Orchard Road just lit up and got all dressed up for Christmas, so I made a date with hubby to go for a stroll and soak in the festive mood. Themed as "Christmas in Bloom", this year's iteration will see the shopping street set aglow with about 68km of fairy lights and oversized floral decorations, with some parts dressed with bold neon lights, spanning from Tanglin area till Dhoby Ghaut.
There's also a giant outdoor video projection as the highlight of this year's annual Orchard Road Christmas light-up. It takes up an entire wall of the Mandarin Orchard hotel and together with augmented reality, you can see the fireworks animation through a mobile app - PopAR.
The giant outdoor projection will be screened from Nov 1 to Jan 2, with a 10-minute 3D show from 8pm to 10.30pm daily. A virtual tour of the shopping street, which will start from Nov 19 through Jan 2, will also offer 360-degree views and feature performances by local buskers.
While, like last year, there will be no street activities and performances, there will be speakers put up on the stretch between ION Orchard and Ngee Ann City playing popular Christmas carols. From Nov 1, shoppers walking along the stretch will hear the tunes daily between 5pm and 10.30pm, extended to 12.30am for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.The 3.1km light-up will kick off on Nov 13, with seven weeks of festivities till Jan 2. The lights will be turned on from 6.30pm to midnight from Sundays to Thursdays, till 2am for Fridays and Saturdays, and stay on overnight on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, until 6am.
The 12m-tall main arch at the Scotts-Paterson road junction is always the highlight for me. This year, it is decked with colourful lights accentuated with red and rose gold poinsettias, a traditional Christmas flower that symbolises purity and mirth during this Christmas period.
Right next to the arch, is ION Orchard and this year their highlight is the huge Chanel Christmas tree, which if u scan the secret QR code, you can redeem a little gift at their boutique store in the shopping mall. The blue and gold lights combination makes the mall look so majestic at night.
Walking down the street brings us to Wisma Atria and this year their theme is Alice in Wonderland. Above their iconic lighted steps, you can find some friendly animals and forest land with a red Christmas tree waiting for your Insta-worthy shots.
Walking down to Ngee Ann City, was the AR projection that took attention, so after watching that, we crossed the road to Paragon and captured some pictures with the huge red Christmas tree.
Further down the as we enter the Cairnhill-Orchard road junction, the flowers on the gold arches changes to white Christmas roses. Creating another new sector as we approach 313@Somerset's magical fairytale-themed Christmas set...
After a little Christmas gift shopping, we headed down towards Orchard Gateway. We were anticipating for something grand as every year they seem to be the highlight of the street. Sadly we only found a lighted Christmas box at the entrance that you can walk in for a photoshoot. It was a little disappointing as the lighting was a little difficult to get a nice shot and a lot of people simply just walked past it.
**Updated**
Orchard Gateway haven't had their Christmas decorations up yet, so we went to town another day to get more pictures when we saw on Instagram that they had an "airport terminal" ready for North Pole.
In the mall, you can find a plane waiting area with baggage ready for Northbound, whereas outside along the mall, there's a pink lighted train parked right at Orchard Central Station, celebrating LOVE. :)
If only our MRTs were disco lighted too right? So, hopping off the "train", we came to Dhoby Ghaut to catch up on the latest POP MART Molly-s. Molly is a doll character created by Hong Kong designer Kenny Wong and because of her adorable large eyes and pouted lips, Molly soon gained fame. In recent years POP MART has collaborated with Molly and came up with tons of blind box series which drove the fans crazy.
If you are a fan of Molly too, you can find more collectibles on display at FUNAN too. Ok, so here's my little Orchard Road Light Up summary, of course there are more decorations to find around the heartland malls. Anywhere you think their Christmas decorations stands out too? Share them with us too.
Merry Christmas my Huneybees! May the festive season bring in love, warmth, fortune and health! 💓
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