Santa Claus, festive carols, warm drinks and puckering up under the mistletoe - Shanghai gets ready to celebrate Christmas. Yu Ran and Wu Ni tell you the hot spots.

With jingle bells set to ring next week, the city of Shanghai is making preparations to welcome the arrival of Santa by lighting Christmas trees, holding special events and opening Christmas markets.

There are a lot of activities coming up for local people to feel the warm Christmas atmosphere in a cold winter in well-known locations around the whole city.

Surrounded by twinkling Christmas lights, The Peninsula Shanghai's skating rink is tucked into a pine tree winter wonderland and bathed in festive music. Photos provided to China Daily

A glass Christmas tree, in the central atrium of Life Hub, is an eco-friendly creation made from recycled glass.

Let's check some of them out.

Merry KissMas in Xintiandi: It has been a tradition that artists are invited to create Christmas-themed installations in Xintiandi, a renowned landmark in the city. They will be working with Paul Cocksedge's studio from London to introduce an interactive lighting installation KISS, which is activated by human touch in the form of a kiss.

Featuring artistic lighting and ingenious technology, KISS will bring people a warm and sweet Christmas with a unique romantic atmosphere to greet the coming New Year.

The tree was lit up by a kiss from a Chinese celebrity couple and a kiss from a Chinese actor and his son on Nov 21. It is continuously collecting kisses from passersby to help raise money for the Smile Angel Foundation, which helps Chinese children with birth defects.

KISS was first staged in Milan in 2010 and London in 2011, where during Christmas there is a tradition of kissing under a plant called mistletoe. Cocksedge has integrated some elements into KISS in Shanghai by obtaining inspiration from the city flower of Shanghai and combining it with the traditional mistletoe, the symbol of Christmas, thus blending Chinese with Western cultures to create something exclusive for the city of Shanghai.

The kisses will not only spark lights vertically on the tall Christmas tree but lights will also spread out horizontally on the trees beyond, reflecting the traditional architecture

"This light installation creates a beautiful festival sight with artistic inspiration and love. Lovers, friends or relatives can light up Christmas through the simple but powerful gesture of a kiss," says Cocksedge.

In addition, Xintiandi presents a series of exciting festival performances on weekends, including French Art Birds Union's grand stilts tour and French puppet shows.

A touch of glass in the Life Hub: Perhaps the city's only glass Christmas tree is set in the central square of Life Hub, an open-space shopping area with abundant boutiques and restaurants.

The 6.5-meter-tall glass tree is made of more than 100 pieces of handmade triangle glass, boasting creativity in design and a spectacular visual effect, according to its creator, Shelly Xue, a renowned Chinese artist in glass design.

"Glass as a material features the characteristics of transparency, which means it works with the light and produces different shades of colors when the light varies," Xue says.

"There are various designs on Christmas trees, and many of them shine at night, but not that brightly in the daytime. By choosing glass as the material, we hope the tree also shines during the day."

The glass Christmas tree presents a green between emerald and olive, a color that Xue finally chose after testing a dozen shades of green, in order to make the tree compatible with the surroundings. LED lights were installed behind the glass.

Inside the triangles are numerous tiny glass beads, which were recycled from wasted glass, such as broken beer bottles, making the whole project an eco-design, she says.

Glass is seldom used in outdoor decorations, considering its fragility and safety risks. To avoid the shortcomings, Xue used tough glass, which is not easy to shatter, and the edge of the glass was polished to be sleek.

Xue got a doctoral degree in glass art in the United Kingdom and set up a glass studio at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art at Fudan University in 2007.

She and other artists teach glass art classes every weekend in December in the Life Hub. Children can learn how to make a Christmas gift with colorful glass beads.

The Christmas market by the Huangpu River: From Dec 7 to Jan 5, the Christmas market is held alongside the east dock of Huangpu River in the shape of a theme park combining China's New Year celebration with a traditional, festive European bazaar.

A series of exciting events, delicious traditional food and entertainment facilities are coming up while Santa will walk around the park distributing candy.

An evening "looking for love" tour was organized for singles to find their Mr or Mrs Right in the romantic Christmas theme park by the riverside on Dec 12.

On Christmas Eve, a big music show will be held, featuring traditional Christmas songs and inviting everyone to have a drink and enjoy the wonderful night by the river.

Throughout the whole month, themed parties are held at 7 pm every Friday and Saturday. Cosplay activities will be around the venue between 4 pm and 6 pm every Saturday.

Children ages 5-10, who were born on Dec 25, are welcome to apply to attend the Christmas babies' party in the market to celebrate a special birthday together.

To end the exciting festival, a huge zombie fair will be organized with cute and interesting costumed zombies running around the market to play, dance and take photos with tourists.

The outdoor skating rink in Puxi Shanghai: The skating rink of the Peninsula Shanghai, the only outside skating rink in Puxi, was unveiled along with the Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Nov 29 as a Christmas pre-celebration.

The 200-square-meter ice rink is located at the Culture Square of Waitanyuan, right on The Bund. The Peninsula's ice rink is one of the highlights of the 2013 The Magical Waitanyuan, a first-ever celebration jointly staged by buildings in Waitanyuan.

Surrounded by twinkling Christmas lights, the rink is tucked into a pine tree winter wonderland and bathed in festive music.

The Peninsula Shanghai's skating rink is open daily, beginning from Nov 29 until Jan 3, including holidays, depending on weather conditions.

It will be a great place for families with children and also a group of friends to spend a special Christmas skating on the ice.

The ice rink is priced at 100 yuan ($16) per person per hour, including use of skates and one hour of free parking at the Peninsula Shanghai. All proceeds will be donated to the supporting charities of the Peninsula Shanghai. They include Raleigh China, the Library Project, Cerecare and Included (formerly known as Compassion For Migrant Children).

Other activities: To unveil its celebrations for the festive season, Pudong Shangri-La, East Shanghai staged a Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Dec 6. Internationally renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama designed the patterns for the Christmas tree to be displayed in the lobby, which will be decorated by famous fashion designer Lu Kun.

Pudong Shangri-La, East Shanghai is honored to decorate its Christmas tree using the artist's iconic polka dots, management says. Hotel guests can attend the exhibition for free. Moreover, guests are encouraged to donate 198 yuan to receive a VIP card to MOCA Shanghai.

Kusama, who's world-renowned as the "avant-garde queen", will also bring her Asia tour exhibition A Dream I Dreamed to the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai (MOCA) on Dec 15. It will be the only stop and her first large-scale public appearance on the Chinese mainland.

Parkside Plaza at Changfeng presents the Garfield 35th Anniversary and Christmas Celebration with residents and visitors in Shanghai from Dec 1 to Jan 1.

Garfield exhibits pop up all over the Parkside Plaza at Changfeng to celebrate a Christmas dinner with "you" at the Outdoor Atrium; a 5-meter-high gigantic Garfield Christmas tree at the 1/F Atrium; a 35th Anniversary Garfield birthday cake and a series of the first-hand release handwritten comic strips by Jim Davis at the 2/F Atrium; and various "Garfield and friends" photo panels at 3/F and 4/F of Parkside Plaza at Changfeng.

By the end of 2013, winemaker Freixenet will create a limited-edition box with the splendid 1.5-liter Freixenet Cordon Negro Bottle and a Golden pen for Freixenet fans, including KOLs and some celebrities. Inside the box, there will be a golden pen to write your fabulous New Year wishes on the bottle then share it with the world.

Contact the writers at yuran@chinadaily.com.cn and wuni@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 12/15/2013 page9)