The ornaments have been shuffled into the attic and you’ve wrapped your holiday lights into an “unknottable” ball (we’ll see what the garage has to say about that in eleven months). For most, the holidays are done with. But while work and school are back in full swing, the celebration continues here at the NYBG. Our lights are still twinkling, our conifers still decked to the nines in seasonal flash–you’ll hear at least a few quiet Christmas classics humming in the Conservatory. Sadly, at some point, we do have to pack it in for another year (coming exhibitions need the space to sprawl). This weekend, we say goodbye to the Holiday Train Show of 2012.
Of course, thousands of people have already taken advantage of the stretched holiday schedule at the Garden, and there are still a couple of days for you to do so! We’ll be running our normal Conservatory schedule throughout Saturday and Sunday, with one last Train Show tour on Saturday at 2:30. You’ll also catch Thomas & Friends™ continuing throughout the weekend (though we hope you bought your tickets already, most shows are sold out). That event happens to keep the pace until January 27, so even if you can’t make it this time, there are still plenty of opportunities waiting for you.
We’re now into weeks three and four of this year’s Holiday Train Show, and as you’d expect, we can’t help but gather momentum from here on out! Thousands of fans have already toured this year’s exhibition, walking the paths between dozens of nostalgic miniatures and beneath the many bridges recreated by Paul Busse and his team at Applied Imagination. The crowds are certainly growing as we get into the December holidays, so you may want to consider grabbing up tickets sooner rather than later. But there’s more to the season than what you see under the glass of the Conservatory, as Kevin Character explains below.
Who says a picturesque evening under twinkling lights is the stuff of romantic comedies? For that matter, why let It’s a Wonderful Life horde all the holiday magic? This is New York! There are countless opportunities to hit the town this season, all of them at your fingertips, and Bar Car Nights are easily among the best of the lot. In fact, last year’s evenings were such a smash with our visitors that we’re stepping up our game this time around.
Saturday evenings throughout December, you’ll have the chance to experience the Holiday Train Show in a slightly different light: one without the kids tugging at your coat. Trust me, that’s a huge change of atmosphere for this holiday classic. While we’ll be the first to tell you that this event is a picture-perfect family affair, we’re also sensitive to the fact that most of you see the season as a new source of stress–through shopping lists, in-laws, and more than a few family feasts to plan out. Consider Bar Car Nights the antidote to what ails you.
I took an aimless jaunt around the Garden yesterday to see what the birds were singing about. Of course, I rarely have a goal when I set out, and this was no different. I checked to see whether the trees had given up all of their fall color (they haven’t), and if the NYBG‘s wild turkeys were still tottering around without care for man, beast, or passing Garden tram (they are). In the Forest, breezy reds and yellows still clung to many of the trees, and there was that pervasive, comforting sense of autumn isolation to wrap yourself up in. But what’s going on by the Visitor Center can only be called a holiday hubbub.
I saw winter-bare trees wrapped in strings of lights, wreathed benches, and a conifer display primped and preened, anxious for someone to come along and flip the switch on its own light show. And further down the path, just outside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, I picked up on the telling twinkle of the season’s defining event: the Holiday Train Show! Horticulturists, model makers, and toy train aficionados have kept their noses to the grindstone for weeks, making sure that each elevated track and glowing window is left perfect for the thousands of New York fans ready to pour through those Conservatory doors. And because there are new models to be seen this year, the challenge was that much greater. But, as always, it’s worth the work they put into it to see so many grins.
Kickstarting the imaginations of children is the kind of gratification you love to run into here at the NYBG. Some exhibitions–the Holiday Train Show, for one–just happen to be especially good at creating the perfect incubator for young creativity. And with stories like these, it’s always a perk to follow up.
Back in December we received a suggestion for our “20 Days” series from an administrator at the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich, Connecticut, explaining just how excited the kids were by their visit to the Garden in 2010. They were so ecstatic, in fact, that the club decided to give its own train show a try. For 2011’s traditional visit, the kids put their patience and skill together in recreating the Greenwich landmarks they grew up with. And this was no half-baked homework assignment: they even set up their own running model train.
With 2011 rounded out, we look back on a month of whirlwind activity and holiday charm the likes of which you seldom see elsewhere in the city. It’s downright busy here. And with the string lights bright and families strolling all about the grounds, we ring in the new year with one last look back.
Not just for kids, we invited guests throughout December to join us for a viewing of the Holiday Train Show with a pair of slightly more grown-up themes. Shopping and Champagne and Bar Car Nights were a hit with our adult crowds, offering a chance to leave the rest of the family at home and enjoy the night with a glass of champagne or a cocktail.
Can you believe the Christmas weekend is already at our doorstep, and Hanukkah well underway? Before you can bat an eye, you’ll be up to your ears in New Year’s party planning while trying to decide on your resolutions for 2012 (as shaky as they always turn out in practice).
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! If you’re in search of a way to entertain the in-laws and maybe a place to knock out those last few items on your all-too-lengthy gift list (nothing to be ashamed of; I’m so far behind on my shopping I’m thinking of giving everyone scratch-offs), there are still a few chances to catch the Holiday Train Show before Sunday.
You might be sitting at home right now, wondering if this will be the year you finally visit the Holiday Train Show. We know what you’re thinking, too: “It’s just for keeping the kids busy,” or “What’s the point in going if I don’t have relatives to bring along?” But we understand that not everyone’s out to snap family photos in matching holiday sweaters and Santa hats. Regardless of how old (or young) you are, or whether you’re a tourist (or a native), The New York Botanical Garden has something worth seeing this holiday season.
Our Holiday Train Show is the perfect chance for everyone to get out and make new memories.
Hopping a train in New York City is one of the most memorable rites of passage there is, though it can be a bit intimidating to greenhorns and tourists. And trust me–I can vouch for this. Having only been here for a few months now, I’m still not jaded enough to wedge myself into the crush of commuters on the Times Square shuttle without a little caution or uncertainty. But on the other hand, I can’t help being taken with the serpentine tracks and train cars that make the NYC transit system one of the best (and biggest, and busiest) in the world. Metro-North, the LIRR, even the subway–there’s a charm to their permanence.
There’s now a 20-year history behind the models at the NYBG’sHoliday Train Show, something that scales to the reality just as well as our replicas do to the real McCoy.
What else flutters the heart like opening that first bottle of champagne? The percussive pop of the cork brings everyone close, and it doesn’t matter how much you spill. Sometimes that’s the point–champagne is a cheer to the evening with or without occasion.
At The New York Botanical Garden, we’re toasting holiday nights with an event just glitzy enough to make for the perfect outing in the city, boasting bottles of your favorite bubbly beverage and a chance to check off the names on your gift list in one easy sweep. No hemming and hawing over what to buy for that colleague you hardly know, or catering to your neighbor’s gardening habit without a clue as to what she needs. It’s just you, a glass of champagne, and a walk through the Holiday Train Show’s miniature marvels; 140 landmark replicas, a quarter-mile of tracks, and memories made every moment. And after relaxing in the starry glow of the seasonal lights, stroll over to our Shop in the Garden to put our gift experts to work. Oh, and it’s not a hard place to find–just head for the sparkling display of holiday conifers.
The ornaments have been shuffled into the attic and you’ve wrapped your holiday lights into an “unknottable” ball (we’ll see what the garage has to say about that in eleven months). For most, the holidays are done with. But while work and school are back in full swing, the celebration continues here at the NYBG. Our lights are still twinkling, our conifers still decked to the nines in seasonal flash–you’ll hear at least a few quiet Christmas classics humming in the Conservatory. Sadly, at some point, we do have to pack it in for another year (coming exhibitions need the space to sprawl). This weekend, we say goodbye to the Holiday Train Show of 2012.
