Holiday light displays brighten dull gray winter

11 December 2012

BEIRUT: Public Christmas trees and holiday lights have begun to brighten the dull winter gray around Lebanon. Nativity scenes depicting the birth of baby Jesus sit under corner stores across Ashrafieh; giant decorated trees invite shoppers into Beirut’s malls; and lights from blue to gold light up municipality squares – all heralding in Christmas and the New Year.

“It’s happiness,” said Alice Edde, who with her husband owns the Edde Sands resort in Jbeil, among other sea-town enterprises. “It takes the morosity out of a gray winter day.”

Indeed the thousands of blue lights strung across the busy Charles Malek Highway through Ashrafieh brighten the dark evenings – even in the after-work, bumper-to-bumper traffic. The same goes for Hamra Street, where swirling red and white decorations adorn the street lamps.

Walking through Downtown Beirut, revelers can do a tour of a Beiruti Christmas starting at Zaitunay Bay. The upscale marina held an official tree lighting ceremony over the weekend with Beirut Mayor Bilal Hamad.

Drawing thousands to the ceremony, the strip of luxury eateries and shisha haunts boasts a tree worthy of its location. The towering fake pine, which shifts in color from green and red to purple and blue, is decked from top to bottom in Swarovski crystals.

A short ways away, Beirut Souks has also decorated with golden spheres, potted poinsettias and brightly lit trees.

Salam Salloum, supervisor of the decorations’ installation, said that for the best display check out the area around the Balthazar restaurant, where the holiday lights mix with the Souk’s stone sculptures.

And on the second floor of the Souks, a Christmas village full of gingerbread men, fuzzy red hats and Santa Claus have set up shop for the remainder of the month.

“It’s a festive month, it’s nice in such a place to do something different that grasps people’s attention,” Salloum said. “This is a month known to be related to gifts, to bringing kids to see Santa Claus, so it’s very nice to do decorations and we try every time to be a little different.”

Salloum noted the elegance and beauty of focusing on lights to decorate a space as opposed to unlit decorations. Municipalities from Sidon to Jbeil seem to agree as thousands of LED lights have given city squares an attractive lift.

For instance, giant spheres brighten the main roads, and light spills out of fountains in LED streams at the local squares of Jdeideh and Zahle.

In Dikwaneh, strings of lit stars spiral up into the shape of a Christmas tree. The holiday decorations around Lebanon give families something to do with small children, who enjoy marveling at the sparkling scenes.

In Muslim-majority areas the spirit of Christmas shines nevertheless in festive public decor, like the city of Sidon – where a giant traditionally decorated tree sits at the city center – or Hamra’s brightly lit main road.

The prize for the best-lit city goes to Jbeil. Its central strip houses dramatic Roman ruins aside rows and rows of holiday decorations: Christmas characters, LED deer, glowing green conical trees and massive signs reading “Merry Christmas.”

Strings of lights in festive motifs grace the city from the ruins of the Jbeil castle to the old city Souk.

“I just saw they’ve done the Christmas nativity scene – this year Byblos is so tasteful,” Edde said.

“It’s spectacular.”