Custom-made Christmas cheer

CHENNAI: True red-whi te-g reen Christmas cheer can mean different things to different people. But, it always helps to have some staples — a beautifully-lit tree, an upbeat choir, soul-filling short eats, the perfect egg nog, and a good outfit (it comes down to a sari or deep red sweater for me) — to create your own kind. The Leela Palace, on Saturday, offered just that to its guests when it opened the curtains on the festive season with the traditional tree-lighting ceremony.

All it took was an age-old wooden lever and the hands of an infant (ably assisted by the mother) to get the celebrations going. Rest assured, there’s plenty more to come! The tree — huge, snow-covered (if only in paint) and adorned with the choicest of lights and ornaments — now fills up a good part of the main lobby of the hotel. Despite its festive glory, the tree has been with the hotel for decades, remarks Lotika Sharma, the hotel’s public relations manager.

Just as the tree had stood witness to several guests and many tidings over the years, it now stands as a symbol of recovery for the hotel, whose staff and patrons — like so many others around them — have weathered this difficult year. Amid all this, the Christmas cheer was just what the doctor ordered, it seems. “That is what we want to do — bring some cheer.

We know that people have missed us while they were at home. So, we want to get normalcy back as much as possible and touch their lives as much as we can, in whichever way we can,” says Lotika. It is for this reason that the hotel’s Christmas celebrations will remain un - changed, except for the additional measures put in place for the still-prevalent virus. Their restaurants are open but running at 50 per cent capacity.

For those who can’t make it there, they have made sure that delivery is never a problem — right down to making turkey-onthe- go a real thing. While the tree lighting ceremony marked the first of occasions, it was done with plenty of care for the guests gathered. For one, there were fewer patrons than usual who had been invited, just so there won’t be overcrowding.

Masks were insisted on staff and guests alike. Food on call was a menu of curated short eats, ensuring that the guests wouldn’t find themselves taking off the masks for too long to have them. In the Saturdays to come, they are set to host a gingerbread house decoration session (one that’s very popular among kids), Breakfast with Santa, and the Christmas Day programme itself (though this is on a Friday).

“Our festivities are in place! We want to be as normal as possible but while maintaining precaution, of course. If you want some cheer, to look forward to something, to go ahead into 2021 in a festive mode and look for the brighter light across the tunnel , then there’s something for everyone,” she concludes. Feliz Navidad to you too!