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by Kushani Ratnayake

Christmas is here again and this will be the first Christmas we are celebrating without any fear in our hearts after nineteen years of war. The roads have been reopened and people now move about freely.

According to shop owners and salesmen, business is picking up slowly and they are expecting more customers this time. Most of the shop owners are satisfied with their sales and said that they were looking forward to the New year. When asked about how business is faring after the peace process during this Christmas season, most of the shop owners said that their business is still in the process of improving and it is too soon to comment on anything.

Some employees at the CWE in Fort said that there is an improvement in their business. " This Christmas season we are hoping to have more customers and business has also improved," a spokesperson for the CWE said. "Compared to last year this time people have more freedom and more time to enjoy and less time to worry", he said."We get more customers because the roads have been reopened and it is easy for them to move about now.

That can be taken as a good sign" said another shop owner. Compared to last year business is now picking up slowly but steadily.

However most of the pavement hawkers said that their business has gone down.

"The roads have been reopened and we do not have a fixed place to sell the products and now people are too busy to look at pavement goods", a spokesperson said. Although there is no favourable increase in business some vendors agreed that they could live peacefully and have a peaceful Christmas this year.

"We can live in peace without any fear this time, we only hope that our business will improve with time", they said. For most of the shop owners this year business has been favourable and they hope that the peace process will continue. They said that peace is essential for the growth of the economy of the country.

Another feature is that most of the Sri Lankans living abroad have come home for the Christmas season, especially from Australia and New Zealand. Not only Sri Lankans but foreigners too can be seen walking about freely and enjoying themselves.

The shops and hotels have come up with novel ideas when it comes to decorations. The idea is to show people that this Christmas and New year well be a special one where one can enjoy themselves without any fear whatsoever.

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