The SIA Brat Becomes A Local Tourist: Orchard Road Christmas Light-Up

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you’re having a good holiday and an awesome celebration with family and friends.

Christmas is celebrated in almost every country around the world. For most countries that means that everything is closed during the Christmas period. And for others, it’s just a good excuse to shop and be merry and partake in the festivities. That is why traveling during the Christmas season is a rather tricky business.

One year, when my parents had a big thing for road trips, we flew to Tasmania for the Christmas holidays. It was one of the hardest Christmases to get through. The absence of my boisterous relatives and the lack of restaurants opened on Christmas day (and boxing day) resulted in a very quiet and hungry Christmas. I remember my parents driving around for hours desperately looking for a restaurant to have our Christmas lunch at. We finally found one, just an hour before it too would be closed for the afternoon – it was a Chinese restaurant. No Christmas meal, just lunch. Oh well. Better to have some food than to go hungry for the rest of the day.

That said, Christmas is the perfect time to travel to countries in Europe, like Germany, the UK, and Czech Republic, for a white Christmas and to visit their famed Christmas Markets. Also, some countries really go all out with their Christmas decorations. I would also love to one day spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve in New York City! I think it’ll be pretty amazing to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and count down to the New Year in Times Square!

And if you’d like a quiet and reflective Christmas, you can consider Santorini. Last year, Christmas was spent with the best friend in Santorini. It was peaceful and quiet but I did find it a little lonely. You see, it was also the very first time I was spending Christmas without my parents. So this year, I decided to celebrate Christmas and New Year with family and friends in Singapore. I love my family gatherings!

Anyway, since I decided to stay in Singapore for Christmas, I spent many weeks taking photographs of the Christmas decorations that were put up in malls around Singapore. Well, I didn’t go to every mall, just the ones I was conveniently shopping at. So basically, when I see a Christmas tree I liked, I’d take close up photographs of the Christmas tree and its lovely decorations. Then I’d posted the photograph on Instagram and Twitter and asked my friends to guess which mall the trees and decorations were at. Here are the photographs and the answers…

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Hope you liked my gallery of pretty Christmas decorations. Truth be told I have never been one to walk up and down Orchard Road just to see the Christmas decorations. But for many, that’s a long time tradition. We don’t have snow or the white Christmas, but we have a yearly tradition that has gone on for 30 years. Hey! That’s just 1 year shy of my current age!

Yes, I’m talking about the annual Orchard Road Christmas Light-Up. It’s really quite something. Some tourists specially come to Singapore during the Christmas season just to take photographs of the decorations along the Orchard Road shopping belt. Of course this is not unique to just Singapore. Dressing up the streets with Christmas decorations is a common thing in countries around the world. Check out some of the amazing Christmas trees from around the world in the links below.

And to end of today’s post, here’s an interesting article published in The Huffington Post about the most unique Christmas Traditions around the world.

Have yourself a lovely Christmas everyone!

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What do you think?
Are you one of the tourists who visited Singapore’s Orchard Road just to see the Christmas decorations? Which is your favourite tree? If you have other photographs of this year’s trees, do share them with us! Which country’s Christmas Tree is a must see?