Garden of Lights at the Norfolk Botanical Garden

I had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving marked on my calendar since September and not just because I was excited for the holiday, but because it was the day my family and friends planned to walk through the Botanical Garden's Garden of Lights as part of the Million Bulb Walk. From Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve, the Garden of Lights is open to vehicle traffic, but for a few days before (and after) the holiday, the Garden allows you to walk through the winding paths and admire the lights at your leisure.

It suits me much better than the traditional way, because invariably, every year, our group is too big to fit in one car, and I always get carsick from going so slowly and stopping and starting. So this was perfect, and I was so excited I put up a public invitation on Facebook for everybody I know to meet up with me, J., and Baby A. at the gate.

There turned out to be 16(!) of us in all in our group, and we had what was probably the best Garden of Lights experience in the history of the Garden of Lights, complete with steaming mugs of hot chocolate, out-of-tune Christmas carols, and little kids running around making dinosaur sounds. How could it get any better than that?


The Garden of Lights is set up to loosely mirror the four seasons, and each of us had a favorite installation (mine is the "falling rain" effect in Spring; Anouk and her friend Z. liked the holiday light train so much that they choo-choo'ed all the way through Winter). Each one of us, I think, was a little enthralled with the snowflakes that danced in time with the Charlie Brown Christmas theme.

There were a few moments of crankiness, as to be expected that close to bedtime, and by the time we reached the end of the walk, we were all glad for the tram to take us back to the parking lot. But all in all, I'd say the Million Bulb Walk was everything I expected and more. It was so much easier to appreciate everything on foot: the lights are really a 3D experience, above and all around, and a lot of it is lost when you're inside a car. Not to mention the added bonus of allowing the kids to run around and tire themselves out before bedtime (ours was asleep before we even left the parking lot).

It was the perfect start to the holiday season, and a tradition we'll be sure to revisit in years to come. With every single one of the 16 friends that were there that night, I hope, and more.

Wednesday was the last night of the pre-Thanksgiving Bulb Walk, but if you missed it, you can try again the first week in January. (More details here).