2025 Christmas Season - Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra at the Della Phillips Pavillion - 2025/12/12

It's the holiday season and it's time to get into the spirit! One of the things we all love to do (but Theresa especially) is go to a holiday concert! Hearing a live orchestra play Christmas music just gives you a special feeling. 

Fortunately for us, the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra has two different concerts in two different parks leading up to Christmas! 

And so, on a Friday after work, all 5 of us piled into the car, stopped by Chipotle to grab some food to go, and headed to the Della Phillips Pavillion in the Packing District of Orlando. 

Last year (on a Saturday) the concert started at 6pm. This year, on a Friday, it starts at 7pm. 

We arrived pretty early last year, being only the third group to set up. Speaking to the people last year, they suggested sitting about halfway back because that's where the sound check is done. It was good, but we really really like seeing the performers as well. 

And so this year, we're not messing around. We're here 140 minutes before the concert starts and we're certainly the first here. 

A wide open field just waiting for people, but we're front and centered. The next group showed up about 100 minutes before the concert and sat right next to us. 

The program for tonight, in fan form. It's not exactly fan weather tonight though. It was warm while the sun was still up, but once it went down, the coats started coming out. 

We all settled in to eat our Chipotle. It's nice to have these folding chairs, and especially the folding tables. 

Last year we brought way too many snacks, and I guess we didn't learn our lesson this year either. Lots of different cookies, pretzels, popcorns, chocolates, and even spiced tea!

Every year, Trader Joe's brings out a bunch of different holiday treats. One of them that we knew we'd have to do because it had "Taste Test" right in the name was this Taste Test of Caramels - Dark Chocolate Covered Assorted Flavors. 

On the back, they even suggest cutting each piece into quarters and trying it with others. 

The flavors we're trying, in random order, were creme brulee, fig & honey, sea salt, maple, double espresso, passion fruit, salted torte, gingerbread, salted lavender, pear & cinnamon, caramel mousse, and hot chili. 

They're not labeled here either. They do give a cheat sheet on the bottom of the package (after it's slid out of the sleeve), so we could verify what we were tasting. 

It was my job to cut everything into pieces. It was not so easy to cut them into quarters like the package showed. 

I ended up with lots of dust and bits from cutting everything into pieces. 

Mmm. 

Let's give these a try! 

 

Theresa - I like that they're all dark chocolate. 

Some of the flavors were very muted and you couldn't really tell which of the 12 flavors they were going for. Others were very strong like the Passion Fruit or the Coffee. 

Some were universally disliked, like the Gingerbread flavor. 

And I hate flavors that taste like flowers. No lavender flavored caramels for me. 

No one liked the Hot Chili flavor either. We had high hopes for Pear & Cinnamon, but it tasted bad. Ian spat it into a napkin. 

Jacob - It's very cinnamon heavy. 

Theresa - I'm chocolated out right now. 

Alli - Have a cheese ball!

Jacob - Those were good! I would eat them all again. 

Jacob - Creme Brulee was my favorite and also Sea Salt. Least favorite is Double Espresso. 

Theresa - Double Espresso, Passion Fruit, then Creme Brulee. 

Alli - Sea Salt then Double Espresso. I really didn't like Hot Chili or Pear & Cinnamon. 

Ian - My favorite was Maple, followed by Double Espresso, followed by Sea Salt. My least favorite was Hot Chili. 

Joe - My favorite was Double Espresso and Sea Salt or Maple. Least favorite was Passion Fruit. Gingerbread wasn't good either. 

60 minutes to go! 

We all were feeling pretty full from dinner and all those chocolate caramels, so we decided to save the rest of the snacks for intermission. 

About 5 minutes prior to the start, Santa Claus himself stopped by to greet everyone. He's taking a break before his big day to come enjoy some amazing music. 

Looking backwards, it has filled up! I'm happy we got there early! 

At 7pm, Conductor Eric Jacobsen welcomed us. 

And of course told us a few bad holiday jokes. It's tradition for him at this point. 

We're also fortunate to have vocalist Brandon Martin back this year. He's a member of the Voices of Liberty at Disney's Epcot, so you know he's talented. 

Telling a few bad jokes to each other. 

Ian loves bad jokes, and has a few of his own. 

Today we also have a special guest, making his debut as a conductor, nine year old Mateo Garcia. 

We love the parts of the show that are a sing-along. 

For the last song, a group of kids were invited to the stage to sing along, and then they opened it up to everyone who might want to come sing on stage. 

Ian hopped right up and asked if he could join them! Singing in front of strangers? It might be some people's worst fear, but he was super excited and not nervous at all! 

And he did awesome! Maybe we don't know all the words to all the songs (seriously when is the last time you sang or even heard "The Holly and the Ivy").

He was not in the front row, but it worked out great because the spotlight lit his face up perfectly just being a couple steps back. 

Great job kids and everyone else! 

When Ian came back to his seat, a woman sitting behind us came over and complimented him on his stage presence, saying she couldn't take her eyes off him. Nice work! 

The full show, recorded from the front row. 

After the show, Ian asked if he could go find the conductor and tell him a few of his own bad Christmas jokes. 

And then Conductor Eric Jacobsen came over to talk more with us, telling us about a Christmas Carol sing-along they also do. We'll have to look out for that next year. 

Following along with the program, Theresa pointed out that they went right through the intermission and did the next song. Then the next song. I guess we're not getting an intermission today! And so, while everyone else was packing up to leave and clearing out of the parking lot, we sat down and had hot spiced tea and all the rest of our snacks. 

Another year and another great concert! We loved being in the very front. Seeing the performers with their passion while they played was amazing. It was a great concert and we are all feeling the holiday spirit just a little more now.