All Aboard For The Magical Holiday Train Show

New York City is known for its iconic locations–like Rockefeller Center, for example–that are know throughout the world to get especially merry for the holiday season. There’s a special seasonal spirit around the city’s most festive locales that warms even the coldest of hearts. This year’s annual enchanting Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden is a cinematic winter wonderland that will have every visitor getting in touch with their inner child (see below for a slideshow of photos).

A helper in a conductor’s uniform greets visitors of the Holiday Train Show and opens the gates to the show’s three exciting sections: A short behind-the-scenes film that tells the story of how the creators brought it to life, the main 3,000-square-ft body of the show featuring miniatures of New York City’s iconic buildings, as well as a futuristic, multi-sensory grand finale with lights and music.

During the introductory component of the show, visitors learn about show’s 20 year old history and what lies behind designer Paul Busse’s (of Applied Imagination) inspiration. Designers combined found plant materials with the whimsical architectural forms of New York’s architectural masterpieces.

The young and the young-at-heart alike will delight in 360 degrees views of famous structures. Turn left and you’ll see the intricately detailed original Pennsylvania Station, with trains running underneath, recreating the chaos and excitement of a train station. Turn right and you’re faced with Macy’s signature façade as the trolleys and trains and locomotives zip up and down and around. This year’s 150 buildings are more detailed than before: Enjoy discovering that a roof top is a pine cone shell, a door is made of magnolia seeds or that a marquis is constructed from radish seeds–event the Statue of Liberty’s flame is made from pomegranate seeds and palm fronds. Organized around New York’s neighborhood and built from photographs, many of the buildings are vines, tree stumps, hollowed out logs that come from NYBG properties.

Gardening enthusiasts and architectural buffs will admire the masterful New York Public Library’s structure, with the two miniature lions made of tree bark located in the front. The art aficionados will take pleasure in taking a stroll down museum mile, where the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, carved out of mushrooms and moss, stands outs immediately due to its famous spiral shape. And absolutely everybody will be transported to a holiday state of mind next to the replica of Rockefeller Center, complete with its glittering centerpiece angels and the holiday decorations of Saks Fifth Avenue setting.

As one walks down the woodsy smelling galleries, a sentence uttered by The Conductor from Polar Express comes to mind: “The thing about trains… it doesn’t matter where they’re going. What matters is deciding to get on.” And this year’s exhibition G-scale locomotives humming along will take you anywhere you’d like: From Grand Central Terminal to the red lighthouse, back to Yankee Stadium, down to the Hudson River Valley’s mansions and overthe Brooklyn Bridge. Over 1.5 mile of train tracks and more than 25 large-scale model railway trains and trolleys–from stream engines and streetcars from the late 1800s to high-speed iron freights–speed past the waterfalls, over the fuchsia orchids and into the tunnels. And when your little ones play peek-a-boo with you through the luscious greenery, they will be excited to see their pal Thomas the Tank Engine zooming by!

NYBG will be hosting a number of seasonal events to accompany the Holiday Train Show which include a cocktail evening for adults, called Bar Car Nights, Evergreen Express for the children, holiday Tree Lighting, Film Screening, Concert Series, All Aboard with Thomas and Fiends, and many holiday themed treats like roasted chestnuts in their café.

The Holiday Train Show opens Saturday, November 21, and runs through Monday, January 18, 2016. Tickets start at $20 for adults and $10 for children. For more information, visit nybg.org.