum shared the origins of the idea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe used to celebrate Christmas very casually. I\u2019m a Muslim myself, but our family always celebrated Christmas. Covid changed that, it forced us to stop and reflect. There was so much sorrow, loneliness and unemployment during that period, but women showed immense resilience and started small home-based businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to her, &#8220;Most of the businesses you see here today were launched during Covid by women. There\u2019s nothing imported, everything is local, handmade and authentically Pakistani.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added, \u201cThe transgender community is also present here. Since they don\u2019t have their own church, they created a separate space. We also have \u2018Jhankar\u2019, an organisation running an ambulance service for animals\u2014offering spay, neuter and vaccination before sending them back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe stall from Pakistan Navy\u2019s Special Children\u2019s School is extraordinary, these children create things with astonishing skill. Artisans from Thar like Sunita and Sangeeta are also showcasing their craft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anand Kumar from Tharparker said, \u201cWe\u2019ve created a unique line of hoodies by embedding traditional ralli patchwork into modern designs. This blend of heritage and contemporary style features patterns crafted by our artisans in Thar and Umarkot. We\u2019ve recently launched the collection, starting from Karachi, and we\u2019re now expanding to Islamabad and Lahore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The organiser emphasised the true essence of the market, The goal is simple: to support local small businesses and women.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Visitors expressed happiness that Karachi is increasingly embracing global traditions like festive markets, which not only enrich the city\u2019s cultural life but also promote harmony across religions and communities.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Karachi welcomed the festive season with a lively Christmas Market at Alliance Fran\u00e7aise de Karachi. Inspired by traditional European Christmas markets but infused with distinctly local colours, the one-day event drew large crowds from across the city. The venue was adorned in classic Christmas shades of red, white and gold, while live performances by Nixar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}