Santa Claus’ house good spot for a selfie

Thousands of LEDs light up Mandaue’s version of Santa Claus’ house but this one is in the city’s plaza. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

Mandaue City’s version of Santa Claus’ north pole has become one of the Christmas attractions at the city plaza for residents and visitors wanting to take selfies or groufies.

The 16 by 18 foot red and white house with a a small fireplace and a chimney.

Santa’s house, which is also surrounded by thousands of light emitting diodes (LEDs), is a crowd favorite especially when the lights are turned on at night. Santa’s house can accommodate at least 10 people at one time, good for one groufie shot.

During the launching of the City Plaza as a Christmas themed park last Dec. 15, people lined up to get their chance for a selfie shot at Santa Claus’ house.

Engineer Marivic Cabigas, General Services Office (GSO) head and who conceptualized the Christmas themed plaza, said the frenzy of today’s youth for selfies has prompted them to make different Christmas settings in different places in the plaza including the Santa house.

Cabigas said that the house is made of recycled materials, like steel and plywood used by the city in previous years.

It took them 1 week to complete the project.

Other Christmas settings in the plaza imclude a belen, a children’s park where with animal statues near the plaza fountain and a giant Christmas atop the City’s Public Library.

The project is meant to maximize the small plaza for the families and friends to spend Christmas together without any cost. It is our commitment to make others happy this Christmas, which is the real meaning of Christmas,” she said to CDN in an interview.

She said that every year the city government wants to level up with the Christmas plaza project, and this year they made different sites where people can take pictures from.

“Every sites nilang adtoan laing-lain og background sa ilahang selfies. Among tumong og toyu ra g’yud ani makahatag og joy and happiness. (Every sites have different backgrounds for their pictures/selfies. Our only main goal for this was to give joy and happiness),” she said

Cabigas said the city government allocated a P1 million budget for the project but we only used less than half-a-million pesos and saved more than that amount, which will be used for next year’s project.