Kiddies’ Christmas Camp at Cinnamon Lakeside

Children have something special to look forward to on 18 December when Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo hosts the third installment of their Kiddies’ Camp.  Once a month, three hours of entertainment and learning are provided for children up to twelve years of age.  It’s a refreshing alternative to watching television or playing video games at home.  

To begin the afternoon, the children will get into theme by getting their faces painted by a professional make-up artist.  Well aware of the fleeting attention spans of this segment of their clientele, the hotel prepares an action packed schedule for the kids along a different theme each time.  The Halloween Kiddies’ Camp held in October and the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ camp held last month were a tremendous success.  With Christmas upon us, this month the crafts and games have been devised with the festive season in mind.  The children will shovel snow with their noses, draw blindfolded snowmen, play the frosty snowball toss and bake Christmas cookies with the pastry chefs from Goodies.  Plenty of gifts will be up for grabs for the winners.

Sulochana Dissanayake will conduct the Christmas story segment of the afternoon where the children will gather round to hear tales from the point of view of her cast of puppets.  Maintaining the interactive aspect of the event, the children will be invited to participate in a story creating workshop guided by the charming and eloquent Sulochana.  

Sulochana studied theatre and economics at Bates College where she was first introduced to puppets as an art form.  She draws inspiration, not just from her subsequent travels to South Africa and Indonesia, where she studied under Puppet Maestro Dalang Asep Sunandar Sunarya, but also very much from Sri Lankan folk tales.  She never fails to amuse her audience with these tales related through custom crafted puppets of Mahadanamutta and his friends, some of whom are characters of her own invention!

She is back in Sri Lanka now to cultivate the art and will be featured at Kiddies’ Camp beginning this month.  The puppets keep children enraptured and prove an ideal medium to convey many a valuable lesson.  The story segment at the Kiddies’ Camp involves a close interaction between Sulochana, the puppets and the children, and appeals to the children’s creative spirit.

A delectable spread of food will be on offer ranging from children’s snacks such as hot dogs, burgers, cake, sandwiches, pastries to a Mongolian barbeque station to cater to parents’ tastes.  Fresh juices and ice cream will be served too.  The children will be treated to a Kiddies’ disco when Santa Claus will make a special appearance and distribute cookies to the children to take back home or to devour instantly.

This month’s Kiddies Camp will be held on December 18th from 3.00pm to 6.00pm at the hotel’s latest venue, the Waterside.  Tickets are priced at Rs. 950/- nett for children between two and twelve year of age and at Rs. 1,200/- nett for accompanying adults should they wish to join.  For reservations or inquiries, the hotel may be contacted on 2491998.