SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A new night-time holiday display featuring music, colors and more than a million twinkling lights in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is delighting children and adults.
There are towering peonies and fields of lights on the mile-long ( 1.6-kilometer) illuminated trail at the city’s Botanical Garden. Artists created whimsical water lilies and giant dragonflies, and transformed a Canary Island strawberry tree into a neon tree.
“Some of my favorite comments have been from kids: Just hearing how it makes them feel, and the happiness and joy,” said Sarah Marsh with Gardens of Golden Gate Park, which operates the Botanical Garden.
“And to be honest,” she said, “it’s the expressions on their faces as they see the lights and experience the trail itself.”
People take photos while walking through the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Winter Cathedral exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
People take photos while walking through the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Winter Cathedral exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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The immersive holiday trails, called Lightscape, are in sister gardens in Chicago, Brooklyn and London, but this is San Francisco’s first. Sony Music and production management company Culture Creative, both based in the United Kingdom, work with each location to create a holiday trail that is specific to the garden.
Sellout crowds have flocked to the San Francisco light show, which ends Jan. 4. It has already attracted 100,000 visitors, said Marsh, with some visitors eager to return during the day to see the plants that dazzled them at night.
“What we hope to do is inspire curiosity,” she said.
People look up toward lights in the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Interlace exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
People look up toward lights in the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Interlace exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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Childen play in the mist of a fog machine in the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Interlace exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Childen play in the mist of a fog machine in the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Interlace exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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People have their photos taken in front of the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Peonies exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
People have their photos taken in front of the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Peonies exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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A man looks toward the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Moon and Stars exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A man looks toward the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Moon and Stars exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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People walk through the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Winter Cathedral exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
People walk through the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Winter Cathedral exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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People look toward lights illuminating the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Fire Garden exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
People look toward lights illuminating the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Fire Garden exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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A woman walks through the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Winter Cathedral exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A woman walks through the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Winter Cathedral exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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A crowd walks past the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Neon Strawberry Tree exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A crowd walks past the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Neon Strawberry Tree exhibit for Lightscape at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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