Las Noches de las Luminarias at the DBG

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I’m a Christmas baby,* and I’ve always loved participating in the spirit of the season.  I routinely detour the car into neighborhoods filled with lights, attend holiday parades at which I clap and cheer like a four year old off her Ritalin prescription, and bake my great-grandmother’s butter cookie recipe until we have confections cooling on every flat surface in our house.  Every year to celebrate Birthmas (my birthday plus Christmas), we try to attend one of the many holiday-themed events in the valley.  In past years, we’ve gone to Zoolights at the Phoenix Zoo, which is always a ton of fun, provided that you buy your tickets in advance and avoid weekend nights.**


Me at Zoolights a few years back.
With my hippo.


Penguins!

This year, we’ll celebrate our fourth year of watching the Wickenburg light parade, and in the past, we’ve also attended a candlelight Christmas Eve service at a nearby church and headed up to Sedona to see their light display.***  Although there are several other events each year, there was one major item I wanted to check off my “Christmas in Phoenix” list, and that was attending the annual Las Noches de las Luminarias at the Desert Botanical Garden.  When Mom came to visit us over Thanksgiving and expressed her interest in going, I jumped at the chance.


Chris and I visited the Garden in April, for the Dale Chihuly exhibit (read about it again here), and we were able to see the Garden both in the daylight and after dark.  For the Luminarias, the Garden closes its normal hours at 4pm, sets everything up, then reopens as the sun sets, so visitors can have the best view of the many lights throughout the exhibits.  The displays and musical acts start at 5:30pm and run to 9:30pm, and when you purchase your tickets, you have the chance to enter either at 5:30pm or 7:30pm, to help modulate the flow of traffic.  We went for the earlier entrance time, figuring we could stay longer that way and perhaps see some of the Garden before the sun went down.


We entered right at 5:30pm with the rest of the crowd, but the sun was quickly setting, and soon, the exhibits gave way to darkness.  Although Chris and I have been to the Garden before and viewed the exhibits in the light, we may need to take Mom again the next time she visits to really see the displays of native plants.

We wandered the Garden for awhile, heading around the Plants & People trail, before returning to the front to eat dinner at Gertrude’s, the restaurant on site.  The last time Chris and I visited the Garden, we also ate at Gertrude’s, and we were looking forward to trying it out again.  As expected, it did not disappoint; the food was great, the drinks were plentiful, and we all enjoyed watching a nearby mouse scurrying under the tables and around my feet.****


Planning where to go next!

After dinner, we headed back out into the Garden, to loop around the native wildflowers trail, then back through the gift shop for some browsing; we headed home after that.  Overall, we really enjoyed the Luminarias, and I’m glad we went; wandering the trails at night illuminated by candles and twinkle lights while live music played in the background was truly peaceful.  Additionally, since the Garden tends to pull in an older crowd than the Zoo down the road, we didn’t really have to deal with any running/screaming munchkins.*****  I don’t know if we’ll do the Luminarias again, but we’ll absolutely head back to the Garden in the future, to see what’s blooming and what special exhibits are in town.

Later!

Amy

* Technically, I’m a Festivus baby – December 23rd.  A Fesitvus for the rest of us!  Get your pole and prepare your grievances!

 ** Trust us on this one.

 *** Both in the same year and while I was coming down with a massive head cold.  Kudos go out to Chris’ Mom, Susan, for being here with us during that time and not throttling me while I insisted I was just fine.  I fainted in the shower one morning during the run of that cold, so I was most assuredly not fine.

 **** I was wearing tall boots with skinny jeans, so I wasn’t worried about accidental rodent exposure.  That little dude really would have had to work to get up my pant leg.  Also, the enjoyment of this may have been directly proportional to the drinks.

 ***** As I get older – and crankier – this is becoming more and more important to me.

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