Oriental Winter Wonderland

This photo was taken yesterday when me, @Bloghound and friends visited one of the Christmas villages here in the city, in particular Baguio Country Club. It was my first time to partake in this yearly event I think. I'm trying to remember if I was there before but I'm coming up blank.

Why was it called Oriented Winter Wonderland? There are Chinese and Japanese pagodas and also some Korean inspired set up as well.

You can check more photos here in my page. I hope you check it and give me a follow if you are not there yet. Tell me which photo is your favorite?

Unfortunately, it was not as what I expected it to be. It's still a good experience but I'm not sure I'll be doing it again.

Here in the Philippines, as early as late part of August, anything Christmas is already evident. As the days and months leading to December approaches, more and more decorations and lights are being set up.

Once All Saints/Souls Day is over, Christmas season is in full blast until the early parts of January.

When @Bloghound and family finally decided to move back down to the lowlands after staying here in the city for a long time, every December they would come up to the city for a visit. Because yesterday was a holiday, we then planned on meeting with them again. It has become a thing for us, a tradition if you will. Whenever we go down to the beach, we would meet with them too.

At the ticketing booth of the Christmas village, there are guidelines and also someone reminding the public about them over a speaker. They require you to have mask and a vaccination card. We bought mask from vendors outside the village. However, once we are inside, most people are not wearing mask.

Anyway, inside the village are shops where food and drinks and other non-consumable goods are sold. There are varieties of different colored trees all around us.

Because the village was not yet lit, my friends hunted for food to eat while I waited with them. We didn't wait long before the program of Nativity started then the lights were lit.

What got everyone excited was the bubble machines spewing soap suds in the air. There were four of them and the machine runs for about 5 minutes then stops and then it will be turned on again after 20-25 minutes. I didn't have something to protect my head from getting wet so when the machines are on, I'd rather stay under a shade or away from them to keep myself dry. My shoes weren't spared though for the suds covered the ground. Every so often, a personnel would sweep those to the side.

It was a wet, colorful and crowded experience. However, without the bubble machines, the place would not be that interesting. There were those in costumes like anime, Santa, Korean attire that you can have photos with. There were also pagodas and nativity scene. There were also a stall for the club's pastries which is one of the bests in the city.

Again, without the soap suds in the air mimicking snow, it was just an ordinary Christmas village. Comparing it to what they did at the Botanical Garden, I'd rather go there even if there is no bubble machine. The entrance to the club is expensive as compared to the Botanical Garden.

There is one more Christmas village that we plan to go to but maybe before the month ends. It's a busy month for everyone now and setting up schedules and planning things can be challenging.

In the background above you can see the stage where a program was ongoing and also the bubble machines were turned on. You can also see the crowd which was continued to come and go. I'm pretty sure many are wet if not everyone from the suds. I quickly took photos and videos before walking away from these machines and once they stopped, I'd go about taking more photos and videos.

This village is open from 10 am to 10 pm and will run until January 8, 2023.

I like visiting Christmas villages or should I say Christmas lights' villages because I admire those colorful lights and whatever theme they have.

How about your Christmas village in your area? Have you visited one?

@Coolmidwestguy is running a Christmas/New Year-theme writing challenge. Read more about that here A "ber" Author Competition Challenge. This is my entry.

Thank you so much for reading. Have a good one!