Digging In At The Botanical Garden

Beth Rummel doesn't mind the drive from the heart of Johns Creek to Midtown Atlanta every week when she helps out at the on Piedmont Avenue. 

"It's just a beautiful place to be," she says. Rummel leads children's tours as well as helps out with special events, such as the garden's first-ever holiday light show. 

Rummel recently treated Patch to a tour of the garden, where Garden Lights, Holiday Nights is open nightly (except for Dec. 24 and 31) from 5 to 10 p.m. through Jan. 7. Tickets can be purchased here.

From the Atlanta Botanical Garden:

FUN LIGHT SHOW FACTS 

• Garden Lights, Holiday Nights features more than three times as many lights as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
• Low-voltage lasers are used inside the Conservatory, streaming sprays of green dots among lollipop topiaries, to create an “Avatar” effect.
• There are more than 450,000 feet, or 85 miles, of light strings within the display – half the distance from Atlanta to Birmingham, Ala.
• Displays are created with more than 18,000 strings of LED lights with 50 bulbs, or “chips,” per string.
• Because of the show’s use of energy-efficient LED lights, the entire production runs on 300 watts of power.
• Up to 700 luminaries line pathways throughout the garden.
• The Great Lawn display uses a computer-controlled system designed to run complex theme park shows and is capable of presenting up to 16.7 million colored lights timed to a musical soundtrack.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Number of lights in display - 1 million
• Number of decorated trees and shrubs - 100
• Number of lighting zones - 10
• Numbers of acres in Atlanta Botanical Garden - 30
• Numbers of weeks of installation - 13