Descanso Gardens

Each year, the botanical garden’s nighttime experience masterfully mixes hands-on art installations with atmospheric, luminescent forests, all against a background of uplit trees and shimmery sound effects. This year’s event, which runs from November 17 through January 5, adds in garden’s new model railroad, which will be all lit of for the season. Last year’s edition shuffled some existing installations around and opened up a new glowing area around the rose garden. That’s where you were also able to find HYBYCOZO’s familiar 3-D light sculptures, including the return of their dizzying, spinnable versions. The other big change came on the main lawn, where sculptor Tom Fruin’s kaleidoscopic stained-glass–inspired houses sat flanked by smaller ones that let you smash a button to control the lighting. Elsewhere, Enchanted delightedly looks much like it has in the past: a field of faux tulips ripples with waves of (seemingly more intense this year) twinkling color changes while the mist-filled “Ancient Forest” still beckons visitors with its straight-out-of-E.T. setting. You can still tap the “Rainbow Sycamore” columns, and the event is just as intuitively immersive as ever. And, true to its botanical garden location, most of the installations highlight the natural beauty of Descanso’s flora—with a refinement that sets it apart from most other light shows. Though some of the new additions around the rose garden feel a bit ordinary, Enchanted is otherwise mostly as magical as alwa