Brookside Gardens Christmas Lights in Wheaton, Maryland

Brookside Gardens hosts its annual Gardens of Lights each holiday season. Since 1997, the Garden of Lights has been a Baltimore/Washington DC area holiday tradition. The illuminated outdoor winter garden walk includes whimsical monsters, enchanting trees, a walk through kaleidoscope caterpillar, an animated flying cardinal, and swimming geese over sparkling water. In addition, the Garden Railway Exhibit is open daily in the South Conservatory.

2019 Garden of Lights Schedule:

November 22 & 23: 5:30–10:00 p.m.

November 24: 5:30–9:00 p.m.

(Closed November 25–28)

November 29 – December 31

(Closed December 25 and 26)

Sunday–Thursday: 5:30–9:00 p.m.

Friday–Saturday: 5:30–10:00 p.m.

Location: Brookside Gardens, 1800 Glenallen Avenue, Wheaton, MD.      

The annual Garden of Lights is a family-fun walk-through holiday event. Visit early in the season to avoid the crowds.

Following your walk among the outdoor lights, warm up inside the Conservatory and enjoy a colorful display of holiday poinsettias, flowering plants, and evergreens. 

The Giant Caterpillar in Lights is a favorite display that you can walk through during the holiday season at Brookside Gardens. Kids love the fanciful, oversized displays that sparkle against the black of the night.

The Giant Sundial in Lights is one of the interesting garden-themed displays at Brookside Gardens during the holiday season. Colorful flowers bloom around the huge sundial.

The dragon in lights is a welcoming display located next to the Conservatory at Brookside Gardens each year. The serpent in the water is reminiscent of the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland.

The Garden Railway Exhibit is open daily in the South Conservatory, featuring miniature trains and trollies amidst a landscape of town and country scenes. The trains wind their way through a hand-built landscape with one-of-a-kind models of the Brookside Gardens Conservatories, the Dentzel Carousel, and the Chautauqua Tower of Glen Echo Park. The red poinsettias are a seasonal favorite and brighten the exhibit.

Brookside Gardens in Lights features a gazebo as a focal point and gathering place for families. The gardens and structures are beautifully decorated for the season.

Santa's reindeer are magical and light up the gardens as they graze. What would a Christmas display be without them? You'll be entranced as you stroll from garden to garden enjoying the twinkling trees, lighted fountains and winter scenes.

Visitors enjoy many unique seasonal displays at Brookside Gardens including this giant spider web. Woven between the trunks of the trees, the web holds a bright red spider awaiting its prey.

Lighted wolves howl at the moon. This display is reflected in the pond. This magical winter wonderland is illuminated with more than a million colorful lights shaped into hand-crafted, original art forms of story characters, flowers, and animals.

After you see all the lighting displays, warm up inside the Visitor's Center with hot cocoa and listen to one of the nightly musical performances.