At 67 acres of pristine lowlands, marshes, lakes, fields and forests, Airlie Gardens could already be considered an enchanting landscape. Every year for the past nine years however, the enchantment becomes a little more visible after Thanksgiving when hundreds of thousands of lights illuminate the garden walkways.
The 10th rendition of Enchanted Airlie will begin Friday, Nov. 28, when 750,000 multicolored bulbs will cast the grounds in a new light.
Airlie Gardens grounds supervisor Scott Childs is a member of the small team of employees that enchants Airlie every year. With little to no time wasted after each holiday season, the crew begins working on the next year’s display in January.
“We always have a few meetings in January through March to brainstorm ideas and try to figure out concepts to make the ideas possible,” Childs said while driving through the gardens Thursday, Nov. 20. “For the first half of the year we take a day every week to change bulbs, restring lights and then in September we actually start to bring everything out.”
By September it is all hands on deck with the crew working every day to install the holiday lights that lasts less than a month.
“It is a long six months … between September and January it is all Christmas,” Childs said.
Each year the lighting display evolves slightly. Influenced by feedback from patrons and new themes, trial and error drive the evolution.
Due to the amount of fanfare it received last year, the enchanted forest of realistic light-up trees has been expanded for this year with a long walkthrough area of illuminated cherry, maple, birch and willow trees.
“We tested the waters with it last year and now we have it as a walk-through area and greatly increased the number of trees,” Childs said. “We have all the nuts and bolts so now we are able to go bigger on specific projects.”
Nearby, a new lights-to-music feature was programmed by Precision Landscaping, the contractor who also works on Jeff Gordon Chevrolet’s holiday light display every year. Childs said the feature has been hand programmed so each note of each song will trigger different lighting sequences and flow with the music.
Precision Landscaping also helped install large colored Light Emitting Diode lights along the banks of the causeway between Airlie’s two main lakes. This region has never been open during Enchanted Airlie but this year Childs said patrons will be allowed to walk out there to see the twinkling lights reflecting off the ripples of the water and the trees.
“Time is really the limiting factor,” Childs said. “We have some really good ideas; you just have to pick the ones that are most reasonable.”
Although the ever popular LEGO display will not be part of Enchanted Airlie this year, a duo of winter princesses, Elsa and Anna, will make a special appearance at Enchanted Airlie each of the four weekends. The jolly ol’ elf Santa Claus will also be present for photos and listening to Christmas wishes at each of the 13 nights of Enchanted Airlie.
New this year Enchanted Airlie will also be open on some Sundays.
Janine Powell, Airlie Gardens Director of Donor Relations, said the first night Friday, Nov. 28, is nearly sold out.
“We sold out a lot of nights last year and I think people don’t want to miss the chance to get their family out there on the night they want,” Powell said.
Admission to Enchanted Airlie is available by carload, couple’s pass, or single ticket, with children under 4 admitted free. Large passenger vans, limos and buses should call in advance for special arrangements. Enchanted Airlie is handicapped accessible, with wheelchairs available on a first-come basis.
For more information, calendar and tickets, visit
www.airliegardens.org
email [email protected]
