Festive season · Sun 08 Nov 2026
Sentosa in December: the island's festive season with kids, from a dessert themed Universal Studios to fifteen dinosaurs
December is Sentosa's biggest family month, and in 2026 it is bigger than usual: Resorts World Sentosa's Season of Joy runs from Friday 27 November to Sunday 3 January, with A Universal Christmas inside Universal Studios Singapore, a glowing Christmas trail at Singapore Oceanarium and, for four days only from 3 December, fifteen life sized dinosaurs walking a ballroom at DINO-A-LIVE. How to build the island's festive season into days that work with children, what is free, what needs a dated ticket, and what to book first.
Sentosa in December is not one attraction with decorations on it. It is a whole island running a festive season at the same time as the school holidays, which makes it the easiest family day out in Singapore and, on the wrong day at the wrong hour, the most crowded. In 2026 the season has a name and dates: Season of Joy, Resorts World Sentosa's resort wide Christmas programme, runs from Friday 27 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, and almost everything in this guide hangs off it. The trick with children is sequencing. One big ticketed anchor a day, the free festive layer wrapped around it, a beach or a pool hour when energy dips, and home before the monorail queue becomes the memory. Here is the island in that order.
Getting in, and the shape of a day
The family route in is the Sentosa Express monorail from VivoCity, by HarbourFront MRT station, which drops you at Resorts World Station in the middle of everything this guide covers; the Sentosa Boardwalk from HarbourFront is the slower, prettier way in on foot, and the cable car from Mount Faber is the arrival children remember. Once you are on the island, Resorts World's attractions sit within a few minutes of each other, and the beaches, Siloso, Palawan and Tanjong, run along the southern shore a short hop away. Build each day around one anchor. December punishes families who try to stack the theme park, the oceanarium and a show in a single day, and rewards the ones who let the free layer, the trees, the ribbons and the performances in the resort's public spaces, fill the gaps for nothing.
The pacing trick is the island's other half. Between anchors, take the children down to the shore: Palawan, with its suspension bridge to a small islet billed as the southernmost point of continental Asia, is the beach built for families, Siloso is the lively one with the activities, and Tanjong is the quiet end for a picnic and a paddle. An hour of sand in the middle of the day resets small children better than any cafe stop, costs nothing, and means the evening anchor, a show, a luge run or the wishes wall at WEAVE, gets an audience that is still awake for it.
The anchor: A Universal Christmas at Universal Studios Singapore
Inside Universal Studios Singapore, A Universal Christmas turns Hollywood Boulevard into Dazzling Dessert Studios, a film set of oversized sweets around a ten metre Confectionery Christmas tree, with Santa and Mrs Claus meeting guests, character appearances through the day, and two new shows: The North Pole Jingle Jam, an all new musical in the New York zone, and the Universal Jingle Jam singalong with Poppy from Trolls, the Sesame Street friends and the Minions. The festive programme is inside the park and included with admission, so the bookable product is the ordinary dated park ticket, and December is the month to hold one early: go on a weekday if your holiday allows, arrive for opening, and do the big thrill rides your children are tall enough for before the afternoon, keeping the shows and the dessert boulevard for when legs tire. The gentler zones carry younger children a long way: Far Far Away and Madagascar for the rides, Sesame Street for the meetings, and The Lost World for the dinosaurs, who are not the only dinosaurs on the island this December, as the next section explains.
The ticket this site wires for the park, on its attractions hub and its event pages, is the KKday one.
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Four days only: the dinosaurs, 3 to 6 December
If your December has one fixed date in it, make it this one. DINO-A-LIVE Premium: Dinosaur Odyssey runs for four days only, from Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 December, in the Resorts World Ballroom: fifteen life sized dinosaurs, mechanical suits piloted by performers, walking the floor around the audience in a seventy minute show with no words and no interval, built by Japan's ON-ART and staged outside Japan at full scale for the first time. Our dedicated DINO-A-LIVE guide has the showtimes and the seat maths in full; the short version is that Saturday 5 December carries the most performances, including the only morning show, and daytime shows pair with an island morning and an early dinner, while the 8pm shows pair with a full Sentosa day first. The show uses darkness, loud sound and sudden movement, and the venue itself advises parents of very small or sensitive children to use their judgement; for everyone else it is the December outing children talk about into January. Tickets are dated and the four days will not stretch, so this is the first booking in the whole guide.
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The glowing middle: the Oceanarium and WEAVE
Singapore Oceanarium, the aquarium that replaced S.E.A. Aquarium at Resorts World, runs Glowcean Wonderland through the season: a glowing trail built on the light sea creatures make, with the Glowcean Journey clue hunt led by Manja the Manta Ray, an underwater Christmas presentation in the Open Ocean habitat in the afternoons, and Santa dive feeding sessions on most days. It is the calm anchor, air conditioned, pushchair friendly, and best in the morning before the park crowds look for shade. The Oceanarium needs its own ticket, separate from the park's; the resort sells a two park pass with festive perks this season for families doing both, worth comparing against single tickets for your dates.
Around it, the free layer is at WEAVE, the resort's retail and dining precinct: an eight metre Christmas tree, the Colours of our Wishes installation, where each child picks a coloured ribbon, writes a wish and adds it to a wall of thousands, and a stage programme of pop performances, weekend jazz, carols and balloon sculpting. None of it needs a ticket, and it is the correct way to end a day: dinner at the resort, the wishes wall, and the monorail home. Further along the island, Skyline Luge runs its own festive edition, Summer Santa's Luge Wonderland, from 29 November to 31 December, with Christmas themed tracks and live festive shows on the Saturdays of 5, 12 and 19 December and on Christmas Eve; it is the evening add on for children who still have energy after the park, and our Singapore attractions page carries its booking button.
Book these first, and where to sleep
The order that matters: the dinosaurs first, because 3 to 6 December is four days and then they are gone. Then the Universal Studios date, on the KKday ticket above, picking a weekday in the season's first half if you can. Then the Oceanarium, alone or in the resort's two park pass. The WEAVE layer, the beaches and the boardwalk need nothing but time. For a base, families split two ways: on Sentosa itself, where the resort hotels make the whole guide a walk and a second island day costs no travel at all, or at HarbourFront and the city fringe, one monorail stop away and handier for the rest of Singapore's December. Either way, December rooms near the island go early.
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Set a Singapore Happenings alert on the Season of Joy and DINO-A-LIVE listings and we will email you if showtimes or the festive programme change before your visit. The dinosaurs, especially, do not forgive a wait and see approach.
More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.