Holiday display at Selby Gardens boasts over 2 million lights

Maribel Pinckney called it a “huge honor” for her family to be invited to help flip the switch on the annual “Lights in Bloom” display at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, illuminating the campus with holiday lights.

The event was a special preview of the display featuring over two million lights, which visitors to the gardens’ Downtown Sarasota Campus will be able to view from Dec. 6 to Jan. 3.

The family included Maribel and Marcus Pinckney and their two children Nadia Pinckney, 9, and Alani Pinckney, 5, representing the 2Gen approach, which involves helping whole families, at Community Foundation of Sarasota County.

Marcus Pinckney said he wanted to thank the foundation for the opportunity and called it an experience the family could definitely look back on.

Phil and Carolyn Babas, the owners of the Bradenton company Affairs in the Air, lead the creation of the display each year, starting in October.

Carolyn said that what makes a quality display is enhancing what is already visible at the gardens.

They also create the Lights at Spooky Point display that is featured at the Historic Spanish Point campus during the Halloween season.

“We just really appreciate how many people come as a family tradition,” Carolyn said. “It’s really nice to see, it really is, and Selby giving us the ability to create the way that they do, and the liberty to do how we see fit, and they just have a lot of faith in us.”

They said they try to repurpose certain features, so the experience is a little different every year, pointing to new features like a tree covered in dragonflies, a train decoration and new mushroom decorations.

“We stopped counting at two million (lights),” Carolyn said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever get to three million, but they’re increasing the size of the gardens all the time.”

Alani Pinckney, 5, stands beneath the switch in anticipation of the big moment.