The New York Botanical Garden Celebrates the Holiday Season Day and Night with the 31st Year of the Holiday Train Show and the Return of NYBG GLOW, N.Y.C.’s Largest Outdoor Holiday Light Experience, Expanded for Its Third Year
Holiday Train Show Runs Through Monday, January 16, 2023
NYBG GLOW Takes Place on Select Evenings Through Saturday, January 14, 2023
The Holiday Train Show (left) returns for its 31st year at The New York Botanical Garden, and NYBG GLOW (right), New York’s largest outdoor holiday light experience, has been expanded for its third year. (NYBG Photos)
The Holiday Train Show—a favorite holiday tradition—returns to The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), where it has been making memories for more than 30 years. Visitors will marvel as model trains zip through an enchanting display of more than 190 New York landmarks, each delightfully re-created from natural materials such as leaves, seeds, twigs, bark, acorns, cinnamon sticks, and pine cone scales. As day turns to night on select dates, families and friends can start a new holiday tradition exploring the Botanical Garden’s festively illuminated landscape and enjoying food, magical experiences, and more at NYBG GLOW, the expanded outdoor color-and-light experience. It will be the perfect night out this holiday season.
The Holiday Train Show is now open and will be on view through Monday, January 16, 2023. NYBG GLOW will take place from 5 to 10 p.m. on select nights through Saturday, January 14, 2023.
Featuring a miniature wonderland in the warmth of the Haupt Conservatory, the Holiday Train Show includes such famous New York landmarks as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, One World Trade Center, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, and many other favorites, all crafted by the creative team at Applied Imagination in Alexandria, Kentucky. This year’s exhibition features a brand-new version of an old favorite—the George Washington Bridge—with more intricate detailing and lighting. The new replica took Applied Imagination’s artists approximately 1,000 hours to create.
A new feature of this year’s exhibition is interpretive signage that explores some of the plants used to create the Holiday Train Show replicas. The signage will link to exclusive content in the Bloomberg Connects app that tells these plant stories, using preserved plant specimens from NYBG’s William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, the largest plant research collection in the Western Hemisphere, with nearly eight million specimens. The new Holiday Train Show signs draw a connection between the botanical roots of NYBG’s cherished exhibition and its Plant Research and Conservation program.
More than 25 G-scale model trains and trolleys hum along nearly a half-mile of track in the Holiday Train Show. American steam engines, streetcars from the late 1800s, and modern freight and passenger trains travel along overhead trestles, through tunnels, and across soaring bridges such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. Visitors can enjoy the Holiday Train Show during the day or see favorite buildings light up at night under the glow of the Haupt Conservatory. Combination tickets to the Holiday Train Show and NYBG GLOW are once again available.
Returning for its third year, NYBG GLOW offers visitors the opportunity to discover the beauty of NYBG’s landscape and historic buildings, breathtakingly illuminated across the Garden. Building upon sold-out evenings the past two years, NYBG GLOW, New York City’s largest outdoor holiday light experience, expands across even more of the Garden’s magnificent collections, including an all-new display of 60 glowing orbs in the water feature of the Native Plant Garden. During these special evenings, NYBG’s iconic sights and buildings, including the LuEsther T. Mertz Library Building, become dramatic, glittering canvases. Thousands of energy-efficent, choreographed lights and sound and picture-perfect installations create a spectacle not to be missed. Beverages and light fare will be available at one of NYBG’s outdoor bars or the Bronx Night Market Holiday Pop-Up, and professional sculptors will create intricate ice carvings inspired by the Garden’s winter landscape.
NYBG GLOW will take place on the following dates: Friday, December 9; Saturday, December 10; Sunday, December 11; Thursday, December 15; Friday, December 16; Saturday, December 17; Thursday, December 22; Friday, December 23; Monday, December 26; Tuesday, December 27; Wednesday, December 28; Thursday, December 29; Friday, December 30, 2022; Sunday, January 1; Saturday, January 7; and Saturday, January 14, 2023.
Seasonal Programming Features Fun for All Ages
The following programs will round out a visit to the Holiday Train Show:
- During Evergreen Express in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, children can pretend to ride the rails aboard our child-sized play train and caboose, hike winter trails to discover evergreen trees and their amazing plant parts, and design a giant-sized bird’s nest using evergreen boughs. For guided activities, they can explore pressed plants with images from NYBG’s William and Lynda Steere Herbarium featuring mounted conifer specimens and mount their own pressed conifers or make a winter woodland animal out of pine cones. During Storytime at the Swamp Oak Story Spot, young visitors can hear a winter-themed story read by Children’s Adventure Garden staff. There is also a new story book walk featuring the book Snow Birds by Kirsten Hall with pictures by Jenni Desmond, which celebrates the birds that stay around for the winter months. Guided Activities: Weekdays, 1:30–5:30 p.m.; weekends, holidays, and school breaks, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Storytime: Saturdays, Sundays, and Monday holidays, 2:30 p.m.
- Inspired brass and percussion performances by local musicians fill the air during Sounds of the Season in the Leon Levy Visitor Center. Daily December 23–24, 2022, and December 26, 2022–January 1, 2023; 11 a.m.–2 p.m.
For more information and to buy tickets, visit our website at nybg.org
Founding Sponsors:
Victoria and Robert Zoellner
Sponsors:
Alpine Associates Management Inc.
Digital experience provided by: Bloomberg Philanthropies
LuESTHER T. MERTZ CHARITABLE TRUST
Providing leadership support for year-round programming at NYBG
