From November 20 through January 10, 2027, A Longwood Christmas will bring a space theme to the Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, estate. The seasonal display includes more than half a million outdoor lights and over 100 decorated trees across the grounds.
The theme leans hard into outer space, with stars, planets and galaxies worked into displays both indoors and outdoors, according to PhillyVoice. Longwood itself describes the season as inspired by “the mystery and majesty of the cosmos,” inviting visitors to “journey through an out-of-this-world display of stellar spectacles and luminous lights,” per Longwood Gardens.
An Observatory, a Telescope, and Two Rotating Firs
The Music Room will take on the look of an astronomer’s observatory, with an 18-foot rotating Fraser fir as its centerpiece, according to MyChesCo. The room will also display a 1923 telescope once owned by Longwood founder Pierre S. du Pont, PhillyVoice reports. Outside, an illuminated shooting-star garland and metallic ornaments will decorate a 22-foot rotating Fraser fir on the Center Walk, per MyChesCo.
The Exhibition Hall will feature poinsettias arranged as a spherical galaxy, Longwood Gardens says. PhillyVoice reports that moss, Moravian stars and hanging orchids will also contribute to the room’s swirling effect. Elsewhere, the Visitor Center will show images taken by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. The Small Lake will be lit with blue and white stars, while shooting-star decorations and illuminated half-moon arches will line a Meadow Garden path, according to PhillyVoice.
Fountains, Trains and a Returning Tunnel of Lights
A tunnel illuminated by nearly 20,000 bulbs is returning, according to Longwood Gardens. At the Open Air Theatre, 750 water jets will move to holiday music in daily fountain shows, weather permitting, the gardens said in the release announcing the cosmic theme. The garden railway, which opened for the season in October, runs miniature trains past Longwood landmarks, PhillyVoice reports…