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New year compositions in Mumbai: fir for January, not Gudi Padwa
New year compositions in Mumbai are sent for the night of 31 December into 1 January, not for Gudi Padwa, Maharashtra's own new year and a spring state holiday. The first decision is whether the fir is handed over at the door or stays on a table, and that choice sets the format to pick.
A gold box of fir for a Malabar Hill or Breach Candy tower
Malabar Hill counts among the city's wealthiest residential addresses. Breach Candy is a smart stretch of South Mumbai along the Arabian Sea. On a visit to a tower in either neighbourhood, fir is something you hand over, not something you put in a vase.
A gold box of noble fir, a bouquet of noble fir with berries, or a basket all fit that kind of call. Each is made to be handed over at the door as a present. For a bouquet rather than a box, see New Year bouquets.
Nobody rings the recipient ahead of time as a rule. The one exception is a building with no way in without a call, where the courier rings from the entrance.
Tabletop arrangements and the branch trees made from cut stems are the pieces that stay where they're put, on a table, a sideboard or a console rather than being carried room to room.
White flowers in Mumbai are more often chosen for sympathy than for celebration. A white bloom inside a winter piece sits more comfortably once it's balanced by red, whether that's red berries worked through the fir or a red branch tree standing beside it.
How long any of it holds up once Mumbai's own heat and humidity take over is covered on the flowers in Mumbai page.
Cream lettering for the 31st: bento cakes sent with noble fir
A bento cake is sized for one palm, boxed in plain cardboard, with a short line written in cream icing for whoever opens it.
New Year gifts is where noble fir and a bento cake travel in the same order, so the sweet and the greenery arrive together instead of as two separate deliveries. Fir itself belongs to the 31st; colleagues marking Diwali tend to exchange sweets and dried fruit instead.
Cream icing shouldn't sit out at room temperature for more than two hours, so it's worth timing the delivery close to when the cake will actually be eaten.
New year corporate gifts for a Lower Parel office tower
Lower Parel sits on what used to be mill land; the former plots now carry office towers, malls and offices; Nariman Point and BKC are the city's other financial centres.
An office delivery needs the company's name and the floor. Where the building runs a pass system, the box is handed to reception instead, and the sender is told who received it.
A New Year corporate gifts order can go to several office addresses at once, with delivery charged for each address. Companies are invoiced to the business rather than to a person, and closing documents are prepared on request.
Every composition is photographed before the courier sets off, and most orders reach the recipient the same day they're placed. The timing for each piece shows on its page; more on delivery.
For a visit, start with a gold box or basket of noble fir. A table that needs filling for the evening itself is better served by tabletop arrangements, red worked in against any white. Something sweet travels alongside the fir through New Year gifts, and a whole office gets covered in one order through New Year corporate gifts.