Brookgreen Gardens December 2008

The weekend before Christmas Donna and I visited Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC to enjoy their annual "Nights of a Thousand Candles" Christmas display. It is a beautifully-landscaped collection of outdoor sculptures and is a neat place to visit at any time, but it's a special treat at Christmas.

On our way to Murrells Inlet we visited Kensington Mansion, which is about halfway between Columbia and Sumter. It was completed in 1854 and is in excellent shape and fully decorated with period furniture. We enjoyed a tour by a very knowledgeable and friendly guide. No photos were allowed inside, but we took several on the grounds.


We stayed in Georgetown, a few miles south of Murrells Inlet. The first night we just took it easy, going out for a nice dinner downtown followed by a walk along the river.

Saturday we knocked around the area a bit until 3:00, Brookgreen's opening time during the Christmas display. We had a couple of hours of daylight to enjoy the sculptures unlit.


Then around dusk the lights started coming to life and musical ensembles began performing at various locations around the grounds; our favorite was a brass quintet from UNC.


It's a really amazing place at night; all the walkways are lined with candles, and all the bodies of water have candles floating in them. Electrical lights augment the candles.


On Sunday we headed back to Brookgreen primarily to visit the zoo (as if the huge sculpture garden isn't enough, they have a very nice AZA-accredited zoo!)




We spent most of the afternoon at the zoo and then a bit more time enjoying the sculptures before calling it a weekend and heading back to Columbia. Brookgreen is a must-see if you live anywhere close. It's great at any time, but especially at Christmas.

All the photos that I took are in this album: http://www.payneseal.com/photos/brookgreen-dec-08/