Merry Christmas to all Our Awesome Planet Friends!
Aidan drew the Christmas artwork above and colored it on his own. 🙂
Sometimes we need to look at life with child-like wonder and innocence. Maybe it is true that the secret to happiness is to be mababaw ang kaligayahan, like a child.
Here are some suggestions on where to make your kids happy this Christmas 2010…
1. Ayala Triangle Gardens
It is just awesome to be at the center of this garden of Christmas trees with parols all around. This is the best and most impressive exhibit of lights in Manila — don’t miss it!
You can enjoy a food trip in the Restaurants at Ayala Triangle Gardens. My favorites are Wee Nam Kee’s Hainanese Chicken Rice, Kanin Club’s Crispy Dinuguan and Bon Chon Chicken. For dessert, go to Banapple or Golden Spoon.
2. Winter Funland’s Ice Slide @ Star City
This Christmas season, some of our neighbors will go to Canada or Japan with their family to experience the cold December weather and probably push their kids on a sleigh ride in the snow.
Here in Manila, you can experience below-zero weather by going to Winter Funland (also known as Snow World) and enjoy an ice slide with your kids.
You can experience icy snow and even take a picture with Santa Claus (P100 for the photo).
Winter Funland is located inside Star City. The entrance fee for Ride-All-You-Can with Winter Funland costs P430. It opens at 3pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
3. Watch Kaos @ Resorts World Manila!
Kaos (pronounced like “chaos”) is an original Resorts World Manila production where Broadway meets Cirque de Soleil and a Chinese acrobatic show. Two of the most impressive acts are the time machine (left photo) and the five motorcycles spinning inside the split globe-shaped cage.
The cast is led by Joel Trinidad, Gian Magdangal and Filipina Canadian Idol Joy Martha. They are also joined by the award-winning Philippine All Stars Hip Hop Dance group. Music is provided by the Manila Symphony Orchestra.
Kaos is the name of the magical land where the story is set, and it’s named after Kaos, the white lion. One of the main attractions of the show is when master illusionist Enrique Polo makes Kaos magically appear.
Here’s the complete review about the show: Kaos, the Circus Musical
We had our family photo taken after the show with Sito, the White Tiger (P600 for 1 shot, P1,000 for 2 shots).
KAOS has a six-month run. It started last December 1.
Wednesdays: 8:00pm
Thursdays: 8:00pm
Fridays: 9:00pm
Saturdays: 3:00pm & 9:00pm (except on Dec. 24 and 31 – no 9pm show)
Sundays: 3:00pm
Ticket Prices at Resorts World Manila:
Upper Balcony – P 988.00
Balcony – P 1,188.00
Deluxe – P 1,888.00
Premiere – P 2,688.00
VIP – P 2,888.00
Resorts World Manila Members Discount:
Emerald Card 10% | Silver Card 15% | Gold/Platinum Card 20%
NOTE: Only Kids 3 years old and above are allowed.
4. Christmas Wonderland, a moving Mannequin Show @ Greenhills Night Market
For those of us who where brought to C.O.D. (when we were younger) to watch the moving Mannequin show every Christmas, now is our chance to pay it forward to our kids and let them watch the Christmas Wonderland show at the Greenhills Shopping Center.
The show starts every 30 minutes from 6.30pm to 11.30pm. You can watch it from the Greenhills Night Market for FREE. There will be a fireworks show on December 30.
5. Musical Fountain Show @ Manila Ocean Park
We love the Oceanarium @ Manila Ocean Park where you can see different species of fishes in a larger-than-life aquarium. The sharks are the main attraction, and they have a new addition to their family — the American Sea Lion.
We are bringing our kids this holiday season to see the Musical Fountain Show. 🙂
Manila Ocean Park is open from 9am to 10pm (except on December 24 and 31, only until 6pm). They have a Moonlight Package (Oceanarium Entrance and Musical Fountain Show) for P500/person.
For more information, visit the Manila Ocean Park Offical Website.
Enjoy the holidays!
Live an Awesome Life,
Founder, www.OurAwesomePlanet.com
Call or Text Me: +63917 5683-627 (LOVE-OAP)
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Full Disclosure: (1) OAP is a marketing partner of Ayala Land Premier, which is somehow connected with the Ayala Triangle Gardens management. (2) Our friend Benson, who is connected with the Resorts World management, treated us to watch Kaos. We paid for the P1,000 photo with Sito, the White Tiger. (3) We are not connected in any way with Winter Funland, Manila Ocean Park and Greenhills Shopping Center.
P.S. Please don’t watch & support Angels of the Sea: The Dolphin & Sea Lion Show. 🙁 We would like to appeal to the Araneta Center Management to please set the dolphins free!
Also, you might want to watch The Great American Circus or Splendide: Chinese National Acrobatic Circus which only runs during this Holiday season. If you are a fan of old-school circus or traditional acrobatics, these are the shows to watch.
Yes.. i watched the moving mannequin show when i was young!
Last year my daughter zoe(5 at that time) also made xmas drawings showing a tree and the 4 of us. I scanned it and used it as gift cards! We watching Great American circus though this year for my son’s bday and hope to still catch mannequin show in greenhills.
You know what i miss? big bang sa alabang. =)
Merry Xmas Anton, Rache and kids!
Hi Sansan,
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Let me know kamusta yung Great American Circus. I heard it was just OK but we wanted to watch it also since mas limited yung engagement nun.
Oo nga! Wala ng Big Bang… di na nauso yon no? very memorable pa naman ang bigbang.
Anton
Hi Anton!
Until when (date) is Snow World going to be open? 🙂
Thanks and Merry Christmas!
MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your family!
Thanks for sharing these events, giving me ideas where to bring the kids…
C.O.D. in Cubao was the best :)))
And I also miss Big Bang. Wala na bang ibang carnivals ngayon aside from Star City and Enchanted?
maraming salamat for supporting the campaign against captivity! Let WILDLIFE remain in the WILD! 🙂
Hi Anton and Rache! The very best of our Lord’s natal season to you guys and your adorable kids!
Thanks much for the heads up on how to make the holidays more memorable for our families. This article plus your feature on New Year’s Eve Parties are a big help to somewhat harried parents like me who have to attend to entrepreneurial concerns even on the 25th and 31st of December. God forbid though that I morph into my Scrooge mode if ever there is – not if I can help it! Thank God my 2 boys ages 10 and 15 fully understand the situation, but I most definitely will never quell their holiday spirit thus we’ve already reserved the 27th as a strictly family day. Thanks to your suggestions, my planned itinerary includes the Manila Ocean Park Ultimate Experience, maybe even squeeze in a trip to the nearby Winter Funland at Star City if time permits, then a nightcap at the Ayala Triangle Gardens just to enjoy the lights exhibit and perhaps a soothing late dinner of Wee Nam Kee’s Hainanese Chicken Rice. Ah yes indeed such a precious commodity nowadays to be a kid again free from the worries of this world just for a day!
Come to think of it, whatever happened to the likes of Yuletide season attractions like Big Bang Sa Alabang, Boom Na Boom at the CCP Complex and Payanig Sa Pasig? I used to have fond memories of these carnivals of my youth which would have been well worth passing on to my kids. Oh well, times are unmistakably a-changing but we can never run out of means and reasons to celebrate, can’t we?
Again happy holidays and wishing you and yours a most gratifying new year ahead!
By the way, I fully commend you for discouraging your readers from supporting the continued exploitation of sea mammals through the likes of that Araneta Center show. You’re the man, Anton!
And oh, my top-of-mind reaction to what one has to shell out just for a couple of photo-op shots with the white tiger of the Kaos @ RWM show? Grabe naman! Ano yon, ginto?!!
On the Kaos photo price, well it is more to support the show since we have really good Filipino cast and to encourage them to do world-class shows like this. The entire production was really expensive including the full LCD Backdrop.
Anyways, the kids wanted to touch the tiger up close. It is better to just pay the P600 though, the P1,000 did not make any difference.
Anton
Hi Anton and Rache, Happy Holidays! With the risk of revealing how old I am, I would like to point out that it’s COD (the department store), not CDO, which had a yearly Christmas mannequin show in Cubao. 🙂