For San Diego Moms and Moms-To-Be
Tis the season for Elf on The Shelf!
In this episode, we talk about all holiday traditions including elf on the shelf. Here’s Sara and Amber talking about Lollipop Perry and Marble the elfs and all that goes into it.
https://kson.radio.com/media/audio-channel/sd-moms-s2e10-the-elf-on-the-shelf
There are great Holiday displays of Light all over San Diego. We picked a few from North, South, East, and West to feature. Where is your favorite place to see Christmas Lights in San Diego?
North County Coastal
San Diego Botanic Garden – 125,000+ lights illuminate the Garden. Holiday crafts, visits with Santa, marshmallow roasting and more. sdbgarden.org
Carlsbad – Holidays at Legoland California – It’s Holidays at LEGOLAND(R), presented by Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas, and the entire Resort is bursting with holiday cheer. It starts the moment you enter the park and experience the festive d?cor. Keep your eyes open for your favorite holiday characters. Santa and the Toy Solider are back and they’ve brought somebody new: The Gingerbread Man! They’re ready for holiday hugs, pictures and selfies. November 23 – January 5, 2020. legoland.com
Oceanside – Oceanside Harbor Parade of Lights – Boats decorated in holiday lights circle Oceanside Harbor. oceansideyc.net
North County Inland
Carmel Mountain Ranch – Fairway Village, east and west sides of Stoney Gate Pl. 100+ homes decorated in “Holiday Magic.” .
Poway – Hickory Ct.,Hickory St., Butterwood Ct., Rockrose Ct. All off Twin Peaks Rd. & Silverset St. named “Candy Cane Lane.” Entire cul-de-sacs are lit up.
South Bay
Coronado – Hotel del Coronado Celebrate “A Christmas Legend” as this California gem transforms into a winter wonderland with Skating by the Sea, jingle s’mores, Polar Bear Tea, Santa Brunches, holiday parties and lavish feasts. From soaring red turrets decked in thousands of white lights to a Victorian lobby dressed in holiday splendor, visitors of all ages delight in the best West Coast winter. 1500 Orange Ave. 619-522-8490. hoteldel.com
Chula Vista – Whitney St./Mankato. Circle between First and Second Ave. off H St. & 1st Ave. “Christmas Circle.” 61st year of decorating 55+ homes.
East County San Diego
El Cajon – Jingle Bell Hill (also known as Pepper Dr. Lights). Solomon Ave./Pegeen Pl. and surrounding area. Off 67 & Bradley.
San Diego Central
Jungle Bells at the San Diego Zoo. The Zoo will be aglow with holiday cheer and activities to keep the whole family jolly. Seasonal decorations, animal experiences, costumed characters, live entertainment and more. Dec. 13-23, Dec. 25-Jan. 5. Free with Zoo admission. 619-231-1515. sandiegozoo.org
Clairemont Mesa – Lana Dr. & Jamar. Off Mt. Abernathy Ave. Circular street. “Clairemont Christmas Park”. 40+ homes decorated. Dec. 1-25.
San Diego Coastal
Mission Bay Christmas Boat Parade of Lights. Over 100 vessels. Begins on Quivira Basin. Dec. 8, starts at 6 pm. 858-488-0501. mbyc.org
SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration. As holiday music fills the air, a sea of over one million lights sparkle, transforming SeaWorld into a marvelous holiday event. Enjoy live shows like the all-new Winter Wonderland on Ice and Cirque Christmas. Plus, meet festive friends at Rudolph’s Christmastown and the new Sesame Street(R) Christmas Village. Savor holiday flavors of hot cocoa and warm desserts as you shop for unique gifts and decorations.. Now through January 5th.
San Diego Bay Parade of Lights. 48th Anniversary. “Comic Con on the Bay” theme. Dec. 8 & 15, 5 pm. Starts off Shelter Island, goes through the harbor and ends at the Ferry Landing, Coronado. sdparadeoflights.org
More from around town
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY AP Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Most viral videos have a finite shelf life, but the “doo doo doo” of “Baby Shark” shows no sign of abating.
The little ditty and dance about a family of sharks that captivated the toddler set and beyond will still be with us as we go into the next decade, with a “Baby Shark Live!” tour launching a new set of concert dates after recently wrapping up dozens of performances in its first run in North America. The second leg of the tour kicks off in Independence, Missouri on March 1.
“Our target demographic is 2 years old all the way up to 6 years old. That’s sort of the main sweet spot. But it’s family. It’s a family show. It’s parents with their kids. It’s grandparents with their grandchildren. It’s a show for the whole family,” said Stephen Shaw, co-president of Round Room Live, which is putting on the concert tour. “It’s a great night out. And we’re really pleased with the response we’ve seen and how broad the actual audience has been.”
And while the concert, the first for most kids, may include the earworm of “doo doo doo,” the 90-minute event features music beyond that song, including nursery rhymes around for far longer than “Baby Shark.”
“`Baby Shark,’ which is obviously the title and the main song of the show, only sort of appears twice,” said Shaw. “And the rest of the show is filled with great high-energy fun.”
“Baby Shark” has been around for a few years but it took the world by storm last year when the song and video by Pinkfong went viral with the nursery-school set, with little kids imitating the handclapping dance that went along with the video. Books, plush toys and other merchandise inspired by the song were hot-ticket items for the holidays and the “Baby Shark” tour was soon hatched.
“It’s one of those that has truly been a phenomenon where I think there’s any number of people who suspected it might start to fade a little bit, and it seems to be gaining steam,” said Jonathan Linden, Round Room Live’s other co-president. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s a fun song that sort of brings people together and everybody seems to know it.”
Getting exposure during the World Series as Washington Nationals fans adopted it as their rally song certainly helped extend that shelf life. And more “Baby Shark” is on the way as Nickelodeon has a cartoon series in the works.
Ramsey Naito, executive vice president of animation production and development for Nickelodeon, said the network sees “Baby Shark” as an opportunity to “develop bigger stories around these characters that everyone is falling in love with.
“What’s great is what we’ve seen with ‘Baby Shark’ is it appeals to everyone,” she said. “It’s just an unexplained phenomenon.”
The tour, which played to crowds of about 3,000 during its initial run, was popular with some dates selling out, said Ryan Borba, managing editor of the trade publication Pollstar, which tracks the concert industry.
Ticket sales only represent a portion of the show’s success, with merchandise bought for little tykes another key component. There’s even a VIP package where they can rub fins with Baby Shark characters.
The tour represents the continued growth of the live music scene for children, said Borba.
“It’s definitely becoming more sophisticated and the production quality … is really ramping up in recent years,” he said. “The appetite for live music is always growing … (and) kids shows are along for the ride.”
Popular toy retailer Build-A-Bear is getting a jump on the holidays by revealing a new line of bears based on popular Christmas movies.
The new series will feature bears inspired by “A Christmas Story,” “National Lampoons Christmas Vacation,” “The Polar Express,” and “The Grinch.” Predictably, they’re adorable as all get out. The bear dressed as Ralphie from “A Christmas Story” is particularly charming.
The catch is, that most of them are only available pre-stuffed and online and run about $50.00 each.
By MARTHA IRVINE AP National Writer
The number of young Americans watching online videos every day has more than doubled, according to survey findings released Tuesday. They’re glued to them for nearly an hour a day, twice as long as they were four years ago.
And often, the survey found, they’re seeing the videos on services such as YouTube that are supposedly off limits to children younger than age 13.
“It really is the air they breathe,” said Michael Robb, senior director of research for Common Sense Media , the nonprofit organization that issued the report. The group tracks young people’s tech habits and offers guidance for parents.
The survey of American youth included the responses of 1,677 young people, ages 8 to 18. Among other things, it found that 56% of 8- to 12-year-olds and 69% of 13- to 18-year-olds watch online videos every day. In 2015, the last time the survey was conducted, those figures were 24% and 34%, respectively. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
Overall screen time hasn’t changed much in those four years, the survey found. The average tween, ages 8 to 12 for the purposes of this survey, spent four hours and 44 minutes with entertainment media on digital devices each day. For teens, it was seven hours and 22 minutes. That did not include the time using devices for homework, reading books or listening to music.
But the findings on video-watching indicate just how quickly this generation is shifting from traditional television to streaming services, often viewed on smartphones, tablets and laptops. Among the teens surveyed, only a third said they enjoyed watching traditional television programming “a lot,” compared with 45% four years ago. Half of tweens said the same, compared with 61% in the last survey.
YouTube was their overwhelming first choice for online videos, even among the tweens who were surveyed — three-quarters of whom say they use the site despite age restrictions. Only 23% in that age group said they watch YouTube Kids, a separate service aimed at them and even younger children. And of those, most still said they preferred regular YouTube.
“It puts a lot of pressure on a parent to figure out what they can reasonably filter,” Robb said.
When presented with the findings, YouTube said that, in the coming months, it will share details on ways the company is rethinking its approach to kids and families.
For now, Farshad Shadloo, a spokesperson for YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, reiterated the company’s terms of use on age: “YouTube is not a site for people under 13.” Among other things, the company also cited its restriction filters and YouTube Kids.
Even so, many children with online access are adept at getting access to regular YouTube or other streaming content — partly because their parents are overwhelmed, said Sarah Domoff, an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Central Michigan University who studies tech’s impact on youth and families.
Those parents could certainly be doing more to track screen time, she said. But, as she sees it, filters on services such as YouTube also aren’t adequate.
“It’s really hard to block out certain things unless you’re really standing over your child,” Domoff said. That’s especially hard to do when devices are portable.
Some are skeptical about how much YouTube will really change a service that easily leads its users, young and old alike, down a “rabbit hole” of video content, much of it created by everyday people.
“If your model is built on maintaining attention, it’s really hard to do something,” said Robb, of Common Sense Media.
His advice to families: “Protect homework time, family time, dinner time and bed time. Have device-free times or zones.”
Domoff added, “There needs to be a game plan.”
Martha Irvine, an AP national writer and visual journalist, can be reached at mirvine@ap.org or at http://twitter.com/irvineap.
