The Lights of Bellingrath Gardens

Jimmy and I had the opportunity to visit and enjoy.....


the lights of Bellingrath Gardens this weekend.





The Gardens are located about an hour East of our Ocean Springs home-away-from-home and 20 miles southwest of Mobile.


It started life as a fish camp. But a fish camp for a wealthy Coke bottler whose wife had filled the garden at their Mobile home and moved on to the fish camp. She started this garden with purchases she made during the depression. She would go to the home of a very poor family and ask to buy their "very special" camellia or azalea at an extremely high price.


During December the 65 acre gardens celebrate



with "Magic Christmas in Lights".


And it was magical!


We rounded a curve and saw this.





It was enchanting. We walked under the overhanging limbs of this huge oak tree .............

with lights cascading from the branches. It was breathtaking and our favorite thing ever!

Until we rounded the next curve and saw this small meadow surrounded by these blue, green, and silver trees with giant stars floating overhead .



We, of course, wanted some around our pond. But then we realized the large size of these trees and we decided to enjoy the fruits of the Bellingrath crew's labor.





The gardens have carefully laid walking paths and terraces ..............


that give you a feeling of meandering through an endless garden.


The paths were carefully designed to allow each display to be enjoyed separately.



Then you unexpectedly come upon a terrace that allows you to enjoy scenes from a different perspective and to see how they are tied together. We had a lot of favorites!








We enjoyed "over 3 million sparking lights



and over 928 displays".

Everything related to Christmas was represented in light..............


and many things I would not think of as Christmas Traditions.



We walked through an underwater garden .............


and under schools of fish.
And we also had the rare opportunity of enjoying watching unicorns play under a rainbow.



There was a Chinese display that we loved. It featured a pagoda with a fire works display in the trees created from the Christmas lights. It was impossible for me to catch, but beautiful!







Loved this oak tree with these huge spheres.


A very happy crowd strolled through the gardens enjoying the lights, music, hot chocolate, and cider. We had a great meal at the Magnolia Cafe and enjoyed watching the little ones talking with Santa. Well, I enjoyed watching the parents and grandparents trying to get the little ones to look at the camera and smile. The littles enjoyed the lights but Santa, not so much!


Jimmy took this picture of me so I can remember that I was here. Or this could be a stranger ...... who knows.