Holiday Lights: Walnut Creek’s 2023 cactus-and-lights winter spectacle
This year, the Ruth Bancroft Garden’s “Garden of D’Lights” offers more artists, more cactus and more lasers.
What could be better than wandering through a renowned Bay Area garden’s vast collection of cactus and succulents? What if the plants were accompanied by various pieces of art, light installations, and lasers?
This holiday season, the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek has announced the dates for its annual Garden of D’Lights spectacle. The show will be performed on select nights from November 24 to January 6, with multiple timed entrances each night. Tickets are $29 for adults and $16 for children, with children under the age of four admitted free.
“This year we have new hanging lanterns and tree uplighting,” writes Monica Avila for the garden. “Two large-scale (8 to 10 foot) non-sale ‘Trust Cats’ will be installed in the plaza by artist Paige Tashner.” This year’s Burning Man featured these! Paige will also exhibit two of her smaller ‘Glow Cats’ in the garden, which will be for sale, in addition to the two large-scale cats.”
And, according to Avila, “Napa-based artist Scott Haycock is creating a new jellyfish installation that will be inside the Folly (a wooden structure at the garden’s entrance), and is set to return with his ‘Cactus Dome’ and fish mobiles.”
For those who have never visited, the Ruth Bancroft Garden is a nonprofit that houses cacti and drought-tolerant plants from all over the world. Visitors to the holiday show can expect to see not only spectacular lights but also flowering Tangerine Aloe, delicate-purple Lace Echeveria, and the jellyfishlike blooms of Eucalyptus native to Australia, according to its “What’s In Bloom” guide for December.
Garden of D’Lights timed slot tickets must be purchased in advance on the garden’s website. Leashed dogs are permitted, and children must be accompanied by an adult.
The garden can be found at 1552 Bancroft Road in Walnut Creek. Garden of D’Lights tickets are available at ruthbancroftgarden.org/garden-of-dlights.
