STORY: Christmas in the tropics DATELINE: NOV. 19, 2012 LENGTH: 0:03:02 LOCATION: Singapore Keywords: Christmas|Singapore| Orchard Road, Singapore’s main shopping strip, held its signature Christmas light-up ceremony on Saturday night. It represents the return of the annual month-long celebration event for the “Christmas in the Tropics”. The 2.2 kilometer long shopping strip has been decorated by 73 sets of over-street lighting, a 14-meter-tall main arch and thousands of Christmas baubles suspended from the road-side trees. Along with various gorgeous Christmas trees in front of every shopping mall, the light-up will last for more than a month until next January, shining and sparkling after midnight almost everyday. People who are just traveling in Singapore, as well as those living in this city-state, all enjoyed the special “Christmas in the Tropics”. SONDBITE (ENGLISH) Local resident “I love the decoration actually. And one of the things that I love about Christmas in Singapore is that even though it’s not part of the traditional culture here necessarily than Singapore really embraces Christmas and the lights are well better than anything that you see outside of Oxford Street in London.” Instead of focusing on white snow and Santa Clause like is done in many western countries, Singapore has encouraged its citizens to celebrate Christmas by visiting friends, tasting delicious multi-cultural foods and shopping as well. They don’t need to worry about the cold wind outside …