Excellent Stores launches Xmas 2019

It's almost that most wonderful time of the year – Christmas – and Excellent Stores is kicking it off in grand style this year.

Known for its wide range of decorations, Excellent Stores launched Christmas 2019 at its Trincity Mall store last Friday.

Titled True Spirit of Christmas, the launch featured the decorating skills of 18 decorators who showed off their work in the stores' windows at Trincity Mall, Movietowne and C3.

Director of marketing and E-Commerce at Excellent Stores Lisa Siu Chong said they decided to amp up the campaign this year.

"When you think Christmas you think Excellent Stores and decorations," she said. "We've been doing this for 60 years now and we wanted to go back to classic retail, to show windows which bring people together, where people can come and it is a destination. Families can go out and come to Excellent Stores and look at the windows.

"People go down memory lane, because there is something about windows that inspires feelings and brings back memories and brings that true spirit of Christmas in people. It's the magic of Christmas, really."

The 18 finalists were chosen from dozens of candidates who sent in their portfolios after Excellent Stores launched a competition. The entrants were given this year's theme and featured products which they had to incorporate in their designs. No one saw the finished windows until the reveal on Friday night.

Sui Chong said, "It is a huge deal for them, because there are a lot of new decorators, and also just Christmas enthusiasts. Some of them are using it as a platform to advertise themselves, because the whole country is going to be watching. It is the exposure a lot of them are looking forward to."

Siu Chong said the winners will be announced on November 30. The first prize is $60,000, second prize $30,000 and third prize $10,000.