Sassy Mama Family Festive Family Field Trips: Christmas in Central!

This week for our family field trip we found ourselves on the hunt for the perfect Christmas in Central. If you missed last time we were ice-skating at Elements Mall in Kowloon, and you can read all about our experience here.

This week the intrepid field trippers were: one Mum, and Gracie the Tot, aged almost 3 ½. We were feeling Christmassy and wanted to see what the best of Central had to offer us this season!

I had never really appreciated the great lengths and expense that shopping centres go to at Christmas to keep their shoppers happy until I became a mama. And so I just want to take this opportunity to say a BIG thank you to all the shopping centres out there who grandly deck their halls at Christmas – it keeps the tots, toddlers and Mums in need of child-friendly activities extremely happy! We are very grateful!

So back to the hunt for Christmas in Hong Kong. We started off at Central Christmas Park in the IFC Mall with its bikes, baubles and gaily-lit trees. Our next stop was the Infinite Joy Rolling Sculpture at the Landmark Mall for more balls and trees, before we finally ended up at Citibank Plaza for a spot of the Nutcracker… phew! Here are the hits and the misses

Hits
Gracie loved pedaling like crazy on the stationary bikes in the IFC’s Central Christmas Park. Inspired by New York’s Central Park, you enter the twinkling leafy oval atrium at the IFC with its Banyan Trees and bikes. Both kids and adults alike can hop on and off, pedaling to illuminate the park, but it’s not just all about festive fun. Every one km biked equals one breakfast donated to an underprivileged child. A big thumbs up for this great initiative, which combines charity and fun.

Next stop was the Landmark, and again Gracie loved the Infinite Joy Rolling Structure! Constructed by Guinness Book of World Records winner Hanns-Martin Wagner, this 28-metre mechanical structure with its metallic balls being dropped and rolled along is definitely a hit with the kids! There was a lot of, “Ooh, mummy look at the red one, ooh look at the blue one, look at the green one that’s going really fast!”. If you time your visit right, there’s an accompanying music and light show plus SNOW! By sheer chance we were in the right place at the right time (that doesn’t often happen!). Another hit was the whopping great silver Christmas tree in the Landmark… now if the sight of that doesn’t make you feel Christmassy then Bah Humbug!

Misses
After the scale and delight of the Christmas decorations at the IFC and Landmark, we were a little nonplussed by the Nutcracker exhibition at Citibank Plaza, and we felt a little out of place and a bit in the way with all the workers hurrying to and fro from this office block. But nevertheless we are still believers in praise where praise is due, and although not as large as we were expecting or hoping for, a group of artists from the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (HKYAF) have painstakingly created festive nutcrackers entirely from recycled materials, including paper clips, ring binders, chopstick holders, and even birdcages. In hindsight, Gracie was probably a little bit young for this exhibition, but for older kids it’s a great way to get them involved in some festive fun while thinking of the environment this Christmas!

Need to know before you go:

Landmark Mall Christmas Light Show: 11am; 12pm; 12:30pm; 1pm; 1:30pm; 2pm; 3pm; 4pm; 5pm; 5:30pm; 6pm; 6:30 and 7pm.

Nutcracker Exhibition at Citibank Plaza: 1 December 2013 to 2 January 2014

IFC, 8 Finance Street, Central, Hong Kong;
Landmark Mall, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong;
Citibank Plaza, 3 Garden Road, Central, Hong Kong.