Hundreds of visitors lined up along the parking lot pathway, eager to pass through the light-filled wrought iron archway to experience McKee Botanical Garden’s annual Holidays at McKee celebration last week. The three-night event before Christmas is followed the next week by three Night of Lights celebrations.
Visitors were greeted with music from a 1924 Wurlitzer Band Organ and a towering blow-up Rudolph as they began strolling along the garden’s luminaria-lit pathways. Magical displays of lights, toy soldier cutouts and holiday décor surrounded them, sparkling in the trees and shining over water installations, where lasers projected thousands of twinkling colored lights onto the waterfall and water lily ponds.
In the Education Building, children stopped by to meet the man in red and make one last effort to give Santa their wish list. The building also housed another wonderfully popular draw – the appearance of an intricate large-scale model train set, put together specially for the event by Eric Menger, Peter Tyson and Tom Hadden.
“It makes you feel good to do this for the community,” said Hadden, the newest member of the team. “It takes a month to set this up but when it is all said and done, it is great to see all these kids come through and enjoy it.”
“And the big kids too,” added Menger.
Each year something new is added and this year saw some brightly glowing four-foot pandas placed among the bamboo clusters. Children were mesmerized as their parents attempted to capture the moment, posing their little ones by the adorable display.
In homage to the garden and its bounty, the Hall of Giants was entirely decked out in natural decorations, mostly found around the garden and assembled by the volunteers.
“We made all the ornaments from items inside the park, although some of the pine cones are from other areas that volunteers brought in,” said Volunteer Coordinator Ro Vandright, wearing a festive crystal tiara. “Also, the branches from the Monkey Puzzle Tree around the base of the big Christmas tree on the table are from a college up in Melbourne. Those are pretty unique.”
The branches had small wood-like leaves which all pointed smoothly toward the tip. Vandright demonstrated how a monkey attempting to return back into the tree would be thwarted by the sharply pointed leaves.
“These butterflies are from a butterfly vine which grows in the pergola and we just spray a little glitter on them,” said volunteer Jackie Davis, dressed head to toe as a Christmas fairy. “The little owls are made from pinecones and we also have pods from our trees and a bee’s honeycomb in the tree. We got all these from the garden and then Ro called us in and had us turn them into natural ornaments for the tree.”
The event has become a traditional night out for many families as they take a break from holiday shopping and gather with friends and neighbors to breathe in the night air and decompress before Christmas.
The Capra and Swenson families had nine in their party; their children having so enjoyed last year’s initial visit that they wanted to return once again.
“The pandas were awesome,” said 7-year old Kaileigh Capra excitedly, before running off to see more of the brightly lit displays with her friends and siblings.