It start’s to feel a lot like Christmas… Doesn’t it?! In order to get into the right mood and to enjoy an enchanted evening, I decided to visit the new attraction Christmas Garden in Stuttgart, located at our zoo, the Wilhelma. Read what I think about this event in the post.

I’ve heard a lot about Christmas Garden in Stuttgart already and definitely wanted to visit it. Last Sunday I finally went with two friends. When you buy the tickets for Christmas Garden in Stuttgart you also have to choose an entry time. Ours was 6:00 to 7:00 pm. At first I wondered why they are so strict about this but then it made totally sense. Thanks to the different time slots it doesn’t get crowded inside! Of course there are other people there, too, but you can’t compare it to other big events like Lichterfest or Weihnachtsmarkt. It was definitely very relaxed inside.

They have organized a 2 km loop through Wilhelma that passes all the installations and that is easy to follow. Moreover you find food stands after every few hundred meters so you don’t have to be afraid of running out of Glühwein.

Here come some of my favorite light installations:

This one is called “Lights of Damaskus”:

Also extremely beautiful were the shining Water Lilies in the pond:

I could have stood there forever and watched them float around. Luckily there is a Glühwein stand close by so at least you can enjoy a hot drink while watching 🙂

My personal highlight was the “Magical Giants”: illuminated Redwood trees.

Simply stunning.

Of course you also find more playful installations like angels, animals or Santa’s sled for example:

Definitely something for the kids 🙂

Moreover there are many lovely picture opportunities. You can stand in an illuminated frame in front of a Christmas tree for example or underneath a Mistletoe:

And there is one more thing I have to mention: the marshmallows! Oh my god, SO good! There is a stand with gourmet marshmallows. You can choose between flavors like raspberry, popcorn, vanilla, champagne and more, add cookies and real chocolate if you wish and then put it on a stick and hold it above the fire. Have I mentioned already that they are SO good?! 🙂

So here is what I think about Christmas Garden in Stuttgart:

• I loved the relaxed atmosphere! No pushing, no yelling or anything. A visit there is suitable for families, couples or groups of friends who want to enjoy a special evening.
• Christmas Garden in Stuttgart has more than 20 light installations and some of them were truly amazing. Even though the loop is only 2 km long, it took us nearly 2 hours to complete it because we took our time and couldn’t get enough of some of the installations.
• The food stands we got our snacks from were great and the food and Glühwein of very good quality. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I am a huge fan of the marshmallow stand 🙂
• What I didn’t like that much was that at some points you get really close to some of the animals. I would have assumed that they want to sleep at night-time. Well, I guess Wilhelma knows what they are doing but from my personal point of view it would have been nicer to keep a bigger distance to the animals.
• The price is definitely something. Adults pay 17 Euro during the week and 19 on weekends or public holidays. They offer family tickets though which you should check out if you bring the kids.

So altogether: When you want to spend a special evening, like light installations and appreciate a relaxed atmosphere you will enjoy visiting Christmas Garden in Stuttgart. I absolutely did 🙂

Have you been to Christmas Garden in Stuttgart already? What do you think about it? Was there some installation you liked in particular?

More information about:

Christmas Garden Stuttgart