The holiday season is approaching! It’s the perfect time to gather family and friends for a road trip to some of Arkansas’s brightest traditions. From botanical gardens to zoos and immersive art installations, these stunning, awe-inspiring displays are worth the drive and sure to spark wonder, perhaps even becoming an instant annual tradition.
GARVAN WOODLAND GARDENS
Hot Springs
Named one of the Top 10 botanical garden light shows in the nation by USA Today, Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs is a holiday must-see. Each year, more than eight million lights transform the 210-acre property into a glowing wonderland tucked among the towering pines of the Ouachita Mountains.
Guests stroll wooded pathways that meander through uniquely themed gardens, each alive with light and imagination. The sparkling Ice Tunnel chills you with its frosty glow, while the whimsical “Gardenesque” pond delights children with its glowing bees, butterflies, and wildflowers, not to mention the bright green frog with a red tongue that seems to stretch forever.
Opening night is November 22 and includes live music from the Hot Springs High School Band, free cookies, hot chocolate, and the ceremonial lighting of the 50-foot Rose Tree. Throughout December, concerts at Anthony’s Chapel and after-hours events like “Boozy & Bright” add extra holiday sparkle. Top off your visit with a stop at the Chipmunk Café, offering a full menu of snacks, meals, and beverages.
Insider tip: Be sure to purchase tickets in advance and plan extra time for entry as lines of cars waiting to get into the Gardens can stretch long during peak season, but the dazzling payoff is worth the wait.
The holiday lights run nightly through December 31. For tickets and event details, visit garvangardens.org.
GLOWILD AT THE ZOO
Little Rock
Holiday lights take on a wild twist at the Little Rock Zoo with GloWILD, a Chinese lantern festival that transforms the zoo into a glowing kingdom of creatures and color. Now in its fourth year, this one-of-a-kind, magical experience has already become a seasonal tradition for many Arkansas families.
Rather than simply stringing lights, this amazing display features traditional Chinese-style lanterns. These massive, handcrafted works are built on metal frames and wrapped in silk, then illuminated with more than 500,000 LED lights. The result is larger-than-life forest animals, marine wildlife, mammals, bugs, birds, flowers, and plants that glow to life with brilliant color and details. Some lanterns tower 30 feet tall or stretch more than 40 feet long!
Kids love the interactive features, including an illuminated swing set and jumping squares that light up with every hop. This year’s “Winter Wonderland” theme promises an oversized Santa display, giant snowmen, polar bears, Arctic wolves, candy canes, and nutcrackers. Other attractions include Santa nights, sensory-friendly nights where lights are dimmed, music is muted, and flashing lights are turned off, and even a Glo New Year’s Eve party!
Insider tip: GloWILD attracts more than 40,000 visitors each season, so buy your tickets early and plan extra time to explore as it’s easy to spend hours wandering among the glowing animals and festive displays.
GloWILD runs November 6 through January 4. For tickets and special event details, visit littlerockzoo.com/visit/glowild.
TIME LOOP BY KLIP COLLECTIVE: A FOREST LIGHT EXPERIENCE
Bentonville
For something completely different, head to Bentonville’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, where Time Loop transforms the North Forest Trail into a multi-sensory wonderland. This isn’t a traditional Christmas light show, it’s an immersive art installation created by Klip Collective, a team of digital artists, sound designers, composers, creative producers, fabricators, and technologists who collaborated to present a series of multi-tiered, immersive experiences, exclusively for Crystal Bridges’s North Forest Trail.
Trees and structures throughout the forest become canvases for moving patterns, optical illusions, and glowing color. Six large-scale installations consisting of light and sound invite visitors to step into another world. In Broken Time Machine, you see colorful, fragmented projections of yourself seconds after passing by, while Life Cycle turns the three stages of fungal life into brightly glowing mushrooms. Other installations, like Endless Overture, invite you to interpret shifting colors and shapes in your own imaginative ways.
Insider tip: While not a traditional holiday display, Time Loop is wildly popular. Weekends often draw heavy crowds, so reserve tickets early and bundle up for the walk through the forest.
The installation runs through January 4. Learn more and purchase tickets at crystalbridges.org.
LOCAL LIGHTS
Not up for a road trip? These local displays make it easy to enjoy the glow closer to home.
Fort Smith
Creekmore Park Holiday Express
Each December, Creekmore Park comes alive with colorful lights wrapped around trees, playgrounds, and pathways. Families can hop aboard the Holiday Express miniature train to ride through glowing displays – a local favorite for generations.
Van Buren
Downtown Christmas at the Park
Historic Main Street transforms into a festive scene, with storefronts draped in lights and the city’s towering Christmas tree at the heart of the action. Perfect for an evening stroll, shopping, and holiday photos.
Alma
A Merry Alma Christmas
Downtown Alma sparkles each year with holiday lights around the square, plus community events like the Christmas parade and seasonal activities for kids.
Fayetteville
Lights of the Ozarks
Just an hour north, Fayetteville’s downtown square is blanketed in thousands of twinkling lights. Food trucks, hot cocoa, and carriage rides make it one of the most charming holiday traditions in Northwest Arkansas.
Share your favorite light destination with us – you just may find yourself in a future issue of Do South Magazine!
