CHRISTMAS ON THE FARM
When Dewberry Farm had an opportunity to purchase an additional 15 acres adjacent to their existing property, the family owners knew just what they’d use it for.
The Brookshire farm, popular in the winter for its cut-it-yourself Christmas trees — and a rite of passage for Houston area students who go for fall field trips — has expanded operations this month with its first-ever Trail of Lights.
More than 1 million lights were affixed to custom rebar structures that guide visitors along Santa’s journey from the North Pole to deliver toys around the globe.
Each individual light was zip-tied onto the rebar and wire rope structures. The process took 11 months.
“You have to tell a story,” says Dewberry Farm’s CEO Steve McCubbin of the planning and design process. “You have to have a theme.”
Dewberry Farm’s theme is “Christmas in the Country.” Guests board a large, open-air trailer equipped with wooden benches — which were custom built on the farm — and are pulled by tractor through the 1½-mile lighted path.
The entrance is marked with a 300-foot tunnel made entirely of lights — the effect is memorable — which leads to a path of notyet-cut Christmas trees strung with lights. There, an oversized Santa welcomes guests on the journey. Reindeers are being trained in flight school for their Christmas Eve duties. A little farther down the path, the large reindeers appear again, this time lined up in a horse stable with their names strung in lights. There are illuminated nutcrackers, toy soldiers and a candy cane village.
“When you go outside of the city and see lights, you see them in a different way,” says marketing director Jennifer Gorsche. “When there is no outside fluorescent lighting interfering, it’s just gorgeous. You have that crisp country air that adds to the ambiance.”
All along the trail, elves are hard at work — building a snowman, laboring in the toy workshop and sorting Santa’s mail.
When Santa stops in Houston as part of his around-the-world flight, there are references to Space City — but McCubbin wants to keep that part of the trail a surprise.
The 15-acre Trail of Lights is set to holiday music and takes about 30 minutes to complete, concluding back at the farm’s complex of buildings, barns and stores, dubbed the Christmas Village.
Included in the trail’s admission price is a train ride, which pulls through a depot that’s lit up inside with lights. There are pony rides, a carousel, hay stacks, large jumping pillows that mimic a bounce house, rope swings, a playscape for toddlers and a bungee attraction.
Inside one barn, visitors can take in a Nativity scene. Nearby, the farm’s resident goats, chickens and turkeys roam.
Carolers will be on hand most nights; there’s other live music in the form of school choirs and bands. Families can have their photo taken inside of a large snow globe for an additional charge, or they can snap one with Santa.
Pies, hot chocolate and cider are for sale in the sweet shop. One barn has been converted to a makeshift cantina for beer and wine.
The staff hopes the attractions will encourage families to make a night of it, says Gorsche, who adds she thinks the Trail of Lights makes for a romantic date night.
For his part, McCubbin, who personally oversaw the build-out, helping put on the final touches the day Houston saw unexpected snowfall last week, says the goal of the new event is for Houstonians to have an old-fashioned country Christmas experience in an outdoor setting, “whether you celebrate Christmas or not.”
DEWBERRY FARMS’ TRAIL OF LIGHTS
• When: 6-11 p.m., Sundays-Thursdays, last wagon to the trail departs at 10:30 p.m.; 6 p.m.-midnight Fridays-Saturdays, last wagon departs at 11:30 p.m.
• Where: 7705 FM 362, Brookshire
• Details: $13.95-$18.95, if purchased online, $24.95 onsite, ages 2 and younger free; dewberryfarm.com/trail-of-lights