Yesterday, February 3, Chinese people around the world celebrated the Year of the Rabbit, and Starbucks, which has been present in China since 1998, just couldn’t miss the opportunity to congratulate its fans on the colorful and boisterous holiday. The brand released a compilation of eastern music titled ‘World Is China’ as a precious gift to those who adore the eastern culture. The set comes as a valuable addition the globally-themed collection started by ‘World Is Africa’ and ‘World Is India’ CDs, which represent a diverse selection of recordings by several generations of local music artists.

Ahead of the upcoming St Patrick’s Day (17 March), brands are busy launching new products and editions to celebrate the big holiday. The Guinness beer and the Jameson whisky are traditionally considered as the most Irish trademarks, and they just couldn’t miss the date. As part of the upcoming celebration, the brands have announced two products which are totally dedicated to the holiday—HP Guinness Sauce, designed by leading London brand consultancy Bulletproof, and limited edition Jameson bottle, created in collaboration with acclaimed designer Paul Daly.

Ahead of Christmas, which is traditionally associated with something magical and surprising, Levi’s store in London got invaded by strange-looking festive denim toys. The shop-window of the brand’s Regent Street store was decorated by weird elves and polka-dot textile-wrapped walls and podiums (ерун also form a maze inside the venue), which are all crafted by London-based interiors designer, graphic and illustration artist Gary Card.

Beefeater Winter Gin, the latest limited edition by Beefeater, recently made its European Travel Retail debut in the main World Duty Free store in London Heathrow Terminal 3. Throughout November 2010 the limited edition, presented in a gift carton, was highly visible on a stand-alone podium in-store and was sampled as a new winter cocktail: Beefeater Winter Hot Apple Gin Punch.

This festive season, beer brands are demonstrating their dedication to classical Christmas songs and creating their own modern versions of festive tunes. Grolsch has recently unveiled its own adaptation of the ‘Oh, Christmas Tree’ (‘O Tannenbaum’) carol—the best known version of which was  written in 1824 by Leipzig-based teacher Ernst Anschütz (the melody is an old folk tune). The beer brand created a video Christmas card, which features the Swingtop Philharmonic Orchestra playing the iconic melody on green bottles.

December is all about getting ready for Christmas and sharing gifts with the ones you love. While giving presents to each other is something men can do quite easily, sharing deep emotions is usually a much tougher thing. Taking this theme as the key one for its new marketing push, Johnnie Walker collaborated with the BBH NY agency to release a tongue-in-cheek spots exploring this purely male characteristic. “Say it without saying it,” encourages the tagline of the smart holiday campaign, which is rolling out on the brand’s website.