Airlie Gardens, the local botanical gardens in Wilmington, holds an annual light show each year. It starts around Thanksgiving and goes through the New Year. It's a magical night of walking around in fake snow (after all, this is the coast... the last real snow they got was a dusting in 2018), looking at beautiful lights while drinking hot chocolate, and roaming the park with family and friends. 

Enchanted Airlie sells out every year. In fact, it's become so popular that for the past two years it's sold out within minutes! 

This year, I decided to become an Airlie Garden's member, which gave me early access to purchase the ticket. A ticket is good for one carload of people at a designated time. 

In 2018, I received an invitation to attend this light show with church members and their children. This continued in 2019 and even safely distanced with masks in 2020. 

Yet, in 2021, they had a round of covid going through their family and last year, we were unable to purchase tickets because they sold out so fast, so it's been a couple of years of missing this tradition. 

I am excited to be able to attend this light show again and will definitely ask if they want to go with me, but I know the dates might not work out for them. 

There are many light shows across our community, so even if people can't make it to Airlie, there are others like at Poplar Grove Plantation, up at Mike's Farm in Beulaville, and even the Night of a Thousand Lights show down in Murrell's Inlet (Brookgreen Gardens- I went to this one last year instead and it was well worth going).

I've been to several other shows in different states too and none of them are the same, so it's hard to compare them! From Longwood Gardens to Tanglewood Park in NC, they are each unique and exciting. I even love heading over to our Chevrolet dealer for their holiday light show that has lights set to music that comes through the radio. I usually do that one on Christmas Eve post all the services, because I'm too wired to sleep! 

Do you attend holiday light shows with your family? 

Share your favorites with us in the comments!