Residents celebrated Christmas by chilling out with family and friends at popular hangouts in the city after taking part in the Midnight Mass and the morning prayer service in the churches.
Revellers swarmed malls, the zoo and other hotspots to soak in the spirit of the season. At 12.30pm on Sunday, a serpentine queue had formed outside the P&M Mall for entry. Asharam Singh, the mall's chief security officer, said around 20,000 people had visited the mall by that time.
"The queue for entering the mall will be much longer in the evening. Last year also, we saw huge footfall during Christmas with around 60,000 people visitors. It seems that last year's record would be broken this year," he said.
Thirty bouncers had been deployed to manage the security system on the occasion, Singh added..
Sweta Kumari, a bank employee who was out celebrating with her friends Garima Gaurav and Mahima, said they chose to visit P&M Mall instead of any other place to celebrate the occasion because of the ambience, food and the chance to indulge in shopping under one roof.
"The mall is decked up with Christmas trees, fairy lights and sparkling stars and peppy Bollywood numbers are being played in the background. We wouldn't have found such ambience at any other place in the city. So we thought of coming here," said Sweta, who was busy taking selfies with her friends in front of the giant Christmas tree the mall had set up.
The Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal turned out to be a hot favourite among Christmas revellers.
Cinepolis officials revealed that all shows of the film were running houseful till afternoon.
"We are running 15 shows of Dangal in our multiplex and so far, the shows are going houseful. Moreover, 99 per cent bookings for the night show have already been done," said a Cinepolis official who requested anonymity.
He added that the multiplex was also running one show each of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Befikre.
"While 98 per cent bookings have been made for the Befikre show, the Hollywood movie has not garnered good response with only 60 per cent tickets sold," he added.
Patna Central Mall also tapped into the jolly season with its Christmas carnival.
The highlights of the event were fun games organised by an event management company. In one of the games, the participants had to eat biscuits kept on their forehand without using their hand (none of the five participants could accomplish the challenge).
In another game, the participants had to pick up a handkerchief with their elbows and put it in a bowl kept at a certain distance.
People were given prizes at the end of the event. The anchor, Ali Waris Khan, kept the spirits high by cracking jokes in between.
"It was fun participating in the game in which I had to pick up handkerchief with my elbows to finally put it into a bowl," said Nitish Pandey, who came second in the game.
Some city schools had also put up Christmas cribs on their premises, which were a crowd-puller.
St Xavier's High School was one of the schools which allowed outsiders to see the crib it had set up.
Many Christian families ended the day's celebrations with house parties for their dear ones.
"We have prepared plum cakes and our traditional non-vegetarian recipes to serve our guests," said Mervyn D'Souza, a Digha resi-dent. "Fruit juices and cold drinks will replace alcohol in this year's celebrations."
