At the end of each year, Orchard Road will be having the Orchard Road Christmas Light Up. The popular shopping belt will be filled with bright beautiful lights, Christmas trees and holiday-themed outdoor decorations for one and a half months in the lead up to Christmas Day. Here’s the scoop on the 2015 edition of this exciting and festive annual light up.
The Orchard Road Christmas Light Up 2015 At A Glance
The Orchard Road Christmas Light Up has been a yearly affair for the popular shopping district and not only will the streets be dressed up in Christmas colours, Orchard malls will also have their own take on Christmas.
They will compete with one another to win the title of the ‘Best-Dressed Building’ awarded by the Orchard Road Business Association, an organization whose aim is to promote Orchard Road.
Different Colours Over Different Sections of Orchard Road
This year’s edition of the Orchard Road Christmas Light Up features something that’s not really seen in previous years. The light up will be split to various “sections” with each having their own unique colours and ornaments suspending over the streets of Orchard Road and along the pedestrian walkways.
For example, at the Dhoby Ghaut and Tanglin area, there was a theme of 2D Christmas trees being hung by blue-lit wires over the streets and pedestrian walkways. Whereas at the Ngee Ann City and Somerset area, different colours were being used and uniquely-shaped Christmas ornaments were used instead of the 2D Christmas trees.
Although the decorations may not be as elaborate as the previous years, the ‘themes’ made the Orchard Road Christmas Light Up more lively and add to the variety which gave everyone more opportunities to take photos.
‘Leafless Christmas Trees’ And Christmas Bells
Apart from the hanging 2D Christmas trees and ornaments, the lampposts were dressed with lit 3D Christmas bells and so-called ‘leafless’ Christmas trees which were lit as well.
I like that the Christmas trees were glowing blue and decorated with oversized ornaments with various shapes and sizes. They certainly bring a creative twist to the traditional Christmas trees.
Giant Disco Balls at the Mandarin Gallery
Almost every mall in Orchard Road had their own take on Christmas. Mandarin Gallery made use of giant disco balls and ‘leafless’ Christmas trees similar to the ones found at the pedestrian walkways to decorate the mall.
I find the use of giant disco balls interesting considering that disco balls have nothing to do with Christmas. Maybe it’s because they’re shiny and evokes a sense of nostalgia? Still, props to Mandarin Gallery for using a seemingly non-Christmas related item to dress up their mall.
A Giant Christmas Tree at Paragon
Is it a trend to have gigantic Christmas decorations? At Paragon, located opposite the Ngee Ann City shopping mall, they have a giant Christmas tree populated with yellow lights and giant grey and glittery ribbon wrapped around it.
There were also some decorations which resembled Christmas presents with balloons attached to it giving the impression that the Christmas presents will ‘float’. The tree was popular among passers-by with many of them posing in front of the tree and snapping a picture of themselves with it.
Ice Palace at Orchard Gateway
At Orchard Gateway, one of the newest malls to open in Orchard Road, had this idea of having icicles at the entrance of the mall. The icicles were also accompanied by a snowman and some “fake” birds on top of the icicle tower giving the impression that they are flying near the top of the structure.
Just like the giant Christmas tree at Paragon, this too attracted a lot of passers-by attention. Many of them were busy snapping away at the icicles and icicle structure. What I like about the decorations is that not only does it resemble a bit like an ice palace, but the fact that they reused it for Chinese New Year (for example, they swapped the snowman for the God Of Fortune). The mall even won the Voter’s Choice for the Best Dressed Building award.
Christmas Village at Ion Orchard
As usual, Ion Orchard never fails to impress with their elaborate take on Christmas. For this year, they created a so-called ‘Christmas Village’ at the space beside the Orchard MRT station entrance. It was filled with brightly-lit reindeers, conical Christmas trees, a small merry-go-round and Santa’s sleigh.
It was popular among passers-by, especially children with many of them playing at the merry-go-round. It seems that most of the malls love to adorn their Christmas decorations with blue and white colours instead of the traditional green and red.
Swarovski Christmas Tree
Apart from the Christmas Village, Ion Orchard has this practice of having a tall Christmas tree near the entrance of the mall that lets anyone enter in to see the interior. If you’ve been inside, you can see all the beautiful lights that line the tree and listen to Christmas music playing. Some years back, they had a bell on the “ceiling” of the tree and a rope hanging from above which lets anyone ring the bell.
Apparently, they removed it sometime back. What’s unique about the tree is that the whole tree is sponsored and adorned by Swarovski, a luxury crystal maker. It’s too bad that I did not manage to enter the tree on time. It’s still a beautiful tree though.
Ion Orchard’s Charity Christmas Trees
Inside Ion Orchard’s level 1 atrium, several designer Christmas trees were available with iPads attached on them. Apparently, these Christmas trees were auctioned off with proceeds being donated to the Community Chest, a charity organization that mainly serves underprivileged children.
The highest bidders of the Christmas trees got to take home vouchers and products of the brands that sponsored the trees. As Christmas is not only about receiving, it’s also about giving which makes this initiative a great initative. What better way to spread the Christmas cheer than to spread happiness to underprivileged school children.
More Christmas Trees In Orchard Road
There were so many Christmas trees lined at Orchard Road that I can’t possibly talk about each and every one of them. So here are some interesting ones that I found at places like Forum The Shopping Mall, Ngee Ann City, Orchard Central and Tang Plaza.
Conclusion
2015’s Orchard Road Christmas Light Up just got even bigger and better. Although the lights were not as elaborate as the previous years, they were still as wonderful and impressive making the already festive atmosphere in the Orchard Road district even more festive. Let’s see what the 2016 edition has to offer. Missed the previous year’s light ups? Here’s the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 editions.