25.ĪDMISSION: Timed tickets are sold for peak days (Fridays-Sundays through Dec. HIGHLIGHTS: Indoors, spectacular floral displays and dozens of decorated trees outdoors, lighted fountains set to holiday music and a winter wonderland of a half-million lights. WHERE: Longwood Gardens, 1001 Longwood Road, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. “Thanksgiving is not complete until we see Christmas,” he said. He and his family dropped by right after dinner. It took more than 200 staff members and many volunteers to create and install it for its Thanksgiving opening. Sutton began work on this before the last Christmas display was gone, determining a theme, developing a color palette, storyboarding vignettes and getting the needed input and approval. “We keep horticulture front and center throughout,” he said, citing natural ornaments, decorating with plants and “trees” made out of smaller plants. The big draws are in the 4-acre Conservatory (every area has something Christmassy, even the stark Silver Garden and the so-not-the-North-Pole Cascade Garden), and the delights continue outdoors, with a long loop connecting areas with lit trees. “Very opulent, elegant and over the top.” “It’s like Louis XIV, the Sun King,” Sutton said. The theme is carried out with stylized lilies called fleurs-de-lis and a palette of red, white and gilt.
This year’s French-inspired Christmas display is a nod to the newly renovated main fountains, inspired by the du Ponts’ French heritage and their visits to French gardens. World War II and deaths of Pierre and his wife, Alice, led to years of less cheer until the late 1950s, when Longwood became a public garden.
In 1923, he added another food- and fun-filled party, this time for local seniors, and the gifts were flowers.
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