“All is calm, all is bright”
Yes, it’s December! We absolutely love this time of year due to the added lights and festive decorations that are hung around town. When we travel, we love to see the traditions of the various cities and countries during the holiday season. Although we grew up in Pittsburgh, we soak in all of the activity the city has to offer now that we come as tourists rather than residents.
To start the holiday season this year, we decided to check out Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, PA for their Winter Flower Show and Light Garden. Walk with us as we take you on a sneak peak of what you will see this time of year at Phipps!
As you enter, the brightly lit foyer welcomes you with sights of the season. The walking path is clearly marked with arrows to lead you throughout the journey.
As you enter the first room, the smell of poinsettias quickly fill your nostrils! It is glorious! The ambiance is incredible as the lighting is neatly placed throughout and the soft hum of Christmas music can be heard as you continue the journey.
As you make the turn into each individual room, there is a different ambiance set with the lighting and decor. This massive tree was quite the stunner and caused some traffic as we entered the room!
The aroma of fresh flowers were wafting with each turn we took!
Our favorite room had a holiday flower garden! We stood and stared for quite sometime admiring the beauty.
The amount of poinsettias throughout the building blew us away. We had never seen so many under one roof before.
Even the desert room had added elements of holiday cheer!
After wandering through the inside areas for about 45 minutes, we made our way out to the gardens by following the lighted path down.
We strolled the the garden admiring the lights. Phipps had a small station to purchase hot coffee and cider and you could add a shot of whiskey for a small fee!
Overall we were really impressed with the size of Phipps Conservatory and will certain head back during the summer to see all of their standard displays.
We would recommend a visit to the Winter Flower & Light Garden during the holiday season. Overall it took us a little over an hour to walk through and can be enjoyed by all ages.
A few tips that we will consider for next time:
- Definitely go if you are a member as you and a guest can get in free! Adult tickets are $15 for non-members
- The light show is from 5pm -11pm. Since it was our first visit we arrived just after 5 pm to ensure we had enough time to see it all. We went on a Sunday evening and it was full of people and particularly a lot of strollers. If we were to return, we would probably arrive later as there would still be ample time to explore and could be a little less crowded
- Bring your gloves and scarves. While the inside parts are comfortable, it can be chilly this time of year in Pittsburgh
- Free street parking around the conservatory
- If you have a tripod, bring it. The lighting is quite dim in order to give that lovely holiday light glow therefore photography can be a bit difficult.
Now it’s time to find a holiday light display near Houston….
2 comments
Love the feature photo!
Thank you for visiting Phipps. I hope that you will come back for the Spring Flower Show, Masterpieces in Bloom. We will provide beautiful botanical interpretations of Degas, Cassat, Klimt, VanGough and many other greats!