People take selfies in front of Christmas decorations in Istanbul, Turkey, Dec. 22, 2020. (Photo by Osman Orsal/Xinhua)

Although Christmas Eve had already arrived on Thursday, Chinese vendors on Taobao.com were busy with orders for the holiday season, using promotions to grab the last chance for big sales ahead of the Chinese New Year in February. 

Ranging from Christmas trees and decorations favored in the West to apples and lanterns in Chinese style, traders and suppliers have been making full use of the holiday season. 

The development comes after a market rebound under China's strict but effective containment of the pandemic, which will likely make the country the only major economy to achieve growth in 2020.

This year's Christmas will be one to remember for traders and suppliers in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province, which distributes up to 80 percent of Christmas-related products to the world. Export orders were slashed up to 30 percent this year in the US and many parts of Europe amid the out-of-control pandemic that has hit market activities.

"Made-in-China Christmas products are sold every year, because many malls take this opportunity to do marketing, and this year has been no exception in a bid to stimulate domestic demand," Cai Qinliang, secretary-general of the Industry Association of Christmas Supplies in Yiwu, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Unlike the falling orders overseas, the domestic market has been doing fine for holiday goods, including those for Christmas.

Decorative boxes and packaging bags for apples, which are a symbol of peace and health in Chinese, sold particularly well for New Year's Eve and Christmas this year, with sales up about 20 percent, according to Cai. 

A Beijing-based Christmas tree and decoration trader told the Global Times on Thursday that domestic sales of Christmas-related items has slightly increased year-on-year, in contrast to the sliding volume of such items sold to the US and Europe.

"Except for Christmas trees, the most popular items are the decorations such as gift boxes, Christmas socks and hats, and decorations like hanging lights," said the trader.

"Because of the COVID-19 pandemic in some overseas countries, lots of ports are closed and foreign buyers cannot enter, which has caused the decrease in sales," said the trader.

Global Times reporters noticed that many vendors have begun a big pre-Christmas sale on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao.com that, in addition to a 10-percent discount on prices, will also give away colored lights.

Christmas trees are among the best-selling items online. One vendor in the Christmas tree business said that hundreds of buyers have contacted the company in recent weeks.

However, given the huge orders on hand and the tightened delivery time, the company has stopped taking new orders for any part of the country.

Other products are also involved in the season's promotional sales, with online vendors on Taobao.com doing promotional campaigns featuring Christmas presents, including Playboy watches and necklaces, Dove chocolates and flowers from the Netherlands.

To take further advantage of booming public consumption for holidays, Cai and his business partners have looked into goods for the Chinese New Year, which he expects will show an even greater boom in orders.