Santa in modern mode for last yuletide of millennium
SANTA drove a Jeep, and carnival clowns entertained revellers while some people slipped across the border for a cheaper Christmas as the SAR celebrated the last yuletide of the millennium.
Seasonal lights attracted big crowds in Tsim Sha Tsui, and Santa's grottoes across town did a roaring trade.
Father Christmas swapped his sleigh for a Jeep to drive to the Duchess of Kent Children's Hospital in Sandy Bay to hand out presents to beaming children. The children received an extra seasonal treat as the year-long ban on junk food was lifted for Christmas.
Children in Mongkok joined a street parade with acrobatic clowns accompanied by singing and dancing troupes, while some revellers chose to spend the holiday season across the border on the mainland.
'I can pay less to consume more across the border,' one woman returning from a big day out in Shenzhen said.
Others chose to stay at home, throw parties and open their presents.
Shops reported a healthy turnover as the economy begins to show signs of recovery.
A spokesman for Wellcome said: 'The Christmas season isn't over yet but so far we are satisfied.' Catholic and Protestant leaders sent out Christmas greetings and hundreds attended Midnight Mass at St Joseph's Cathedral.
'It is with this unity and joy that we enter into a new millennium - a new era,' Catholic Cardinal John Baptist Wu Cheng-chung said in his Christmas pastoral letter.
Safer streets seemed to be the gift for Macau a week after its handover to Chinese rule and the arrival of the PLA.
'I feel it's safer to walk on the streets this Christmas,' said one casino patron. 'Maybe it's because of the presence of the PLA. I'm certainly more at ease.'
