Christmas Displays

One of the fun things we used to do when we were kids around Christmas time in Manila was to watch Ever Gotesco's (a department store) outdoor animated Christmas display. They have larger than life animated animals, cartoon characters and people that move to music and lights. You can tell that the display is in action when the road traffic wouldn't move, because of the number of spectators - on foot or on wheels - it attracted.

David Jones department store in Sydney also has some fantastic tricks to get children sparkle with excitement this time of the year. Inside the Sydney store is a Santa Land, where you can take your photos with Santa, ride a carousel or play lucky-dip. Outside on the streets, they have about six window displays depicting the story "The Nutcracker and the King of Mice", by Hoffman, and are accompanied by the ballet's Tchaikovsky's music. Despite having seen the ballet show when I was a child, I have no recollection of how the story goes. However, the only thing that is still very clear in my mind is the tune of the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy". Thanks to this shop display and extra reading, I now know how the story goes.