2021 Holiday Events for Gardeners

November and December offer amazing holiday events for gardeners in the Northeast. From beautiful light displays to Christmas teas and train shows, you will find a wealth of inspiration for your own holiday celebrations.

Please note that almost all of the events listed below require an advance-purchase admission ticket, and are selling out very quickly this year.

Gardens Aglow

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay, ME
November 20–January 1

New England’s biggest and brightest light display! With over 650,000 lights, the central gardens are transformed into an extravaganza of festive lights in a dramatic display of brilliant color. This year, it will be a driving tour.

Holidays at Highfield

Highfield Hall and Gardens, Falmouth, MA
November 26–December 12, 11 am—5 pm

Highfield Hall is decorated for the holidays with a blend of old world charm and contemporary elements. Returning this year will be a special outdoor holiday “village” to be installed in and around the Patrick Dougherty Stickwork sculpture, A Passing Fancy, before it leaves the grounds. If you love the fairy houses, you will love the woodland vignettes! Music will once again fill the house with classical guitar, harp, and piano performances by faculty and students of the Cape Symphony and Victorian carolers. Workshops include Gifts from the Kitchen, Boxwood Trees, and Gingerbread House Decorating. The Gift Gallery will once again be alive with artisan gifts for all ages.

Festival of Trees and Snow Village

Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Elm Bank, Wellesley, MA
Wednesdays–Sundays, November 26-December 19, 10 am–8 pm

The Festival of Trees, displayed in the Hunnewell Building, offers beautifully decorated holiday trees that are donated and decorated by local businesses, garden clubs, and individuals. Snow Village is an enchanting display of model trains winding through villages and vignettes, including Christmas in the Boston, Fenway Park, and hundreds of decorated houses and lights. Visitors can also enjoy the decorated buildings and grounds at The Gardens at Elm Bank with a stroll or a horse-drawn wagon ride. 

Holiday House Tours & Nightwood

The Mount, Lenox, MA
Holiday House Tours: Saturdays–Sundays, November 27–January 2, 11 am- 3 pm
Nightwood: Thursday–Sundays, November 4–December 31, 11 am- 4 pm

Tour Edith Wharton’s home decorated for the holidays and enjoy the second year of an ethereal winter landscape inspired by The Mount’s unique architecture and history. NightWood combines music, lighting, and theatrical elements to create seven unique scenes that evoke feelings of wonder, mystery, and magic: The Woods, The Eternal City, The Courtyard, The Winter Garden, The Lane, The Glade, and The Conference of Trees.

Winter Lights

Naumkeag, Stockbridge, MA
November 26–January 9, Wednesdays-Sundays, 4:30-8:30 pm

Enjoy the spectacular garden of Naumkeag lit with thousands of shimmering holiday lights. Each weekend features performances and activities for the whole family, from the young to the young at heart. 

Winterlights

The Stevens-Coolidge Place, Andover, MA 
November 26–January 9, Wednesdays-Sundays, 4:30-8:30 pm

This intimate seasonal event features 24 decorated trees nestled in a designed lightscape on our grounds. Enjoy a stroll through the twinkling lights and beautifully decorated trees. In a unique twist this year, program participants are asked to bring canned goods to vote for their favorite decorated Holiday Tree.

Holiday Magic

Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT
November 26–January 2 

This year’s celebration features new twists on the traditional décor. Imagine a fictional mantel-decorating contest in the Griswold boardinghouse between the historic Lyme Art Colony artists. Inspired by their paintings, they rummage through their studios as well as old trunks in Miss Florence’s attic for festive objets d’art and holiday decorations. Miss Florence announces the winner and awards ribbons on her birthday—Christmas Day!

In the Krieble Gallery, over 220 painted palettes, including a dozen new ones created this year, adorn four stunning Artist Trees. Miss Florence’s Christmastime Teas are available December 1-30. In the art museum, enjoy the special exhibit “Revisiting America: The Prints of Currier and Ives.”

Christmas at Blithewold

Blithewold, Bristol, RI
November 27–January 3, Wednesday—Sunday 12—4 pm 
November 26–January 9, daily 5–7 pm

Visit the beautifully decorated mansion. This year’s theme is "Life by the Bay," with the Van Wickle family's activities on and by beautiful Narragansett bay as the inspiration for all the holiday decorations. The holiday season includes Jazz Brunches, Afternoon Teas, Wreath-making Workshops, Music in the Living Room Series, and a Sing-Along with Santa.

Night Lights - An Illuminating Experience features beautifully lit paths throughout the grounds with stunning custom light displays, handmade bamboo ornaments, and all the beauty that Blithewold’s gardens and arboretum have to offer. Refreshments include non-alcoholic cider, hot chocolate, hot coffee, and adult hot drinks with a kick provided by RI Cruisin’ Cocktails. The Mansion is closed during this program.

Holidays at the Newport Mansions

Newport Mansions, Newport, RI
November 20 - January 9
Sparkling Lights at the Breakers: Thursday–Sundays, 5–7 pm

A total of 28 Christmas trees will glow in various places throughout The Breakers, Marble House and The Elms, featuring ornate, themed decorations that reflect the room where they are located. As always, the 15-foot poinsettia tree in the Great Hall of The Breakers – made up of 150 poinsettia plants – will provide a perfect holiday photo opportunity for visitors. Poinsettias, flowers, evergreens, wreaths and floral arrangements will decorate the fireplace mantels, tabletops and staircases of these Gilded Age mansions.

For the second year in a row, thousands of lights will illuminate the historic landscape. This year Sparkling Lights has been expanded to include both the north and south portions of the grounds. Stroll along a winding path and enjoy holiday music and displays including Peppermint Woods, Gnome Knoll, Snow People Corner and a Tunnel of Light, among others.

Holiday Train Show & NYBG Glow

New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY
Train Show: November 20–January 23, 10 am–6 pm
NYBG Glow: November 24–January 25, 5–10 pm

Marvel at model trains zipping through an enchanting display of famous New York landmarks—imagine the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Rockefeller Center, and other favorites—each delightfully re-created from natural materials such as birch bark, acorns, and cinnamon sticks.

Experience the magic of New York City’s longest outdoor illuminated color spectacle with NYBG Glow. Discover the beauty of the landmark landscape and historic buildings after dark, breathtakingly illuminated with a newly expanded 1.5-mile colorful experience. These lively nights return for their second year at NYBG with more displays to wander through and explore. See NYBG’s iconic sights and buildings come to life as dramatic, glittering canvases with the Haupt Conservatory and Mertz Library Building as the centerpieces. Colorfully lit paths and trees, thousands of dazzling LEDs, illuminated plant stories, and whimsical, picture-perfect installations reflect the surrounding gardens and collections—creating a spectacle not to be missed!

A Longwood Christmas

Longwood Gardens, Kennet Square, PA
November 20–January 9, 10 am–11 pm

This holiday season, wrap yourself up in the warmth—and the chill—of A Longwood Christmas, showcasing the dramatically beautiful contrast of fire and ice. Set your spirits ablaze in the East Conservatory, where flickering flame lanterns, trees adorned in amber to fiery red hues, and a vision of warmth surround you. Filled with drama and fire-and-ice contrast, the Orangery features an array of poinsettias to a snowy grove of white birch trees. Find a “frozen” succulent fountain in the Silver Garden and stroll through the cool white tones of the Acacia Passage before finding yourself in the mesmerizing Exhibition Hall, transformed into a refreshingly whimsical alpine wonderland.

Outdoors, the fire and ice theme continues with a half-million lights dazzle and delight, from wintery hues along our Flower Garden Drive, to a luminaria display that sets the Large Lake aglow, to the 200-foot-long Meadow Tunnel featuring nearly 20,000 twinkling lights gently transitioning from warm fire to rainbow to galaxy effects. Cozy up to three fire pits, feel like a kid again at our festive Garden Railway, and find surprises at every turn.

Christmas Village in Philadelphia

Love Park & City Hall, Philadelphia, PA
November 25–December 24, 11 am–7 pm, Fridays and Saturdays 11 am–8 pm

Philadelphia transforms into a European outdoor holiday market for the annual Christmas Village, held at iconic LOVE Park. Shoppers can expect more than 80 vendors set up in dozens of wooden booths and two large tents, all offering a wide range of international holiday gifts, ornaments, jewelry, handmade toys, high-quality arts and crafts, wintry apparel, and edible and drinkable treats, while entertainment keeps things festive.

Holiday Railway

Morris Arboretum, Philadelphia, PA
November 26–January 2, 9 am–4 pm plus select evenings

Visitors of all ages will be wowed by a quarter mile of track featuring seven loops and tunnels with fifteen different rail lines and two cable cars, nine bridges (including a trestle bridge you can walk under), and bustling model trains, all set in the lovely winter garden of the Morris Arboretum. The display and buildings are all made of natural materials – bark, leaves, twigs, hollow logs, mosses, acorns, dried flowers, seeds and stones – to form a perfectly proportioned miniature landscape complete with small streams. Philadelphia-area landmarks such as a masterpiece replica of Independence Hall are made using pinecone seeds for shingles, acorns as finials and twigs as downspouts.

 Yuletide at Winterthur

Winterthur, Winterthur, DE
November 20–January 2

The Yuletide tour at Winterthur showcases rooms in Henry Francis du Pont’s former home decorated in full holiday splendor, including specialty decorated trees that celebrate the garden, and du Pont family traditions. The displays are inspired by the traditions and festivities of the season as enjoyed by H. F. du Pont and his family.  

Special holiday programs throughout the season include Wonderful Wednesdays in December, evening events featuring live jazz performances, caroling, and workshops. In addition to the Wednesday evening festivities, visitors can enjoy a live one-man performance of A Christmas Carol by Gerald Charles Dickens, the great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens, wine and cocktail tastings, and family events with Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus.