Holiday Season NYC, Part 1 - Botanical Garden Train Show

It is a true pleasure to be living in NYC during the holidays. We took advantage by seeing the Macy's Parade in person. But there is an amazing richness of events and places to visit in the run-up to Christmas. We are doing our best to take full advantage. One of our first experiences was a visit to the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) Holiday Train Show.

We have heard wonderful things about the NYBG even before arriving in the city. But it is a long trip from the Upper East Side and we had not quite found the motivation to visit during the summer or fall when the grounds would surely be in full bloom. But in my searching for all the best holiday events in New York, I quickly learned that the train show at the NYBG is an important holiday tradition. So we decided at the spur of the moment late on a Friday night to make a visit to the show our main event for the next day.

I had never heard of this holiday train show. But searching for tickets quickly produced the realization that many others have. Even very early in the season, the first several hours of entry times were not available for the next day. I ended up getting tickets for an entry time of around 11:30. And to think that I had assumed one just shows up, buys entry to the gardens and then shows up for the train show. No, it's much more scripted than that. Timed tickets. Rigid controls on your path through the displays. Tons of people jostling for the best views of the displays. That part was not fun. But the display is creative and beautiful and I'm very glad we put in the effort to see it.

The train show is in the beautiful main conservatory of the NYBG (The Haupt Conservatory, pictured above). The regular displays are completely transformed. Instead of just plants and flowers, the conservatory is filled with model train tracks and replicas of many of New York's most famous architectural landmarks. And one of the most amazing parts of the display is that all the model buildings are created from natural materials. Here is the model of the Haupt Conservatory, for instance:

The Little Lady enjoyed seeing all the trains and many buildings that she recognized:

 Grand Central Terminal was one of my favorites, with trains running underneath like in real life:

And have a look at Yankee Stadium:

The bridges were particularly impressive, with trains running overhead all the time:

Little Lady knew this was the library right away because she saw some lion statues:

This is an awful picture, but they made the Guggenheim with mushrooms:

And some iconic skyscrapers:

Finally, it was just a nice day to run around and be outside. The weather has been really great pretty much the whole time we've been in the city. Here, the Little Lady said "I am the queen of the world!!!"