I love holiday lights, and I’m guessing most of you do too.
A friend, who is a member of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay, Maine, asked if I wanted to ride up with her to see Gardens Aglow. Road trip to see a light display? Absolutely.
Gardens Aglow is in its fifth year and is expecting well over 100,000 people to visit during its six week display.
650,000 LED lights on 43 miles of cord will definitely draw a crowd. Tickets are required and attendance is capped each night to keep things flowing smoothly.
Boothbay is a pretty straight shot about two hours north along the coast from where I live. The town of Boothbay got into the season as well by having plenty of lights and also some of the most beautiful wreaths, swags, and window box greenery displays I’ve ever seen.
We were extremely lucky that it didn’t snow and there was no wind, but it was 19°F. It was cold, and I had so many layers of clothing on I could hardly move.
It was a spectacular display, and my iPhone photos definitely don’t do it justice.
Over 37M tourists visit Maine each year. It is truly
a beautiful state whether you gravitate toward their rocky shores, mountains, flatlands, or spectacular Acadia National Park.
On a Thursday in December, it is pretty quiet in a tourist town like Boothbay Harbor. Matter of fact, except for the people going to the see the light show, you could say it is was deserted. On the plus side, that makes for easy traffic flow, cost effective rooms, and no waiting at their pubs or restaurants.
As we approach Christmas, I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season full of light, joy and peace. 🎄
NewEnglandGardenAndThread 
WOW! Beautiful! And since you were so well bundled I assume you walk through the display? We have a drive-thru light show at our minor league ball field here (nothing on the scale of this one!) that benefits veterans’ groups. It’s about a mile and cars drive the course. I’d say it was “one-and-done” fun, but glad to help the veterans!
Getting busy for Christmas here and taking time to enjoy early morning coffee with my beautiful mug rugs! I sent you an email on the old address and wondered if you still use it – between that adventure and your problems with commenting on my blog I do wonder what kind of naughty elves like playing tricks on us!
But here I am – and sincerely wishing you a Merry Christmas!
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We have one of the drive throughs at our local race track. Helping the Vets is always a good thing. This is a walk through, and it was fun winding around oohing and aching over the colors. There was one tall tree that had some type of set up where lights dropped out of the tree like a fireworks display. I couldn’t capture it, but it was a beauty. I’ll go check that email. 🙂 Merry Christmas to you and yours as well.
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How beautiful! You are right that I love these lights too, and I cannot imagine that anyone wouldn’t love them. The world is so dark (on many levels) and the lights are so uplifting that what’s not to love? It must have been great fun to drive around there despite your extreme layers — thanks for taking us along!
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They schedule people coming in on the hour, and we got lucky when we arrived and got a parking spot close so we spent all our time walking to see the lights. You are right – the days are short, the news is dark, and these lights just had everyone smiling. You would have liked it.
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I’ve never been, but your pictures show how very beautiful the display is. Bright lights always perk up this cold, dark month.
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I think you would like it. I was thinking about you as we made the mad dash up and back. 🙂
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Fabulous! This is a light display worth the trip and layers of clothes! I’m so glad you went and then shared it with us.
And if “in person” is better than your iphone photos, I don’t think I could take the excitement! Lol.
Have fun packing for SC. Just keep your eye on the end result and it won’t be so bad . If you believe that, I’ll tell you another!
Ginger
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You would have loved those lights, and everyone was in a good mood and friendly. It was nice, but I was frozen to the core after 2 hours of walking around. Yep, the sorting and packing begins this week. 🙂
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That looks like a wonderful display. Were you walking through it? The largest one around here is one that you drive through, but I’ve always wondered if being able to walk through the displays might be more interesting. In any case, I love the photos and it sounds like you had a great time.
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You park at the Gardens or take a shuttle out from town.They have all the paths lit with roped lights and you just follow along walking through the gardens and see all the lights. Their theme was ‘roots’ so some of the tree roots were stained glass lights and others went all the way up into the canopy. It was amazing. You and Faith would enjoy the trip and the sights. We were fortunate to go on a Thursday night because several of the local employees told us the weekends were like 4th of July. It’s a boom for the economy up there this time of year, and then everything shuts down after it is over until spring.
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That sounds so nice.
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I love Christmas lights, too, and I appreciate the chance to see these without being bundled up. Good job for getting all these shots. I hope you had something warm to drink afterwards. 🙂 Our younger daughter is home and we’re off shortly for tea with one of my friends at my favorite tea shop. It’s quite a distance away, but we’ll be driving. 🙂
janet
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We enjoyed some good hot chocolate, but I will admit I was frozen to the core and have been fighting a vicious cold ever since. Enjoy your time with your daughter and your tea shop visit. I’m thinking just maybe some scones with cream or lemon.
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A wonderful lighting display – I’ll bet dazzling to see in person.
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Your artistic eye would have loved the colors of the displays. 🙂
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That MOOSE! I love it! Such a beautiful display.
I have been to Boothbay and loved it! I have a watercolor of a loon from there displayed back at the LakeHouse!
Merry Christmas!
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Glad the post brought back good memories. 🙂
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Looks like a marvelous event, Judy. The best part to my ears, was the lack of crowds. Nothing kills joy in this country girl like being squeezed like sardines within a mass of humanity. 😉
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You are so right. Going to Maine during tourist season is like getting in line with the entire state of MA as everyone streams north. The lack of crowds was a wonderful thing. 🙂
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Beautiful lights Judy … I love Christmas lights .. this year our granddaughter is two years old and the look on her face when she saw the Christmas lights in the city … it was priceless! Sheer joy!
Thanks for the tour of Maine Christmas lights. ⛄️❄️⭐️😁
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A two-year old granddaughter this Christmas? Now, that is pure joy seeing the season through her eyes. I hope Santa brings her a nice sack of goodies, and you all get to enjoy her excitement. The Santa part of Christmas never gets any better than having a young child around. I envy you, but I have good memories of those times. 🙂
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The lights were worth the trip. Just beautiful. Merry Christmas. Looking forward to seeing you.
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Look forward to seeing you and catching up. 🙂
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The lights are beautiful! Going to see the lights was a great excuse for a getaway. Merry Christmas 🎄
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As you have shown, holiday lights on a hardwood or a palm are a beautiful thing. 🙂
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Oh, yes, I would drive to see those lights…they are beautiful!
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You and Lorelei would love them. 🙂
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I love the twinkly lights, too! I would absolutely drive to see such a sight. We’ve actually seen a lot of them, but none in New England. I think my favorite was in Lexington, KY. I looooove the trees you’ve captured. So pretty!
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Lights are gorgeous especially this time of year. In the Midwest, the Kansas City Plaza Lights blow you away, in SC it is Brookgreen Gardens, and up this way, it is the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. I love them all.
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How nice to be able to enjoy this without too many people around. We have a similar display in our big park in the centre of town too. It’s always very busy and hard to get a car park.
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I think they had a really good idea by making you buy tickets for a certain entrance time so people rolled in and out freeing up parking spaces.
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That’s very good thinking ahead.
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We used to go up to Boothbay Harbor in the fall for lobster. They had a giant — jukebox size — music box. It was old, but I have no idea how old. I loved that whole area. Schoodic Point and Boothbay. We camped up north of Millbridge (not our local Mill bridge) on a dirt road in a pine woods. Before it was “busy” it was beautiful! Lovely pictures. I miss Maine.
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It certainly is beautiful and in tourist season it is for sure busy. Lack of tourists was pretty nice.
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I bet it was gorgeous in the gardens with trees and shrubs sparkling with tiny lights of all colors. I love Boothbay… but I’m afraid they would have to put me in a heated golf cart and drive me around to see the lights. When you say “frozen to the core,” I get a chill from reading that.
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As cold as it was, we were so lucky there wasn’t any wind otherwise I’d still be thawing out. 🙂
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It’s so beautiful!! Too bad it comes at a time of the year when it’s so freaking cold outside to enjoy it!!!
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So true, and thank you for the chuckle. 🙂
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I’ve never been to Maine (or Spain either, as Three Dog Night sang!). It’s definitely on my bucket list. Beautiful lights!
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Thanks for the chuckle. One can never have too many. 🙂
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What fun! I always find it so hard to take pics of those holiday lights after sundown.
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You and me both especially with hands that were cold. 🙂
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Stunning! I would love to go there! 🙂
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The lights would probably inspire you with some poetry.
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My sisters and I had a twinster vacation this past spring. My blog post ‘Our Twinster Vacation, June 27, 2019 tells of it. Acadia National Park was one of our stops. We loved it! These lights look terrific.
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Acadia National Park is a true treasure that we all can enjoy.
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Even though it was cold, no wind, no snow, no large crowds…it sounds like you picked the perfect evening to see such a beautiful display of lights. Thanks so much Judy for sharing and Merry Christmas.
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We got lucky. Want to see the lights, go on Thursday. 🙂
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Oh, those are spectacular Judy! Wising you a happy holiday season and peace in the New Year.
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