Of planting trees and christmas trees

CEBU, Philippines - For six consecutive Saturdays, the Cebu City Hall employees headed by Mayor Michael Rama together with the department heads and consultants had their tree planting activity at Sitio Pung-ol Sibugay of Barangay Malubog, a mountain barangay up north. During the last  and the sixth of the series, this writer had the pleasure of joining the group.

As early as six in the morning, all the participants willingly converged in front of the Cebu City Hall, all ready for the laudable project spearheaded by the mayor himself. Very much at the helm, Mayor Rama never missed one single Saturday of the series. I had fun and truly felt great after planting my tree and I’m sure the Cebu City employees, especially the mayor, felt the same way, too! Kudos!

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The Christmas season officially kicked-off at the SM City Cebu when they had their ceremonial lighting of their Christmas trees at the Northwing Atrium with Cebu City Councilor Margot Osmeña doing the honors last November 6. The activity started with the performance of the 250-member choir composed of the University of Cebu Chorus, the University of Cebu Chorus Alumni, the University of Cebu Chorus Children’s Choir, the University of Cebu High School Glee Club and the University of Cebu Nursing Banilad and sang Christmas carols together with the Peace Philharmonic String Quartet and the ballet performances of the Ballet Center group. The event was simultaneous with the other SM supermalls all over the country as they gathered more than 10,000 “voices” singing the SM Christmas Jingle.  

Bohol’s pride and one of the country’s noted performers, Luke Mejares, joined the University of Cebu Chorus as they sang the SM Christmas ChriSMs Bop. After the program, Santa Claus distributed Christmas goodies to the street children under the care of the Cebu City Task Force on Street Children.

Bring the whole family at the SM lower ground floor and have some photo ops at the Christmas Red Chair until December 31. Other activities to look forward to at SM includes performances of Cebu’s top choral groups at 6pm on all Sundays of November and on December 3 to 5, 17 to 19, 23-25 at the Northwing Atrium; the Fairy Tale Christmas by the Children’s Wear Department today at 5pm at the Northwing Atrium; the Peace Philharmonic Orchestra’s Symphony of Joy Series on November 27 and December 18, 6pm at the Northwing Atrium.

Indeed, Christmas is in the air at SM City Cebu!