Longwood Gardens at Christmas

On Saturday night we took a trip over to Longwood Gardens with a couple of friends to see the Christmas display.  Thinking that we'd just be walking around and enjoying the grounds decorated in lights, I left my camera at home.  I was delightfully surprised when we ventured into the greenhouse and it was decorated for Christmas as well!  So I made do and snapped some shots with my phone, which really don't do the beautiful decorations and plants justice, but you should get the idea.

This replica of the greenhouse is entirely edible!  Most of it is graham cracker but they used other ingredients. I think the windows are sugar.

They had a couple of these gigantic gingerbread trees.  It smelled so good in this room!

I believe this is a replica of the house on the grounds.  Like the greenhouse replica, it is entirely edible.  The shingles on the house looked like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and the patches of grass were Rice Krispies.

There were a few bookcases of huge jars of colorful candy.  Seriously.  Yum.

This room has a pretty large shallow pool and the trees are all set up in the water, which reflected the lights on the trees and the lights hanging from the ceiling beautifully.

Next to the pool were a couple of giant gingerbread men towers.  It was awesome.

The lesson that I learned (yet again) is that I should just bring my camera everywhere!

There was so much that I didn't get to photograph, such as a large collection of bonsai and miniature trees, an entire hallway of different kinds of orchids, and a bunch of poinsettia displays.  They also have an awesome kids garden that includes a scavenger hunt and a bunch of interactive displays.  One of the fountains sprays every so often and it goes high enough to hit a bell on the ceiling and ring it.  I may have had a little too much fun in the kids garden.

Anyway, I highly recommend checking out Longwood Gardens while it's decorated for Christmas (or any time during the year actually).  The price is a bit steep ($25/adult), but if you plan on going more than once during the year you can apply this fee toward a membership, which is $95/year for a dual membership.  We've gone to their Fourth of July light show in the past and it is excellent.

What are you doing to get in the Christmas spirit?