I’ve been posting about festive light-ups in Singapore the whole year. Here’s the latest and final one for this year. Orchard Road Christmas Light-Up 2017!
The one that’s arguably the most visited one of all. Also, the original one that gave birth to the rest. Oh, how fondly I remember the earliest Orchard Road Christmas lights! When gold, not blue or silver, bedecked the entire shopping stretch.
To share a little, I’ve been looking forward to this year’s Christmas Light-Up, and it’s not because of this blog or because I prefer Christmas over all earlier festivals.
It’s that Tree of Time outside Ngee Ann City, essentially a countdown meter for the event. I first saw it two-and-a-half weeks ago, right before watching Thor: Ragnarok. Amazing the kind of effect this straightforward installation had on me. I guess it’s not too different from the way badges encourage netizens to churn out free reviews one after another, or how accomplishments in WoW can hook a player for weeks and months. One look and I instantly made the light-up my must-attend year-end activity.
Anyhow, the lead-up to the Light-Up wasn’t very promising, no thanks to the weather. It’s been raining the entire week, and for a great part of today’s afternoon, it felt as if opening night for the celebration might be affected. Thankfully the skies cleared up by late afternoon. Everywhere was still damp when I got down to Orchard Road, but it wasn’t too unpleasant or too slippery to stroll about.
There was a slight let down during the evening. The main attraction of the light-up was naturally the street lights, as in the strings of wonderland decorations spanning the width of the road. At 8.00 pm, all were still unlit. Some hasty online searching by the roadside also revealed no information. All I kept finding was the same 5-things-to-know Channel News Asia article that talked about the lights coming on at 3 pm. (What the …)
At 8.30 pm, I gave up waiting for I’ve bought tickets to watch Happy Death Day. Before entering the cinema, I wondered whether bad weather has indeed delayed the lighting up. At the same time, I was hoping that perhaps the key event was actually scheduled for a later hour. Maybe I’d get to enjoy the lights after the movie.
I’m happy to say it was a case of the latter.
At the risk of offending online SG aficionados, I’m going to say this out loud. Compared to past years, Orchard Road Christmas Light-Up 2017 feels a little too … monochrome?
That main silver colour really doesn’t turn out too well on camera after it’s lit, on top of it being used too much. But oh well, this is the sort of thing that might grow on you, given some time. And anyway there’s still the festive European-themed village due to start later in the month. I’m sure the village would provide for a lot of pic-taking opportunities.
Continue to Part Two for more pictures of Orchard Road Christmas Light-Up 2017!
Christmas Decorations in Singapore 2018.
Read my other Festive Celebrations in Singapore posts.
