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Garden Glow Gives A Great Reason For A Stroll At Night

So you have relatives in town, kids that need to get out and about or you just need to stretch your legs and decompress.

The Garden Glow Light Exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Garden has been a favorite with members of our staff. It is not open Christmas, but is Dec. 26-Jan. 3 – though not New Year’s Eve -- from 5:30-9:30. A recommendation: Get tickets in advance.

How many lights?

Garden Glow 2014
Credit Susan Hegger | St. Louis Public Radio
Garden Glow 2014

600,000 -- that's almost 100,000 more than last year

Worried about cold?

Fire pits can help keep you warm, or buy some hot chocolate. Plus the Shaw home is open, which will provide a beautiful place to warm up.

How long is the walk?

The garden says a person can see all the lights with less than a mile of walking. But you might want to double back, so figure at least a mile and more than an hour.

You want to take your own photos?

Photography is encouraged, but the garden asks that tripods and other static camera supports be left at home.  In other words, take all the photos you want, just don’t impede others on the tour.

You went last year, what’s new?

A large, inflatable snow globe that people can take pictures around and in. In? Check it out. The fire pits have been moved to lessen crowding.

What about other places?

St. Louis has a wealth of light-gazing opportunities. Another walk -- maybe even better for kids -- is Wild Lightsat the St. Louis Zoo. If you prefer to drive, there's the Tilles Park Winter Wonderland, the Way of Lightsat Our Lady of the Snows and the lights at Anheuser-Busch.

Donna Korando started work in journalism at SIU’s Daily Egyptian in 1968. In between Carbondale and St. Louis Public Radio, she taught high school in Manitowoc, Wis., and worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the copy editor and letters editor for the editorial page from 1973-77. As an editorial writer from 1977-87, she covered Illinois and city politics, education, agriculture, family issues and sub-Saharan Africa. When she was editor of the Commentary Page from 1987-2003, the page won several awards from the Association of Opinion Page Editors. From 2003-07, she headed the features copy desk.
Susan Hegger comes to St. Louis Public Radio and the Beacon as the politics and issues editor, a position she has held at the Beacon since it started in 2008.
Brent is the senior data visual specialist at St. Louis Public Radio.