3 ways to celebrate the reason for the season this Christmas week

This Christmas week, Sound of Art will ring with the sound of music. 

Strains of Christmas music by internationally reknowned guitarist and harpist Alvaro “The Maestro” Sanchez, who is also an ordained minister, will ripple through i12 Katong Mall on December 23, 6.30pm, as art ambassadors lead visitors on a guided tour of Sound of Art gallery’s inaugural Christmas art exhibition and cultural festival.  

The festival is just one of the ways you can invite friends – both believers and non-believers – to discover the real reason for the season this Christmas.

“Christmas in Singapore is often very commercialised,” Galven Lee, co-founder and curator at Sound of Art, told Salt&Light. “Through this art exhibition at i12 Katong mall, Sound of Art hopes to provide a platform for people to contemplate the origins of Christmas.

“We bring the Christmas story to life through our artists’ paintings, the highlight being Dominique Fam’s hyper-realistic depictions of Jesus’ birth. We are also thrilled to have performers from the Katong neighbourhood, such as Cornerstone Community Church and Church of Singapore (Marine Parade), partner us to spread the joy of Christmas.”

Here are 3 ways for you to get into the Spirit of Christmas this week in the lead-up to Christmas Day:

THE ART OF CHRISTMAS: Sound of Art

Join free art tours, enjoy live musical performances, participate in a workshop, join a quiz and win mall vouchers in this inaugural Christmas art exhibition and cultural festival by Sound of Art. 

Featuring artist Dominique Fam’s debut of hyper-realistic paintings of the Christmas Story, this exhibition is an opportunity for you to bring friends new to the Christian faith to find out about the birth of Jesus Christ in an immersive manner.

Dominique’s intention for the series of nativity paintings “is simply to create artwork that faithfully depicts events as they are described in the Word of God”.

Said Dominique: “I hope that perhaps in some small way, my artwork can serve as a kind of ‘trailer’ that will get people to take a closer look at the birth narratives of Christ found in the Scriptures, and perhaps more fully appreciate Philippians 2:5-8: ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of me: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.'”

The exhibition will also feature a wider selection of artwork reflecting the themes of Christmas.

Members of the Katong community are volunteering as art ambassadors to lead visitors on guided tours. They will also man an art therapy booth where people can have a deeper engagement with art. The volunteers are trained by Jeff Yuen from Soakability.

Musical performances will be headlines by guitarist and harpist Alvaro Sanchez on Friday, December 23, 6.30pm. Other performances from the community include Cornerstone Community Church and Church of Singapore (Marine Parade).

When: Dec 21-25 (exhibition & musical performances; Dec 23, 6.30pm, performance by Alvaro Sanchez)
Cost: Free
Where: i12 Katong Mall

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS – PEACE, LOVE & JOY: Celebrate Christmas in Singapore 2022 

Gather your friends and family for a special night of celebrating the Christmas message together with believers from around the world – it’s a heartwarming celebration you can have right in your living room.

Celebrate Christmas in Singapore (CCIS)’s “Home for Christmas: Peace, Joy & Love” will be released on YouTube tonight (Dec 18) at 8pm. It is an opportunity for you to invite family, friends and neighbours to your home or church for dinner or drinks to watch/hear the Christmas message together.

CCIS began in 2004 when a handful of Christians wanted to bring the message of the peace, hope and joy of Christmas back into an otherwise heavily commercialised festive occasion. Each year they staged a concert in the heart of Orchard Road, a tradition that had to be modified when the Covid pandemic struck. Undeterred, CCIS took to airing their Christmas programmes online.

This year’s online musical programme, which was filmed in South Africa and Singapore, is an epic collaboration with international Christian talents from USA, Malaysia, South Africa and Singapore intent on highlighting the Christ in Christmas.

Singer-songwriter, Karen de Waal, Founder of Join Bands, Not Gangs (JBNG) from Cape Town, South Africa, collaborated with CCIS producer and director Nora Fong, and associate producer Katharyn Peh, for the filming. JBNG, who also participated in last year’s CCIS video, uses music as a means to counter gangsterism among children and youths in at-risk neighbourhoods.

“Through the prayers of many, there was a word reminding me that the sound of worship changes the spiritual atmosphere of a nation,” Nora told Salt&Light. “It gave us the confirmation to create a song to declare joy, peace and love from the mouths of children.”

The hand of God was apparent throughout the production, revealed Nora, who gave Salt&Light a peek behind the scenes: Upon the production team’s return from South Africa, the hard drive with the video footage became inexplicably irretrievable. There were similar issues in America when the director of photography’s car was broken into, and the Malaysian producers also encountered problems with footage upload, causing delays.

But “the hand of God miraculously delivered the production team through so many challenges and near crises,” said Nora.

When Nora and Katharyn flew to South Africa, still unsure why they were led to film the theme song so far from Singapore, the answer was revealed when they got to share their testimony of faith with the director of photography and the assistant cameraman.

The children singing in the African footage are “fetal alcohol syndrome kids” (a condition in children resulting from alcohol exposure during the mother’s pregnancy), said Piet Strydom from Lighthouse Ministry in Oudtshoorn, who partnered CCIS in helping to  coordinate the African talent. “For some of them, it was their first time eating at a restaurant, having a chicken wrap, the first time somebody really cared for them by way of (the production team’s) care and teaching them new moves … they were so proud of themselves and I am so proud of them.”

Added Nora: “These kids come from very poor villages and don’t speak English well. It’s a miracle they could pick up the songs and moves so well.”

Log in to YouTube at 8pm tonight (Dec 18) to bless and be blessed by the Christmas message from performers and children from different backgrounds and countries – you won’t leave unmoved.

When: Dec 18, 8pm, onwards 
Cost: Free
Where: Log in to YouTube here

THE CHRISTMAS MESSAGE – Various churches across Singapore

Hear and reflect on the Christmas message of hope this coming week in churches in every corner of Singapore.

Families and children can learn about “The Wonder of Christmas” at Faith Community Baptist Church, and why we gather with family and friends, sing carols and give presents at this time of the year, as they follow Wonder and her friends, Adventure and Melody.

The Wonder of Christmas, FCBC, Dec 17 & 18, 24 & 25

Christmas at City Harvest Church is a highlight of every year. Invite your friends and family for the Christmas services when the story of Christmas will be told through a captivating drama, The Unconditional Gift, along with Christmas carols. 

The services will be simultaneously translated into Mandarin.

The Unconditional Gift, City Harvest, Dec 24, 2pm & 5pm; Dec 25, 10am & 1pm

Among the Methodist churches, Bedok Methodist Church choir and children’s ministry present a musical, “The Greatest Gift”, with a testimony by Salt&Light’s own social media head, Levan Wee, former lead singer of the band Ronin.

Cairnhill Methodist Church is screening the Gospel Movie, a Mandarin documentary sharing the testimony of a Taiwanese diplomat who came to Christ as a result of his wife’s postnatal depression. The movie will be screened after the 9am Mandarin service on Christmas Day.

Christmas production, “My Father’s House”, at Christ Methodist Church, is a drama surrounding Keith, who grows up with the absence of a parental figure. As questions and disappointments begin to arise over the years, he is led to make a brave choice that will change the course of his life. Based on a true story.  

For your Chinese-speaking friends and relatives, Geylang Chinese Methodist Church has Christmas Eve services, “Light in the Darkness” in English and Mandarin, where visitors are welcomed with supper and a door gift after service.

“The Christmas Tale” at Paya Lebar Methodist Church gives the Christmas message a local spin. The drama surrounds three Peranakan ladies who retell the Christmas story according to the Peranakan tradition of song and dance. As they share and build the story to its climax, they discover that this familiar tale they thought they know so well is not what they expected it to be.

• The Greatest Gift, Bedok Methodist Church, Dec 23, 7.30pm
• Gospel Movie, Cairnhill Methodist Church, Dec 25, 10.15am
• My Father’s House, Christ Methodist Church, Dec 21, 8pm; Dec 23, 8pm; Dec 24, 3pm
• Light in the Darkness, Geylang Chinese Methodist Church, Dec 24, 7.30pm
• The Christmas Tale, Paya Lebar Methodist Church, Dec 22, 23 & 24, 8pm

MORE WAYS TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR:

5 ways to bless those beyond Singapore’s shores this Christmas

6 ways you can bless Singapore this Christmas

10 festive gift ideas to bless friends and family with this Christmas