special events

Wonderland Express
Returns to the Garden
November 27, 2009 – January 3, 2010

Closes at 3 p.m. December 3 and 24
Closed December 25

New this Year! Ice Skating and Snowshoeing

Member Tickets

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Nonmember Tickets

Take a magical trip to a winter wonderland of twinkling lights and holiday beauty at the Chicago Botanic Garden when we kick off the holiday season! Outside, 750,000 lights sparkle and welcome you and your family to the Garden's wonderland. Inside the Regenstein Center, a 10,000-square-foot exhibition of miniature trains winds over bridges, under trestles, past waterfalls, and through more than 80 mini-replicas of Chicago's favorite landmarks. Paul Busse, designer of the Model Railroad Garden, created this amazing exhibition exclusively for the Garden's holiday celebration.

Highlights

Special Wonderland Express Events
Start the holiday season with a festive holiday breakfast with Santa on December 6, 12, 13, 19, or 20, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. You and your family can also enjoy supper with Santa on December 21 or 22, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Or perhaps you and your children would enjoy visiting with Mrs. Claus for hot chocolate and treats on December 21 or 22, at 11 a.m. or 2 p.m.

If Hanukkah is your holiday, consider visiting the Garden for a festive dinner celebrating the Festival of Lights on Sunday, December 13 (4:30 and 7 p.m. seatings; concert at 6 p.m.).

New! Ice Skating and Snowshoeing
Bring your ice skates to the Garden this winter and skate on the Esplanade amid the glow of trees strung with thousands of lights. Also new this year, visitors are invited to snowshow at the Garden; bring your own snowshoes. Click here for more information about these special activities, including ice skating fees (snowshoeing is free).

Dazzling yet Energy Efficient
Hundreds of housands of energy-conserving light-emitting diode (LED) lights provide much of the festive holiday lighting at the Garden. Visitors outside the Garden will first glimpse the special lights near the Edens Expressway and along Lake Cook Road.

Among the areas within the Garden festooned with these lights are the Visitor Center, bridge and decks, Heritage Garden, Esplanade, and West and East courtyards. The Esplanade also features a large multicolored Wonderland Express tree with lit spheres at the base, and tree trunks wrapped in lights.

Visitors will enjoy seeing lit spheres in the Rose Garden as well, and special lighting and holiday horticulture in the Greenhouses.

Decorations, Trains, and Activities
The Joutras Gallery will feature decorated trees and a gingerbread display with trains. The Bridge Gallery will display behind-the-scenes photographs of the Applied Imagination team in their workshop.
Visitors will see the fruits of the Applied Imagination team's efforts, the delightful Wonderland Express exhibition of model trains, in Nichols Hall.

The trains will wind through more than 80 miniature Chicago-area landmarks, including Navy Pier, Soldier Field, Sears Tower, Chicago Stadium, Millennium Park, and the Field Museum, among others. New to the exhibition this year will be the Hyde Park home of President Obama and his family and the Chicago Union Stockyards’ Old Stone Gate.

All buildings are handcrafted from natural materials like leaves, bark, and moss. Meanwhile, Krehbiel Gallery will be transformed into an English country train platform, and a seven-minute video will run in the auditorium, showing Paul Busse’s workshop and crew at work as they developed Wonderland Express. Burnstein Hall will host drop-in family activities.

Ticket Information

Tickets for Wonderland Express are on sale online via Ticketmaster and at the Garden.

Ticket prices: Adults: $10 nonmembers, $8 members
Children ages 3 to 12 and seniors over age 62: $8 nonmembers, $6 members
Children 2 and under: Free

NOW AVAILABLE for Wonderland Express

The wonder and magic of the Wonderland Express exhibition is highlighted in this unique and beautiful book of the same name. Filled with Chicago history and architecture, the book offers a behind-the-scenes peek into the studio of the creator of Wonderland Express, Paul Busse. With colorful photos of trains and treasured landmarks, this elegantly bound, eponymous cloth-covered book captures the imagination of children and adults alike.

Visit the Garden Shop in person or online to purchase Wonderland Express.

Parking fees apply for nonmembers.