If you haven’t been looking for a while into the christmas-photo section of my photo album it might we worth going there again. In recent times I have been discovering some new festive illuminations in downtown Berlin. So in addition to the old material there are some new photos to look at.
Traditionally, this monday is the day when the special christmas illuminations of places and buildings will be switched on and most of the christmas markets will start in Berlin. So, whats new this season? Basically all the markets will be in the same places as they used to be the years before. Concerning the christmas lights Berlin-Pankow decided to put up some illumination too this time and the Gendarmenmarkt has these nice looking stars to offer.
Jeez, why is this city in such a hurry? We just had christmas a little while ago and the new year isn’t that old either but the city shuts down christmas lights wherever they can. Did they figure that all tourists visiting for the holidays are gone anyway now and Berliners don’t care? Kurfürstendamm: pulled the plug, Friedrichstrasse: darkness, just the trees at Unter den Linden are still lit up. In my old hometown they waited at least a little while more until they shut down the lights. I mean, yes, Berlin is bankrupt, but *not* that bankrupt? Seems to be a common phenomenon here in this town since Berliners obviously are in a hurry too to throw out their christmas trees. Sidewalks are just full of them.
Well, I guess I have to enjoy myself with other lit up places, for instance this building 
In these difficult times concerning business and trade the companies got obviously a little bit wiser. Instead of reducing services and offers - one of the favorite measurements before, some of them apparently realized, that it is good to invest more to animate the customer to buy things again. One of the latest examples is the increase of christmas lights at the boulevards in Berlin. They used to reduce the amount of lights cause they needed to save the money they said but now, this time, there is much more to be seen than there was the years before and what a surprise: Newspaper articles talk about good business for the shops because obviously during these gray and dark days people like to come downtown to look at all the christmas lights and - buy.
