Trail of Lights

Two of the best events our HOA Social Committee arranges each year are our neighborhood nights at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield for their Corn Maze and Trail of Lights.  There may not be snow just yet to give everything a true holiday feel, but the warm temperature sure is a nice consolation prize.

Santa Claus is in a barn is in the far southeast corner of the attraction, and he's terrific.  Real beard and everything.  He even got one of our neighbors and my wife's mom to sit on his lap.  Well played, Santa.

For a few extra bucks you can get various "holospecs" that change the lights into everything from snowflakes to stars to elf heads.  Frankly, the elf ones creeped me out.  They made the lights look some sort of freaky alien invasion.  But the kids really enjoyed them, and had fun swapping the different types with each other.

I'm sure that modern technology has developed some extremely sophisticated and efficient light-hanging devices.  Even so, I can't imagine how long it must take to string up a tree like this one.  It took me more than an hour just to put one strand of lights above our garage.

To me, lights are one of the best parts of Christmas.  They're such a great representation of how everything seems just a touch more festive during the holidays.

There's a playground area where they've set up some speakers playing Christmas music and programmed the lights to go on and off in sync with the tunes.  One downside -- at times all the lights go dark, so keep that in mind if you have small children running around.

The just-past-full moon decided to join the show, which made a nice addition to the already beautiful display.

When the moon's being so cooperative, you really can't just include it in one picture.

We spent an hour and a half there, which between chatting with neighbors and my family patiently waiting while I repeatedly set up my tripod was probably longer than most folks would on a normal night.  Depending on the line for Santa, you can probably stroll through at a leisurely pace and see everything in an hour.  They've also added a skating rink this year, which can prolong the experience.

If you're looking for a quick but enjoyable family outing this holiday season, consider checking it out!