Kids will have a blast over fun and engaging activities like science experiment demonstrations, and an ‘escape’ from Santa’s office at Singapore Science Centre's Sci-sational Christmas: The Elves’ HQ.
When I first saw the Singapore Science Centre’s Sci-sational Christmas: The Elves’ HQ event ad, I thought it looked adorable and the description sounded interesting enough – ‘experience spectacular blazing hydrogen combustion and freezing liquid nitrogen explosions…make your very own scented Christmas candle… catch a glimpse of Santa's top-secret office!”
I wasn’t entirely sure on what to expect but after finding out that tickets at $15 per person also include admission to the Science Centre, we bought tickets for it as there are exhibitions we wanted to check out at the venue. And may I say, what a blast (pun unintended) we had at the event! The fun we had was also partly because we went without any expectations, so I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimal here!
The activity is basically a tour of the elves’ headquarters while Santa is away, and during the hour-long visit, you’ll get to watch cool science experiments, make your own candle and participate in an escape room activity. Here are the highlights from our visit:
Upon entering the event's hall, we were greeted by a dimly-lit path flanked by Christmas trees which led up to Santa's workshop aka the elves' headquarters. There was a sense of anticipation as our group waited for the doors to open.
Once we entered the elves' HQ, we collected our safety goggles and made our first stop at the fuel efficiency and alternative energy departments. Here you’ll witness science experiments by competing elves – one using fuel and another using nitrogen - from the two departments.
The experiments were really interesting, funny and very entertaining especially given the animated performances from the elves. There were some loud popping sounds from the experiments but not to worry for the young ones, the elves will tell you to cover your ears before they carry out the experiments.
Next up was a candle-making session in a quaintly-decorated room.
Elves were at hand to help and explain the process. It’s a pretty simple and our kids at seven and nine years old had fun adding in the colouring and deciding on the scent of their candles.
While we were supposed to sit in the room to wait for our candles, a ‘naughty’ elf popped out and invited us for a ‘secret’ visit to Santa’s office. Ooh, nobody’s going to say no to that!
Santa’s cosy office is actually part of the escape room activity. Very quickly, the elf had everyone started looking for clues to escape the ‘accidentally’ locked room before Santa returns and finds everyone messing around in his office. In our group, most of the adults were content to let the kids do most of the work in Santa’s office (well, someone has to video and take photos right?), not that the kids in our session minded - they had a ball ransacking Santa’s office under the guidance of the elf (And kudos to the staff playing the elf for her engaging performance!).
I won’t give away on how we ‘escaped’ in the end, but we did escape to a lovely ‘snow’ scene.
And while we waited to collect our candles, we got to take photos at lovely spots like this...
...and this.
The girls were rather disappointed when they removed their candle molds and part of their candles crumbled (mine turned out okay though) but we were pleasantly surprised when an elf gave them replacement candles, so they had one each to bring home. The back-up candles were such a thoughtful touch!
On the whole, we found the event very engaging and interactive especially for kids (and myself too!), and are most impressed with the Science Centre for coming up with such a delightful event! Hope we won’t need to wait till Christmas next year for more!
Bonus trip for your trip:
- Tickets for the activity are at $15 per person (inclusive of admission to the Science Centre). Sessions are at 11am,12pm, 130pm, 2pm, 230pm, 3pm, 330pm, 4pm and 430pm till 25 December. Each session lasts for about one hour and only takes 25 pax. Tickets for the event held at Annexe Hall 1 can be purchased from the Science Centre's Visitor Centre.
- The activity is suitable for children five and up, and children up till the age of 12 need to be accompanied by an adult. So that means, you’ll need a ticket yourself if you have young kiddos but trust me, you’ll have a ball of a time too (or at least from watching your kids do so!).
- Don’t want to give any obvious spoilers for the escape room but it’d be good NOT to wear skirts or dresses, especially short ones.
Find the Singapore Science Centre at 15 Science Centre Road, Singapore 609081 or contact them at +65 6425 2500.
Disclaimer: We paid for our tickets, and the opinions expressed here are strictly my family's and my own.
©Vivian Teo. All content and photos are copyrighted to Vivian Teo unless otherwise specified.