After a long 11 months, people are now waiting for one of the year’s biggest holidays – Christmas. Although not as big as in some countries, the holiday is celebrated in South Korea, too. Several celebrations in the country are assisted by various technologies, from buying cakes to sending Christmas wishes to dear friends.

Booking Cakes and Presents via Apps

Like in other countries, sales of shopping platforms go up during the Christmas season, with people buying presents for themselves or their close ones. Purchasing a cake, most of all, is a must for a photo worthy of uploading on Instagram. The platform is one of the most-used social media apps in the country, with almost half of the South Korean population being active users, according to Statista.

If not booked in advance, cakes from popular shops cannot be obtained for Christmas, regardless of price. With the “small luxury” trend gaining the attention of many this year, many cakes within the price range of 200,000 to 300,000 won (US$190 to 230) introduced by well-known hotel chains are reportedly sold out at the time of writing.

While several shops take holiday cake booking requests on Instagram or other social media platforms, many direct customers to apps like Catch Table. Some cake makers, like the Korean coffee shop chain Twosome Place, receive bookings on their apps. On these apps, you select the type of cake you want, the size, pick-up date, and pay via bank transfer, credit card, or fast checkout methods like Naver Pay.

For people concerned about not being able to get presents for little ones for special occasions, some shopping malls take reservations for toy gift purchases as well. This year, Toys R Us in South Korea took reservations for present purchases from November 30 to December 6, offering Christmas-exclusive products and up to 50 per cent off for a selection of toys. The reservations could be made online on the franchise’s website.

Decorating Cyber Christmas Trees

When the pandemic hit the country, people came up with various ways to celebrate the biggest holiday in December online. Although most celebrations have returned offline, one remains a Christmas celebration on social media, like X (formerly known as Twitter), and that is decorating a cyber Christmas tree for friends.

Colour My Tree, developed by a project group, Santa Five, is a website where users can create their Christmas trees and share the link to them with their connections on social media. Through the link, users can decorate other people’s trees with ornaments of their choice. They can also put a title to each ornament they put in and write a personal message for the recipient. The tree owner can only see the titles of these decorated ornaments and open the messages on the day of Christmas.  

Events on Internet Banks

Some internet banks or banks with banking apps launched Christmas-themed events to attract more users in South Korea.

For example, Kakao Bank, one of the largest internet banks in the country, announced a Christmas 26-week savings account in collaboration with the coffee chain Twosome Place this month. If a user of this account successfully transfers money into this Christmas savings account for 26 consecutive weeks, the bank gives food and drink coupons that can be used at Twosome Place.

Several banks have daily check-in events, promising prizes for those who visit their apps during the month of December.

K Bank, an online banking company run by the telecommunication service giant KT Corporation, offers free prizes for users who log into the app daily. Each user receives an in-app Christmas wreath to decorate, and they obtain an ornament – like snowflake stars – for every fifth check-in. They also give a range of cash prizes depending on the number of check-in days, from 1,000 to 2 million won.

Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK Bank) does a similar check-in event, giving cash prizes to people who visit their app more than five times during Christmas.