We are big fans of Wintertime Light Trails in our house! Kew Gardens always has tons of fantastic events on as well. We’ve been to their Halloween at Kew Gardens event and their Orchid Festival around Valentine’s Day, but wanted to see how their Wintertime Light Trail would be. This light trail is one of the more expensive ones, but also has Christmas in the name; Christmas at Kew Gardens. Everyone was pretty excited for opening weekend, so we headed into London, opting for a ticket that had included parking for the convince of things.
The beginning of Christmas at Kew Gardens has all of the different food stalls. There isn’t any for a dinner, but desserts, drinks and snack-y food are all overed. We weren’t in the mood for food and started our walk, crossing a bridge over water that had stunning paper lantern flowers, the garden’s building lit up, and another building with a story being projected onto it. Robin was delighted to see a robin featured in this animation and we were all impressed by the color changing flowers. Everything at Christmas at Kew Gardens felt large and over the top, creating some stunning visuals! We then headed towards a walkway of giant dandelions and rainbow trees.
Each of these different light sculptures did have a sign and QR code, so you could learn more about the artists that designed them. This makes Christmas at Kew Gardens feel like such an exhibition, instead of your average light trail, and you’ll see stunning works of art that aren’t at other light trails. Some of the sculptures moved when we were watching, some were tunnels that had fantastic lighting effects, and even the hanging orbs that we all really love. There are also several bars along the way, each with hot chocolate, and even a dancing area that had lots of music-themed lightings, a dance floor that all of us (even Kai!) danced on, and a giant pair of headphones. It was neat and a lot of fun.
There were a few different entrances to Christmas at Kew Gardens, so there was no real mid-point, however we did come across a fair grounds that had a bunch of rides you could pay to ride. This was after a merry-go-round themed bit of the walk, which was so cute to follow to the fairgrounds. These little horses all had names, which Robin loved reading out, and were moving! There were more rides than others we have been too, but our children are a bit old to be doing fairgrounds, so we snapped a few pictures and moved on. There were a few more food huts here as wel.
Only about half of the different lights were super Christmas in feeling; there was a giant Christmas tree, some light up deer, some tiny Christmas trees, and some traditional lights down a portion of the walk, which ended with Santa. Santa was telling jokes and even called on Robin who told him a joke back – a very fun interaction right at the end. Otherwise, the wintertime light trail at Kew Gardens didn’t have big interactions for children along the way and felt like more of a collection of stunning artworks. There was a bit when you are in front of the building, where the lights dance and fireworks set themselves off in time with music – we really hung on around there, as we wanted to see all of the lights, and this was a fantastic show stopper that kept us all engaged!
We all had a fantastic time at Christmas at Kew Gardens, though it does feel like one that cater more towards adults and couples, looking for something more elivated for their Christmas trail. I do like that they included Santa at the end! We really found some stunning works of art here and it was great to be able to see such a large light trail that makes a great use of the grounds.