Festival Of Children Celebrates 15 Years

For the past 15 years in September, Festival of Children has celebrated children with a charity outreach event held every weekend, in conjunction with National Child Awareness Month, at South Coast Plaza. The month-long Festival offers free family activities and events, including live music and dance performances, a grand scale back-to-school fashion show by South Coast Plaza retailers, including Macy’s, arts and crafts, animal shows, face painting, and more, while showcasing over 75 youth-serving organizations.

Ongoing activities include: Canstruction OC: Now through Sept. 26 – You can view 16 amazing structures made entirely out of canned goods. At the conclusion of the Festival, the structures are disassembled, and over 60,000 canned food items will be donated to the Orange County Food Bank for distribution to needy families in Orange County.

LEGO--every Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. in Carousel Court, kids can experience amazing craft activities.

Care Bears Plush Drive—Shoppers can “Share Your Care” with Care Bears™ by donating a plush stuffed animal to the We Care Bears organization. Bring a NEW plush donation and meet Share Bear from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10 and Sunday, Sept. 11 in Carousel Court.

Puzzle Zoo—on Saturday, Sept. 10 from noon to 2 p.m. in Carousel Court, stop by for Calico Critters Arts & Crafts. Enter to win drawings.

Coffee, Tea, Mommy & Me: Every Friday in September at 11 a.m. – Educational talks about home safety, vehicle seat safety, nutrition, water and safety, will be followed by arts & crafts activities, and music. Coffee and Tea is hosted by Corner Bakery.

For a complete list of programs and activities, please visit festivalofchildren.org.