Inaugurated in 2015, the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy’s Grand Holiday Illumination has quickly become a Yonkers tradition, and thousands of visitors come to enjoy the spectacle. Come for FREE and see the Walled Garden lit with more than 100,000 lights and listen to holiday music from many traditions.
The 2024 Grand Holiday Illumination opens on Saturday, December 7 at 5:30 p.m. and is then open every night through Monday, January 1, from 4:30 until 8:00 p.m., free to the public with NO RESERVATIONS required. Illumination is OPEN on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Our Grand Holiday Illumination is only three and a half weeks away, and we are on the lookout for a holiday tree to be installed in the center of the Walled Garden. Every year, we have been fortunate to receive a tree donated by a local homeowner, often because the tree has become too big for their property. We need an evergreen tree around 21–25 feet tall that will fit through the Walled Garden gate. If you have or know of a tree that might be donated, please contact Timothy Tilghman at ttilghman@untermyergardens.org or 845-642-3688; he will meet with you to evaluate the tree’s suitability.
Our Illumination features more than 100,000 lights draped over the magnificent architectural and horticultural features of our Indo-Persian Walled Garden. We install them ourselves, which takes the gardeners about three full weeks, followed by their disassembly during much of January. Once again, students from Saunders High School in Yonkers will be fabricating framework for a new light display on the lower terrace. It’s quite an operation!
