I finally have it! I have been racking my brain for the perfect outdoor holiday experience to offer readers this month and have landed on the GardenFest of Lights at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond.
Yes, this one is a bit outside the Valley — 128 miles or a two-hour drive from Harrisonburg — but, believe me, it’s worth it. Instead of wasting money on gifts that gather dust, why not get straight to the heart of the reason for the season, which is love and family, and spend time together on an outdoor holiday adventure?
Of course, we all know there are plenty of outdoor light displays, some better than others, that anyone can drive through, but being that this is an outdoors column, those options didn’t seem appropriate.
Let me tell you first about Lewis Ginter in case you haven’t ever been there. This 50+-acre botanical garden with walking trails, ponds, and historic buildings was once the hunting ground of the Powhatan people. Later, it was owned by Virginia Governor Patrick Henry. It began to take its present form in 1884, when Lewis Ginter, a wealthy Richmond resident, was bitten by the bicycling craze and founded a cycling club. He bought a piece of land where club members could ride their new-fangled contraptions.
After Ginter’s death, a descendant converted the property into various convalescent homes for those in poor health and expanded the estate by buying up adjacent land. Eventually, the last occupant died in 1968 and willed the property to the city of Richmond with the stipulation that it be developed into a botanical garden honoring her Uncle Lewis Ginter.
It took 13 years to plan and open the gardens as a non-profit in 1981, but, in the meantime, the city was already using the land to grow trees and bedding plants for Richmond city parks.
Today there are more than two miles of trails that meander through a variety of specialized and naturalized gardens including a Four Seasons Garden, Healing and Meditation Gardens, The Classic Gardens, Fountain Garden, Louise Cochrane Rose Garden, Kroger Community Kitchen Garden and Beehives, Asian Valley, West Island Garden (featuring carnivorous plants!), Flagler Garden (that includes a woodland walk), a Victorian garden, the Lace House Garden, a native plant area, a cherry tree trail, a children’s garden featuring a giant tree house, a daffodil garden to wow spring visitors, a conifer garden, a floating island, and a hillside meadow that attracts birds and butterflies.
There is also a huge glass-domed conservatory (a fancy word for greenhouse), a carriage house, and a tea house.
All this is accessible via walkways made of brick, concrete, stone, grass, or dirt. For the most part, the paths are gently graded and accessible to those with mobility challenges.
I promise you that visiting Lewis Ginter is a treat any time of year because what is blooming and growing changes from season to season. You can always count on spending several hours walking the trails and exploring – more if you eat in the café or visit the gift shop.
In the spring, there are masses of tulips and daffodils. In the summer, turtles sun themselves at the pond’s edge. The fall brings the bright colors of the deciduous tree leaves.
But this column is about Lewis Ginter in WINTER and especially during the GardenFest of Lights. Imagine those 50 acres of gardens I just described, all aglow with more than a million lights strung from the trees, forming whimsical creatures and reflected in the ponds. It is magical without being commercial, almost like stepping into an alternate reality. One is always cognizant of being out in nature and walking through a forest, around a garden, or along the water’s edge, rather than in a made-up theme park, and the darkness just beyond the lights provides a sense of solitude even though there are hundreds of other people nearby enjoying the same reason that nature is draped out in her holiday finest.
Along the walk, there are interesting stops: the education center features a model train display, while the library showcases trees decorated by local students and a fairy village with miniature houses made from natural materials. Outside of the Conservatory (which is closed for an expansion) is a live tree, and the Central Garden features a light tunnel. And best of all is the Warming Fire, a great place to knock off the winter chill, sip some hot chocolate, and roast s’mores (both available for purchase).
Trust me, I’m not the only one who thinks this is a perfect place to build holiday memories while being outside. For the last two years, the GardenFest has been voted the Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights in the entire country by USA Today.
The GardenFest is ongoing every day from 4-10 p.m. through January 4, except on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. You HAVE to have advance tickets, and tickets can ONLY be purchased ONLINE at www.lewisginter.org. Unless you have a garden membership, tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for youth ages 4-17, and free for kids under 4. There are special rates for those receiving government assistance ($5 for adults and free for youth, ID card required).
Here are a couple of tips: GardenFest goes on regardless of rain, snow, or cold, so pick your date and check the weather before purchasing tickets.
When you purchase your tickets, you have to choose an arrival window for when you plan to enter the gardens (on the half hour from 4-8:30 p.m.) Once you are on the grounds, you can stay until 10 p.m., but staggering entrance times prevents the area from being overwhelmed by a crush of people. My advice is to shoot for 4:30 p.m. This gives you a little time to walk around the gardens and take in their natural beauty before dark, and, with any luck, you can catch a good sunset around 5 p.m. Plan on staying at least three hours to see everything at your leisure. By the time you are finished, you will probably have logged two to three miles.
As I said at the beginning, I’m suggesting that spending time outside during the holidays is a great family tradition to start, and I can’t think of a better way than to immerse oneself in the Lewis Ginter GardenFest. This year’s theme for the botanical garden’s festival of lights is THE ELEMENTS. Event organizers explain that the theme is meant to put focus on the traditional elements of fire, earth, air, and water, and that this year they are emphasizing a fifth element — LOVE.
What better way to get in touch with that element than a family holiday outing to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden?
Nancy Sorrells is an award-winning freelance writer who has been weaving words together for stories focusing on the great outdoors, human interest, and history since the 1970s. She and her husband share a household with two dogs and a cat and whatever other critter decides to take up residence on their few acres of land in southern Augusta County. Since March of 2020, she and a retired friend have tried to go for a weekly walk in the woods. If you have ideas about outdoor spaces and places that should be explored, email her at lotswife1959@gmail.com.
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