What to do in Singapore this festive season if you have 24 hours or less?
Singapore’s multi-racial heritage means we are big on festive celebrations as we embrace the diversity of our cultures, religions and passion. Hence, you got to experience our yearly festive streets light-up and mini Christmas markets around the island.
Why? Christmas in our city comes with a few unique twists. For one, it is Christmas in the Tropics.
Two, in our melting pot of different cultures, you will get to experience our festive get-togethers and traditional Yuletide dishes with a good dose of local flavours.
Important Transit Tip:
Read our Transit Guide: Singapore Changi Airport for your layover and transit planning. This ultimate guide is completed with information on how to get around the transit area of Terminal 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well as tips on minimum time required for transit, visa application requirements, baggage storage, and Singapore's public transport.
FOR A 3.5 HOURS LAYOVER
Stay in the Transit Area
You will have hundreds of shopping, food, and entertainment choices.
You could either buy local signatures (such as Discover Singapore, TWG Tea Boutique, Taste Singapore, Bee Cheng Hiang, Bengawan Solo, and Irvins Salted Egg) for Christmas gifts, or have a satisfying festive meal with a local twist at Celede Cafe.
Thereafter, you can catch a Christmas movie at the Movie Theatres, or take photos at the instaworthy walk-in Christmas set-ups throughout the transit area.
Click here to plan the time you need to travel across terminals.
FOR A 5 HOURS LAYOVER
Visit Jewel Changi Airport
I would recommend to clear Singapore Immigration to visit Jewel Changi Airport – a nature-themed entertainment and retail complex (10 stories, with over 300 retail and dining facilities) that is linked to Terminal 1, 2 and 3's public access area.
This Christmas, Jewel’s Shiseido Forest Valley, one of Asia's largest indoor gardens that houses around 3,000 trees and 60,000 shrubs of 120 species spanning five stories high, is decked with the “Sparkling Wonders of Christmas”.
You can enter the forest valley under a 16-metre tall Christmas tree and be entertained by live Christmas performances (weekdays, 8 pm; and weekends, eve of public holidays and public holidays, 6 pm and 8 pm). There will also be “snow” fall at the Forest Valley at intervals between 6 pm and 12 am - it is a big hit with kids in particular.
Over at the Canopy Park (paid attraction: S$5 for tourists), you can visit the Topiary Snow Walk where visitors are given ski poles and non-slip rubber soles to traverse the “snow”.
The Petal Garden (at the Canopy Park), with its silver wintry theme and Santa’s sleigh, offers plenty of instagramable photo spots. What is more? Kids will get to meet Santa Claus at fixed timings throughout the day.
If you like to buy handmade craft by local artist or try Singapore’s trending hipster food, you can visit The Arendelle-inspired Festive Market. The Festive Market also play host to workshops like leather craft and ukulele painting.
Come night, do catch the Christmas edition of the Rain Vortex light show, available daily at 7.30 pm, 9.30 pm, and 11.30 pm till 5 January 2020.
Important Tip:
If you are transiting within Terminal 1, 2, and 3, you will need at least 3 hours 30 mins of transit time for a visit to Jewel. If you are transiting to/from Terminal 4, you will need at least 4 hours 30 mins. Read our Transit Guide: Singapore Changi Airport for more information.
FOR A 6 HOURS LAYOVER
Join the Daily Free Singapore Tour (organised by Changi Airport)
Free City Sights Tour To Gardens by the Bay
Select the City Sights Tour that will take you to Gardens by The Bay, a horticultural oasis, nestled in the heart of the lion city, that features more than 500,000 plants from over 2,200 species.
From now to 26 December, Gardens by The Bay’s visitors will get to see the magical luminarie lights that transform the garden fairground into a stunning Christmas Wonderland.
The iconic Garden Rhapsody’s light and sound shows (7.45pm and 8.45pm) would feature a jolly edition - The Christmas Special! It is a spectacular show with the 18 iconic Avatar-like Supertrees lights dancing to your favourite Christmas classics and highlights sung by local artists, Andrew Marko and Ethel Yap.
Credit: Gardens by the Bay, Christmas Wonderland
Ticketed attractions will give visitors the opportunity to experience ‘snow’ in the tropics, visit the charming Christmas Village, meet Santa, and enjoy carnival games, rides, and shows.
Free Singapore Tour (Jewel Tour)
After the City Sights Tour, if you have more than 2 hours till your connecting flight, you can choose to remain on board the tour bus and join the Jewel Tour. The tour bus will make a stop at Jewel Changi Airport after Terminal 3.
At the end of the Jewel Tour, depending on your schedule, you can choose to follow the tour guide back to Terminal 3 transit area, or stay for more Christmas shopping or photo-taking in Jewel (see FOR 5 HOURS LAYOVER guide above).
Tip:
Registration for the Free Singapore Tour is based on a walk-in, first-come, first-served basis. I noticed that there is always a queue, so, do make your way to the nearest Free Singapore Tour Booths (within the transit area) before the registration ends for the day. Singapore Airlines and SilkAir passengers can pre-book the tour (do check with your carrier).
The operating hours for the booths are 7:00 am – 6:15 pm (Terminal 2) and 7:00 am – 6:30 pm (Terminal 3). You may only join either the City Sights Tour or the Heritage Tour because transiting passengers can only enter and exit Singapore once.
FOR A 12 HOURS LAYOVER
Visit Orchard Road's Christmas Light-up 2019 - "The Greatest Gift"
Christmas Streets Light-up
You can take a taxi (click here for Singapore’s Public Transport Tips) down to Orchard Road, Singapore’s world-class shopping destination.
Its buzzing atmosphere amps up as its streets light up for the Christmas tradition, every year, for the past 35 years.
You will be dazzled by the 3.9 km of festive lights in glittering adornments lining the street.
As you catch the enchanting displays of Yuletide Christmas trees, presents, and Santa Claus, you will have lots of photo opportunities on the street pavements while you soak in the atmosphere filled with Christmas carols.
Light-up Timing:
6:30pm - 12am, Sun-Thu
6:30pm - 2am, Fri-Sat
6:30pm - 6am, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve
Till 1st Jan
The Great Christmas Village(s)
From now till 26th Dec, you can bask in the local communal vibes and festive cheers at The Great Christmas Village(s) at *Scape, the Grange Road open-air carpark, and Shaw House Urban Plaza.
Featuring more than 30 local amusement rides and game booths, as well as food trucks, you can try Singapore’s trending hipster dishes with a local twist.
As you shop for local handmade crafts for Christmas gifts, take your time to enjoy the live musical performances by our aspiring local artists.
Opening Hours: afternoon to 10pm or 11pm
Christmas Shopping
Orchard Road is an all-year round retail paradise for discerning shoppers. Don’t miss the great festive deals and special buys lining the malls of this shopping street!
End The Day by Catching Jewel's Rain Vortex Light Show
If time permits, on the way back to Changi Airport via Grab/GoJek (click here for Singapore’s Public Transport Tips), en route to Jewel to catch the Christmas edition of the Rain Vortex light show (see FOR A 5 HOURS LAYOVER guide above for show times).
Jewel connects to Terminal 1, 2 and 3 of Changi Airport, a 5-10 mins walk back to your Departure Hall.
FOR A 24 HOURS LAYOVER
Have A Universal Christmas
Take a taxi or Grab/GoJek (click here for Singapore’s Public Transport Tips) to Universal Studios Singapore (USS) in Resorts World Sentosa for a fun-filled tropical Christmas.
If you are wondering, with the cost of the park ticket at S$79/adult, is USS worth a visit? Being a theme park fanatic who have visited almost all Disney and Universal Studios’ theme parks around the world, I would say, YES, DEFINITELY. Read my 7 Rides Unique to Universal Studios Singapore and Why It’s Worth Your Visit! to find out more.
USS is the smallest of all Universal Studios’ theme parks. You should be able to complete the entire park with an Universal Express Pass (S$40) within ½ day. Normally, for a theme park of that size, I would not recommend to buy an Universal Express Pass. However, this is a layover itinerary and time is the essence.
A Universal Christmas 2019 (2nd Dec 19 – 1st Jan 20)’s lineup includes seasonal holiday stage shows, streets performances, and an all-new animated festive projection mapping show.
You can also join the 'A Tropical Christmas Party' with the cast of Madagascar, and enjoy Meet and Greet sessions with your favourite Despicable Me characters in festive costumes.
While you soak in the Christmas magic of the iconic Universal themed festive decorations around the park, you will also get to ride Santa’s sleigh and experience USS’s largest snowfall ever! Park hours are extended till 9 pm and 10 pm on selected nights for the Christmas Fireworks Spectacular.
Tropic Christmas Lunch Buffet by The Sea at Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa
Singaporeans love eating buffets. It is part of the Singaporeans' lifestyle; and festive buffet is definitely something that locals would not miss out. Interestingly, buffets in Singapore typically has a larger spread than the ones you find overseas.
With the Universal Express Pass, you should be able to complete most of USS’s rides by noon. Thereafter, you can take the complimentary Sentosa Express monorail from the Resort World Sentosa Station to Beach Station (10 mins) and walk leisurely by the beach/take the beach tram (15 mins) to Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa.
Credit: Gabby Blaza from flickr
Here you can enjoy a Christmas buffet feast of fresh Boston lobsters, Alaskan crabs, traditional roasts, as well as Asian and Indian highlights, like Tandoori Turkey. If you have a sweet tooth, you will love their chocolate Santas, gingerbread cookies, and their larger-than-life Christmas Panettone.
After lunch, you can return back to USS to experience the rest of the Universal Christmas magic.
Thereafter, Visit Orchard Road's Christmas Light-up 2019 - "The Greatest Gift"
If you do not mind skipping USS's night fireworks, after dusk, I would recommend to get a Grab/GoJek (30-min journey) down to Orchard Road's "The Greatest Gift" Christmas Light-up (see FOR A 12 HOURS LAYOVER guide above).
Transport Tip:
When travelling out from Resorts World Sentosa, if time permits, take Grab/GoJek instead of taxi to save the taxi surcharge for Sentosa.
Whichever itinerary you pick, I would recommend to stay at least a day to get a good glimpse of Christmas in Singapore. PS: Our sunny island has so much more to offer for a 2-3 days stopover.
My Travel Kakis Singapore Travel Blog - Singapore Layover During Christmas Season