It's Holday Time in SoCal

There’s nothing like a visit to a theme park to get you in the holiday spirit! Festive decorations and spectacular events surround you. This sea

son, there’s lots of fun and excitement to experience at So Cal theme parks. Read on for all the cool details! Then visit welcometosocal.com and purchase discount park tickets so you won’t have to wait in line when you arrive.

SeaWorld Makes the Season Merry
Shamu and the gang will be in the holiday spirit again this year with special festivities to celebrate the winter season as SeaWorld’s Holiday Celebration returns for a third year, November 28–30, December 6–7, 13–14, and 20–31.
SeaWorld’s prankster-loving pinni peds put on a hilarious holiday show called “Clyde and Sea more’s Night Before Christmas,” starring sea lions and otters. “Shamu's Holiday Night” is a nighttime show featuring amazing killer whale behaviors set to holiday music, including live singers and musicians. On selected dates, the SeaWorld celebration becomes even merrier, with strolling holiday musicians and a chance to “Meet the Holiday An imals,” including a reindeer, penguins, arctic foxes and more.

While enjoying all of Sea World’s holiday festivities, guests can also pose for a family greeting card at one of SeaWorld's many decorative photo spots throughout the park.
And it wouldn’t be the holiday season in San Diego without the daily lighting of SeaWorld's 320-foot Skytower. At 6 p.m. each night November 25 through Christ mas Day, the SeaWorld Holiday Tree of Lights, presented by KyXy will dance, flash, swirl and glow for five minutes to holiday music broadcast to all of San Diego on KyXy 96.5 FM.
Santa and Shamu team up for a special culinary treat during SeaWorld’s Breakfast With Shamu & Santa, Nov ember 28–30, December 6–7, 13–14, 20–23, featuring an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at poolside tables, just a few feet away from SeaWorld’s family of killer whales. Santa makes an appearance during the event, posing for festive holiday photos. Reservations required.
For more information about Sea World’s Holiday Celebration, call 800.25-SHAMU or visit www.sea world san diego.com.

Discovery Science Center Showcases the Science of Gingerbread
Experience the sweet smells of the holiday season at Discovery Science Center’s “The Science of Gin gerbread” exhibition from November 24 – January 4, 2009. In side the kitchen, much more is going on than pouring and mixing – it’s science at work!
How many gumdrops can a frosted cookie hold? Why do some recipes call for baking powder in stead of baking soda? Find out at The Sci ence of Gin ger bread’s hands-on kitchen science act ivities. On weekends throughout the ex hi bition, Dis covery Science Center will host gingerbread decorating de mon stra tions, and “A Mat ter of Taste” weekend stage shows will explore the bitter, sour, salty and sweet sides of flavor.
Calling all kitchen scientists! Don’t miss the chance to enter the annual gingerbread competition for fabulous prizes! Past entries have in cluded a gingerbread Zam boni, a gingerbread surf shack, and many other creative submis sions.

Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats
From October 4 to Jan uary 4, 2009, Discovery Science Center is bringing the mystery surrounding bats out of the dark with the touring exhibition, Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats. Par tici pate in fun science ex periments, enjoy trick-or-treat goodie bags and explore a spooky 3-D maze.
The exhibit dispels popular misconceptions about bats, describes their ecological importance and gives visitors an appreciation of the true wonders of the bat world. Special effects, multi-sensory in teractive displays, a Gothic castle and environmentally lifelike settings, such as caves and rain forests, present bats in mythic and real-life settings.
Eighteen interactive elements immerse visitors in the world of bats, but space limitations prevent us from including all of them here. Here’s a preview:
"Echo, Echo, Echo": Visitors learn about bats' sonar system, called echolocation, by calling down two cave shafts. Distance can be distinguished by the delays in the returning echoes of their voices. The deep shaft gives a long delay in the echo, with less delay for the echo in the shorter shaft.
"The Nursery Visit": One of the bat's most fascinating mammalian characteristics is learned in this visit to a crowded bat roost. A mother bat can find her own baby in a nursery roost of more than 500 pups per square foot. Visitors use sound to help the mother bat find her pup by its unique cry.
"The Importance of Being Bats": This exhibit illustrates the ecological importance of bats to pollination, seed dispersal and insect control. Interlinked displays rotate to reveal the environmental results of ecosystems with and without bats.
For more information, visit www.dis covery cube.org.

You’re Invited to LEGOLAND® California’s Holiday Block Party
The ninth annual Holiday Block Party at LEGOLAND® California runs from De cember 20-31. The family theme park is decked out in its holiday finest with decorations, special entertainment and jolly sounds of the season.
The world's biggest LEGO® holiday tree is the centerpiece of the event. Standing 30-feet tall and created out of more than 245,000 forest green DUPLO® bricks, the tree is adorned by more than 240 ornaments and 100 holiday candles, all built in LEGO basic brick. A special tree lighting ceremony takes place on December 1 at 5:30 p.m. Take advantage of a great holiday photo opportunity as your children pose with a special life-size LEGO display of Santa, his sleigh and two reindeer. The 7-foot tall display features 51,100 bricks. Nightly fireworks light up the sky above Miniland U.S.A. throughout the Holiday Block Party. The holiday season concludes with the only Kids' New Year's Eve party in Southern California with a special brick drop at 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.LEGOLAND.com or call 760.918.LEGO.

It’s a Jolly Holiday at Disneyland and California Adventure
Beginning November 21 and running through January 4, Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure parks transform into dazzling holiday wonderlands. The park hours for both Disneyland Resort theme parks are extended for much of the season, and the Downtown Disney District and three Disneyland Resort hotels join in the merriment with special entertainment and holiday dining.
Disneyland presents a seasonal array of holiday shows, attractions and lively entertainment. Guests entering Main Street, U.S.A. find the traditional 60-foot evergreen Christmas tree in Town Square, decorated with 10,000 ornaments and more than 70,000 holiday lights. The Disney Char acters bring the season to life during the park’s annual holiday parade, “A Christmas Fantasy,” presented daily November 21 through January 4.
Sleeping Beauty’s Castle will be aglow with lights during the fireworks show, and also enveloped in a light display with music and snowfall. One of Dis ney land’s most famous attractions will again resound with the joys of the season as the children of the world sing and play in harmony at the “it’s a small world” Holiday. More than 300,000 lights sparkle on the attraction's façade, creating a spectacular holiday vision unlike any other!
A Holiday celebration at Disneyland would not be complete without the return of Jack Skellington and his friends to transform the Haunted Mansion in New Orleans Square into the popular seasonal “Haunted Mansion Holiday.” It depicts the holiday mayhem that occurs when Halloween and Christmas traditions collide.
The nightly fireworks spectacular, “Be lieve…In Holiday Magic,” debuts Nov ember 21. The fireworks conclude with a touching rendition of “White Christmas” and one of Disneyland’s most beloved holiday traditions: the magical snowfall which gently flutters down on Main Street, U.S.A., Small World Mall and New Orleans Square.
At Disney’s California Adventure, Disney characters blend classic holiday images with the California beach lifestyle. Inside “a bug’s land,” Flik and his bug buddies spread giant Christmas lights, oversized ornaments and towering candy canes throughout their realm. Alongside Paradise Bay, a magnificent Christmas tree provides a dazzling sight as other nearby trees sparkle with hundreds of lights and wreathes adorn lampposts.
For more information visit disneyland.com.

Aquarium of the Pacific Says Merry Fishmas!
In celebration of the holiday season, Scuba Santa will be delivering an ocean of gifts on December 6 and 7 to the Aquarium of the Pacific’s sea otters, seals, sea lions, birds, fish, and other animals. Guests can see Scuba Santa dive with sharks and watch the Aquarium’s animals receive their special treats and enrichment gifts during the Holiday Treats for the Animals weekend. Families can enjoy holiday music, crafts, special presentations, unique photo opportunities, shopping, and more. The Seal and Sea Lion Habitat will be decked out for the “sea”son with frozen “fishmas” treats. Guests can watch the sea otters savor candy cane-shaped ice treats, gourmet lobster tails, and their very own snowman. Throughout the day, Aquarium staff will give special gift delicacies to other marine animals as well. For further information, visit aquariumofpacific.org.