By Michelle Cope
The holidays are a special time of year for our family. Every year we look forward to visiting favorite holiday spots in Chester County. We are truly blessed to live in an area with so many offerings to delight our children and entertain adults as well.
Our season kicks off with cutting our family Christmas tree. Chester County has many locations and so many in fact there is a whole blog about it.
Wiggin's Tree Farm
We select Wiggins Tree Farm in Cochranville, PA which offers Cut-Your-Own or Pre-cut Douglas Fir Trees. We always choose the hands-on experience and cut our own tree - I want the freshest tree possible to last through the holiday season! My son Josh excitedly runs to grab the provided sled and saw and we head out to find the perfect tree. A family selfie is a must before we head across the bridge to the tree farm. Josh is in charge of picking out our tree; this also means he gets to cut it down himself. Fun at first but it proves to be a daunting task so dad helps out halfway through. I supervise and take photos, trying not to giggle too much.
We brought our dog Max this year and snapped some great family shots with him. One of these shots was also our family Holiday card. Can you guess which?
Our family is crazy for Christmas lights and each year search for homes that have really gone above and beyond with decorations. We usually find these on Facebook message boards in our local area. One must-see each year is the Annual Herr’s Holiday Lights drive thru. This is a free holiday light display the Herr family has generously put together for the past 30 years with over 600,000 lights!
Herr's Snack Factory Holiday Lights
We head out at dusk and I know we are close when the ooo’ing and ahh’ing starts. As we enter the path, which winds through the Herr’s complex, we are wowed by over twenty tree trunks wrapped in various colors and patterns. I always ask everyone which is their favorite; mine this year is the purple and gold striped! We then drive by my favorite tree which is huge with multicolored lights - it's glorious! Herr’s even created a holiday spot to capture a family photo; another Christmas card winner for our family. You can park in the lot adjacent to the display. There is a gingerbread house with little posing gingerbread men and holiday letters spelling “JOY”. The kids love posing as gingerbread men, hiding under reindeer and fitting into JOY!
We then head to the spectacular Longwood Gardens which is always the highlight of our holidays. No holiday experience can compete with the expanse of dazzling holiday lights, music and majesty of A Longwood Christmas.
A Longwood Christmas at Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens has made it easy to maneuver through their expansive grounds with a Holiday Light Trail. This begins as you exit the Visitors Center and follow the path to the right.
We walk down the path past the rose arbors covered in lights and come to a wonderland of trees and snowflakes. The trees seem to be floating on the water as snowflakes twinkle high up in the trees. We then arrive at a favorite spot for Josh – the Canopy Cathedral Tree House. This two-story tree house is all dressed up for the holidays and so fun to explore.
As we travel toward the Italian Water Gardens, we stop at one of the many beverage tents throughout the gardens. Josh wanted hot chocolate and my husband and I got ours spiked and meandered over to the lookout. The Italian Water Gardens are a dazzling in LED lights which transform the trees from one pattern to the next.
You follow the path to through the Meadow Garden on a boardwalk which takes you through ethereal light orbs disappearing into the meadow and woods. The meadow path ends with a trip through a light tunnel and a fabulous photo op for the family!
No holiday trip to Longwood would be complete without viewing the holiday train display with Thomas and Friends! The tracks travel through miniature models of the Conservatory and Pierre DuPont homes while winding through bridges and tunnels to the delight of Josh and my cousins. While the kids are gazing at the trains, we make a quick stop to grab a Victory beer at the stand nearby.
A Longwood Christmas outside Train Display
A complete surprise was a fountain show made of sparkling lights and set to holiday music in the Main Fountain Garden. We were completely amazed as we watched what looked like real water flowing and dancing to the music. It was the highlight of the evening!
I could go on and on about all of the holiday experiences in Chester County's Brandywine Valley as we have so many to offer. I wish everyone a merry, festive and healthy holiday season!
