[lighthearted music]
- Enchanted Airlie is our holiday light show.
It was started in 2005 as a way to bring
visitors into the garden during the winter
which is not generally a time when we have
a lot of things in bloom.
So we make the gardens bloom with lights at night.
It has really taken off, the past three years
we've seen the momentum build and build.
It absolutely is our biggest event of the year.
♪ You're as cuddly as a cactus ♪
♪ You're as charming as an eel, Mister Grinch ♪
- It's a year round process, I mean,
we spend time throughout the year
changing out bulbs, makin' repairs.
Then in August it's pretty much full bore.
It takes us three months to get everything set up.
It's close to a million lights now.
I've counted 'em all, it takes about two hours
to turn on all the lights and about half that much time
at the end of the night turning stuff back off.
- We are also a certified wildlife habitat.
The wildlife probably is not as happy with
the light show as the people are.
Right now on our Airlie Lake is
a great time for bird watching.
We're on the Fall Flyway and so lots and lots
of different species of ducks are landing in our lake.
We are a historic public garden.
This garden's over one hundred years old.
We have an oak tree, a live oak tree
that dates back to 1545.
She's the state champion live oak for North Carolina
and she's covered in Spanish Moss
and she's absolutely gorgeous.
We don't put any lights on her or any of her sisters.
I think my favorite quote this year,
every year there's a story that each of us
kind of experiences and the first night we were packed
and a little girl was in the middle of
the Enchanted Forest and she stopped right in front of me
and turned around and spread her arms open
and she said my favorite part is everything.
- [Off-Screen] You made my night.
- Really awesome to put all this work
into a big project like this and seein' the reaction
that people give ya, it's very satisfying.
- Denton Farm Park has been in existence since 1970.
In 1984 the railroad was put in.
The train is a full sized train.
On a typical night when we have all the cars
we can hold two hundred and 60 people on the train.
- We go just anyplace?
- Yeah, just wherever you like.
- When you come to Denton Farm Park here
to see the Country Christmas Train Ride,
when you see families, to me,
I get to share a lot of families.
See their happiness and all here.
- Can you wave?
- Most folks, when they come in they come straight
to the train station to ride the train first.
Then if they have children that wanna see Santa,
Santa is inside the train station.
- Come here and give Santa a hug.
Come here, give Santa a big old hug, okay?
- You know, sometimes people can have a rough day.
When they come here they can relax
and when they walk through the lights
it's so peaceful around here.
- Let me go fast!
- [Karen] It was a fun thing from the beginnin'
and never expected to,
it grow into what is now Denton Farm Park.
A hundred and 70 acres, five hundred campsites
and we have multiple events here at the park each year.
And there is so many lights along the pathway,
there's lights along the train ride.
And there's scenes, we have a patriotic scene
and a lot of the scenes are live.
We have actual people standin' there,
you know, in the scenes.
And it's just such a peaceful, traditional event.
We find a lot of families come back year after year
and celebrate Christmas together
here at the Denton Farm Park.
- Airlie Gardens is located in Wilmington
at 300 Airlie Road in Wilmington
and it's open daily from nine to four.
Enchanted Airlie is an after hours special event
for which you must purchase tickets in advance.
Call the main office at Airlie,
for more information at 910-798-7700.
You can also find information online at airliegardens.org.
The Country Christmas Train is located
at 4259 Handy Road in Denton.
To get reserved tickets give them a call at 336-859-2755
or visit their website at dentonfarmpark.com.
During the holiday season the park is open
Fridays through Sundays, 4:30 PM to 11:00 PM
with train rides every half hour.