#ChristmasAroundthePH: "The Glory of Christmas " in SM Seaside City Cebu, featuring: The Bradford 100 voice choir

Hi everyone! Im back to blogging after a non-stop travel from Luzon-Visayas-Mindanao for our Christmas Around the Philippines blog project, and this time Im back to share my story and coverage from our 3rd leg to cover the Christmas scene around the PH.

Its a 6 days trip and Im happy to be with my co-blogger Ted of www.wazzup.ph and Enzo of www.juanmanilaexpress.com enjoying the views, the scenes, the food, the people and also experience the Christmas season celebration in a different city.

For this blog series - its all about music, songs, worship and glory of Christmas

TRAVEL TO THE QUEEN CITY OF THE SOUTH

Our Bears of Joy is back, they traveled with us from Manila to Cebu City via Philippine Airlines. It is also the 3rd time to be featured in our social media channels, replacing our selfies into the face of SM Care's Bears of Joy.

I named my bear -- Merry the bear, for Ted, he named it Teddy the bear, then Enzo named his bear, Juander Bear.

SM SEASIDE CEBU CITY

For our Visayas region, we covered the Christmas scene here at SM Seaside Cebu City, it is the 3rd largest mall ever in the country and also the 1st mall to have a modern and circular shape that looks like a spaceship from Star Wars or space station from Star Trek.

It has plenty of things to offer - like shopping, entertainment, food, Sky Garden view, live music, event center, ice skating and many many more! Also they will add a hotel and township center near the mall in the future, it is really #EverythingsHere

One of the new iconic in Cebu is the "Cube" structure in front of the mall, the Cube faces the sea and it resembles some kind of navigating device that is used by Captains of a ship

I did some research and it mentioned that the Cube in SM Seaside Cebu City serves a marker and also a symbol of strength and stability.

Btw, the interior and mall photos are from my first visit last July 2016. Im totally surprised that last July, we saw only few people visit the mall and also some stores are not yet opened, but when we went there last Dec 16th, I'm surprised that the entire mall is crowded with lots of shoppers and diners. I can imagine what if it was a weekend and a holiday.

SM Seaside Cebu City goes full blast every day, they have lots of home grown restaurant that you can find only here in Cebu and also every Thursday, they have a culture show and parade, so expect its like Sinulog Festival every Thursday afternoon.

Another must see and must try here in SM Seaside Cebu City is the spiral staircase, wow! it looks like a shell, so cute and colorful, located at the middle of the mall. There are lots of spiral staircase around, so use it when going up or down and enjoy the curve pathway up to the next floor level.

We used it once and it was so trippy.

Sky Garden was first seen in SM City North EDSA and then it was applied to some branches of SM Supermalls, but here in SM Seaside City Cebu, we first seen the Sky Park Garden. Its a huge roof garden park filled with plants, grass, fountain, event center, playground and also cafe.

Sky Park Garden is a must visit if you are at SM Seaside Cebu City.

We learned that they house the largest screen cinema in the country, its not an IMAX screen, but its the largest screen for a theater type.

I haven't seen it yet, but I will check it out on my 3rd visit.

Christie projector is the best!
Its been so many years since I witnessed its first launch in the Philippines and now they are the top brand for cinema projector used by SM Cinemas.

One thing that caught my attention is that they have a huge floor at the top where all play house and kid center are located in one cluster. Its a long stretch of indoor playground and game center for kids.

Its fun to see that they place all play areas in one floor. Kids will now have an easy selection where they want to play while their parents are on shopping and a guardian on a standby comfy waiting at the other side of the play park.

When we got a chance to eat our snacks, we chose restaurants and food hubs that are not available here in Manila.

Harbour City restaurant is one of the most popular dimsum resto brand in Cebu. The resto is owned by Dimsum Break, a popular old dimsum fastfood located in downtown Cebu.

OMG! look at those dimsums on our table!
Its a snack fest for us #EATgetaway team with the marketing team of SM Seaside City Cebu

Best to order is the pork rice then pair it with any dimsum or rolls. I wish we have this in Manila, it taste good and the price is affordable.

For coffee, we were introduced to this Korean coffee shop -- Coffee Bay, this is the 1st ever branch in the Philippines outside South Korea.

Their coffee tastes good and I like the ambiance of the cafe, it feels like Im in a Korean novela.

Dinner time for us #EATgetaway team here at Hukad restaurant.
Its a resto that offers grilled seafood and meat and traditional Filipino cuisine.

Hukad is a Bisaya word that means "serve food on your plate"
Photo above: Enzo's sinigang na tuna

THE GLORY OF CHRISTMAS
IN SM SEASIDE CITY CEBU
FEATURING: THE BRADFORD 100 VOICE CHOIR

Christmas center piece of SM Seaside Cebu City features a carousel with giant Christmas tree on top.
The Christmas light around the mall and white glow of the carousel add more spectacular visuals when you are infront of the center piece.

SM Seaside Cebu City and Bradford United Church of Christ Inc, produced an hour of Christmas special of songs, music, and praise featuring Bradford's choir group -- The Bradford 100 voice choir.

100 choir members at the stage area and behind them the Christmas center piece as their major backdrop.

They are not carolers, but they are here to sing Christmas songs to us and also to give thanks to our Lord Jesus for He is born on Christmas day.

The Bradford 100 voice choir will do another performance this DECEMBER 23, 2016 at the Mountain Wing Atrium at 6pm in SM Seaside Cebu City.

More info about Bradford at http://www.bradfordchurchcebu.org/

Performing: This is the season, We need a little Christmas, Winter medley, Sing we now, O holy night, A 50s Christmas, Christmas praise, He lives and Handel's hallelujah

Middle: Senior Pastor Rev. Fraxedes “Macky” Sabayle

He's so familiar, I've seen him before but I don't know when and where. But its great to see Bradford's pastor is also a choir member.

Lead singes in one of the segment. There are also lead female singers, but I didn't get to take a photo because they are located at the other side.

Live band to play live music for the choir - composed of 2 guitarist, 1 bassist, 1 sax, 2 drums and 2 keyboardist.

Its a rock band for choir!

Live dance on stage! in one of the segment of the choir performance

Near the end of the choir concierto is the cute performance of the Bradford kids choir.

Sing and dance, yes they can do it!
with no teleprompter to guide them for the lyrics

Gidiyap Gidiyap! its a horsey horsey song, I cant remember what title they performed.
Still cute.

Two solo singers performed to open and close their segment.
Its an "awwwwww" moment for all of us

They two choir group also performed

For the grand finale of the choir....they performed Handel's Hallelujah....I cried because I super love this song, its my fave ever! and its my 1st time to hear it live and performed infront of me.

I mentioned this earlier to SM Seaside team that if ever they sang it...I will cry talaga! eh ayun na nga!

Audience clapped and cheer the choir members, some of them are shoppers, some of them are church members and us bloggers from Manila are also there!!!

so don't miss their repeat show this Dec 23 at 6pm.

BEHIND THE SCENES

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Thanks to sir Bo, Ms Anther and Ms Rina for touring us around SM Seaside

Dont forget also to buy SM Care's Bears of Joy, buy two dolls for PHP200, you keep one doll and the other doll to be donated to the chosen charity of SM Cares.