A nip in the air, shops flooded with Xmas trees of all sizes, gifts and plum cakes, all 26 churches decked up — the steel city is ready for Christmas.

On Christmas-eve Tuesday, almost all churches in the steel city were set to start their first prayer service between 10.30pm and 11.30pm. On Christmas Wednesday, Morning Mass will begin around 6.30am. An evening prayer service will be held around 7.30pm.

The St Joseph’s Cathedral in Golmuri, the biggest church here, is expected to have a crowd of 2,000 during Midnight Mass on Tuesday. There are seven Roman Catholic churches in Jamshedpur, at Golmuri, Bistupur, Telco, Sonari, Parsudih, Kitadih and Mango.

For many churches, Christmas celebrations also includes the joy of giving. For instance, each member of the Bistupur’s St Mary’s Church pooled in items to be donated to the poor for the second consecutive year. “We get a lot of satisfaction from organising this activity,” Father Edward Saldanha, parish priest of St Mary’s Church, told The Telegraph. “Anybody can come to us and donate clothes, woollens, food grains, shoe, toys and whatever they wish to for the poor. Some members of the church specially look into this philanthropic work. In fact, we distributed the donated items on Christmas-eve today (Tuesday),” Father Saldanha said.

He added that recipients apart, those who had donated food or their old articles of clothing felt equally happy. “It’s the miracle of Christmas.”

Shoppers had a field day on Tuesday. While Santa caps for anywhere between Rs 20 and Rs 399, musical Santa and toys between the range of Rs 149 and Rs 349 proved to be most popular, Christmas trees catered to all budgets from Rs 59 to Rs 7,000. Many picked up Christ and Mother Mary mementos and showpieces starting from Rs 399, or crib sets ranging between Rs 600 and Rs 750 as Christmas gifts. Among innovative gifts are a Christmas fountain available for Rs 1,500 and Christmas lamps for Rs 125.

Shankar Das, a representative of Vijay Bhandar in Bistupur, said they were selling Santa caps “like hotcakes”. “Everyone, including non-Christians, are buying Santa caps. This apart, showpieces within Rs 500 also have takers. We are also offering attractive discounts on selected products,” Das said.

City hotels have also jumped on the Yuletide bandwagon with Christmas dinners. Hotel Ramada in Bistupur will host a gala Christmas dinner at its Jampot Coffee Shop. The Boulevard Hotel, on Bistupur Main Road, has organised special decorations. It had hosted a carols on Monday.