The festive season is usually a boom time for Hong Kong’s retailers, restaurateurs and bar owners. But this year, many in the protest-rocked city are fighting for survival.

Demonstrations on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which started as a deliberate attempt to disrupt festive shopping, were just the latest blow in eight months of unrest that have scared off visitors and devastated Hong Kong’s main retail and tourist attractions.

It was clear even in November, when protesters set a Christmas tree on fire in the busy Festival Walk mall, that this season was going to be brutal for Hong Kong retailers — the mall will be closed until some time in the first quarter next year, according to its owner Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust.