On Friday night, we finally made it over to the Heritage Museums & Gardens to check out the Gardens Aglow–Heritage’s Holiday Festival. I have only been to see the lights there once, years ago, and I really wanted to take the boys to see it. We are members of Heritage, and we LOVE to go there during warmer months, so the boys were pumped to go see it decorated for Christmas.
After an early dinner at Bobby Byrnes in Sandwich, we got to Heritage around 6:30. Our first stop was the car barn, where the boys took a picture with Santa in the Model T. We only had to wait a few minutes, and the Santa spent quite a bit of time with the boys. William was mesmerized by the big man and his beard! After visiting Santa, we went on a scavenger hunt for all of Santa’s reindeer, crafted from wood and logs, that were located in various areas of the gardens. The boys received a little booklet to keep track of all of the reindeer– putting a red star on their noses when they found each reindeer.
We saw a beautiful model train, table scape and gingerbread houses in the old barn (along with a great little kids drawing area). Next up was Hidden Hollow, which was all decorated and lit up (complete with a heat lamp!), so the children could still play with all of the toys there. After Hidden Hollow, we walked back through more lights and stopped at the Magnolia Cafe for hot chocolate (they also had mulled cider, mulled wine, and other adult beverages!) and some s’mores. Casual Gourmet (the fabulous caterer that did our wedding!) runs the Magnolia Cafe, and the food and goodies are always top-notch. Anyone can roast marshmallows in the fire pit, but you could also purchase little s’mores kits for even more yumminess.
It’s truly a wonderful holiday event for both adults and kids! If you are interested in visiting this holiday season, here’s some information from the Heritage Museums & Gardens website:
Tickets are $15 for member adults, $5 for member children, $18 for non-member adults, $7 for non-member children. Children under two are free. Tickets are available for purchase online and at the gate the day of the event. Important: If you purchase an online ticket, please print it out and bring it with you!
Tickets will stop being sold at 7:30pm each night, but guests already on the property can continue to enjoy the event until 8:30pm.
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