In this series, people from all walks of life offer an inside – and often unfiltered – take on their livelihoods and what keeps them going in their jobs. In this instalment, visual design consultant Andy Lim walks us through the joy of decorating and details what it takes to bring the festive atmosphere up a notch this holiday season, as told to The Straits Times.
I am 60 years old, and my job for Christmas Wonderland at Gardens by the Bay this year is to beautify the event grounds and amp up the festive feeling with decor. This includes sourcing the right finishing touches, like lighting and furniture, to complement the look.
Christmas is quite a busy time for me. Before the event opens to visitors, I often walk up to 20,000 steps a day. I always have my trusty “Good Morning” towel with me to wipe off my sweat on the go. In tropical Singapore, the weather can be very warm and humid.
The exciting bits are getting to see and working on the set-ups before the public can see them. We have to make sure that everything is working properly, like making sure that every bulb is working.
This is my fourth year doing this at Gardens by the Bay, and we have new elements and concept areas that are striking and stunning on their own. For example, we have the new six-storey, 16m-tall Christmas Pyramid with rotating gears and festive characters like merry elves. The structure itself is inspired by traditional German decorations.
I helped to position the elves, snowmen and gingerbread men that are facing outwards, factoring in the overall lighting so there are no harsh shadows. There’s a tunnel that allows visitors to walk through the first floor.
The Enchanted Blooms section is also new in 2025. My favourite part of the job is letting my imagination run wild to conceptualise certain ideas. My team and I envisioned a herd of reindeer grazing in a field of poinsettias, and we wanted visitors to pause, and meander through this section with wonder.
I strategically placed the reindeer to welcome visitors when they walk through the sea of scarlet poinsettias. Some of the reindeer have heads that point downwards, and I imagine them drinking water from a stream. I made sure there’s some variety in their positioning to keep things interesting along the pathway.
Dressing up Santa’s home
Over at the air-conditioned tent called Reindeer Town, visitors would first enter a book and toy store, followed by a forested area as they search for Santa at his reindeer stable.
We wanted to achieve a balanced look that would not be too overwhelming, yet still appear festive, so we dressed up the 70 Christmas trees in the forest with classic red and gold baubles. I helped make sure the trees were dressed properly with a proportionate number of baubles. Along the way, you can find an infinity mirror with gingerbread man cut-outs, a “glacier cave” and a snow globe, which are great photo opportunities.
I also arranged and positioned the props that are made to look like presents and gifts at the stable. The shopfront has very strong animated graphics, so we wanted to create more depth and bring these graphics to life by adding 3D elves, garlands, baubles and fairy lights to further elevate the look.
I like traditional decorations that create a big impact. For example, in 2024, I had a blank canvas of a wooden shed and had to transform it into a home for Santa at Christmas Wonderland. When we got the hut, it was very bare, so how did we make it interesting? Instead of retaining the typical wooden lodge look, I chose to paint the hut a very striking red. I managed to get a vintage postman’s bicycle and parked it outside to add more visual interest and character to the Santa lodge.
When I dress something up, the details are important. We added an old-school letterbox to last year’s design too. It attracted people because of the pop of red. You have to make sure that it attracts attention because if not, people will just walk past it. So I decided to make it loud. It was satisfying to see people queueing up to take pictures at the Santa lodge. That was when we knew that we were doing the right thing.
How it started
While studying graphic design part-time at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, I joined department store Tangs in August 1985 as a display artist. Preparations for Christmas started in October and we often had to work overtime, sometimes late into the night, to set up the store.
Work was intense, so I didn’t have much time to finish my schoolwork. It was during my first semester and about six months into the job that I began to wonder if I should continue my studies or drop out and focus on work. I decided to take a leap of faith and told myself that I could go back to studying if the job did not work out for me.
From there, I continued working and got to learn from the “window-dressing master” in Singapore. His name is Ng Weng Sang. He was trained in stage and theatrical design and dressed up windows with the most wonderful designs then.
Nowadays, department stores mostly don’t have window displays any more. But in those days, every department store had a window display. I learnt a lot from him, especially how to make props and develop a keen eye for detail. I stayed at Tangs for a good eight years.
Merchandising design is different from interior design. People often think I am an interior designer, but similar to what a visual merchandiser does, I am more of a decorator or stylist.
‘Any form of art inspires me’
I get inspiration from my travels to Europe, and I enjoy going to flea markets and trade fairs in places like London, Paris, Italy and Belgium. I’ve been to Sunbury Antiques Market in Surrey, Portobello Road Market in London, and Antwerp Christmas Market in Belgium. Europe has many vintage items, and I like beautiful ornaments, especially the glass types. They also have full sets of silverware. And the items are nicely categorised into different types, including crystal.
It’s interesting and exciting to see the items with your own eyes. You can’t learn about these things just from textbooks. Anything that inspires me, I record it for reference. For me, these experiences are lessons learnt, as they broaden my horizons. I went to the 2023 and 2025 Milan Furniture Fair, also known as Salone del Mobile Milano, for inspiration. It’s quite difficult to find nice merchandise and good craftsmen in Singapore, and local production is very expensive.
One of the biggest challenges is conceptualising a design idea with a limited budget. If you have a good budget, you can do wonders with it.
Some of my proudest moments include working with and learning from international show producers like Etienne Russo from Villa Eugenie and Alexandre de Betak from Bureau Betak. When I was in Paris, Etienne showed me one of the shows he designed for Chanel at the Grand Palais. It was amazing. Both Etienne and Alex are behind major fashion shows for luxury brands like Hermes, Chanel, Dior and Saint Laurent. In Paris, I was also introduced to artistic director and florist Jeff Leatham, who is behind Four Seasons Hotel George V’s Christmas decorations.
Even though I don’t work with that kind of budget, I love to see beautiful things. That’s why I enjoy going to flea markets and museums, and own hundreds of design books. Any form of art inspires me. My friends do come to me for advice, and they ask me to help them do up their Christmas trees.
Working with festive lights
Festive lights are magical because they sparkle. They are simple but create wonders. There are different types of festive lighting, such as rope lights and LED string lights. But my favourite kind of lighting to work with is LED fairy lights in warm colours.
When I decorate a 10ft tree, I would use 25 packs of fairy lights. The simple and easy way to dress a Christmas tree with fairy lights is to go around the edges of the tree from top to bottom. But to ensure the lights are spread out evenly, you can weave them in and out of the branches from top to bottom. This will allow you to achieve consistency in how the lights cover the tree. This way, the plug will also end up at the bottom.
Every project is exciting. This year, I also got to work on festive decor for a lighting and homeware pop-up store at voco hotel in Orchard Road. I decided to get 5ft trees and hang them upside down from the ceiling, suspended in the air. The store has a very high ceiling of about 4m and the trees look like they are floating. People ask me why I did not dress the trees up with Christmas ornaments. Again, it’s about creating a balanced look. I kept the trees simple so the merchandise displayed on the long tables can stand out. I want them to pick something from the table and visualise how the ornament could look on a tree.
Some of the most unforgettable recent projects included creating a Formula One car display area with infinity LED wall panels and floors for the Singapore Grand Prix in 2023. I found a supplier online and bought some samples first. I collected the panels myself – each weighed about 15kg. It was rewarding to see guests queueing to take photos of the product.
In Singapore, things have changed quite a bit – there used to be greater demand for visual merchandisers. About a decade ago, we had “Best-dressed Mall” awards for Christmas. Nowadays, our department stores don’t have many display windows to decorate. It’s a bit sad because I think the younger generation prefers to do paper and computer design – it has become part of the culture, just like how people are always on their phones. I hope the joy of decorating something physically can continue. I would like to have an apprentice, but the work is not easy. If there’s no passion, it’s very difficult to learn.
When I promise to take on a job, I have to deliver on the promise. Trial and error keeps me going, and when I hit the right track, I know I have succeeded.
Got an interesting job to share? Write in to us at ssharon@sph.com.sg.