By By SPIROS GALLOS / Niles Daily Star
NILES - Visitors to Fernwood Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve this holiday season better act quickly or the center's 11th Annual Lights Before Christmas display will be gone before they know it.
This year's season for the lights opened Dec. 2 and will be open Thursday through Sunday nights through Dec. 19, meaning visitors only have this weekend and the next to catch Fernwood's holiday displays.
As visitors travel down the lane leading up to the center from Range Line Road, they'll be greeted by large illuminated Christmas cards created for the display by Girl Scouts from Troop 704 of Niles.
The staff members at Fernwood needs all the help they can get. Executive Director Peter van der Linden said about 10 staff members log 2,000 hours of work from the planning stage to taking down the lights each year.
The displays change each year, with planning beginning months in advance as the staff brainstorms what the theme for the year will be. This year's theme is "Twelve Nights of Christmas."
Visitors walking the trails at Fernwood will find 12 displays, each recalling the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" but with a nature theme to each of them. For example, the 12 drummers drumming have been replaced with 12 woodpeckers drumming against a tree.
Van der Linden said each display is unique in of itself, but all the displays follow the year's theme. "Each theme has a continuity to it, but each display also has its own unique personality," he said.
All the displays are designed by the staff members and set up for lights typically begins after the leaves have fallen from the trees and the grounds have been cleared.
In addition to the 10 staff members, about 15 to 20 volunteers help with the decorating and lighting of the grounds each year, van der Linden said.
Each night, some volunteers walk the grounds with flashlights to assist visitors, others help in the visitors center.
Some volunteers, like Sarah, 17, and Elizabeth, 15, Stewart, volunteer to give back to Fernwood.
Sarah and Elizabeth had both attended art and nature summer camps at Fernwood since each were five-years-old. Sarah and Elizabeth have been volunteering for five and three years respectively, helping at summer camps and the Light Before Christmas.
This year, both are helping to take pictures of children visiting Santa Claus.
Both sisters said spending time with the younger kids is one of the reasons they like to volunteer.
In all, there are approximately 50,000 lights illuminating the trails which wind through the eight acres of gardens, van der Linden said.
Although the light displays are the main draw for many visitors, they're not the only attraction at Fernwood during the Lights Before Christmas. Live music is provided by local choirs and bands each night in the center's art gallery and nature center.
A chili dinner buffet is offered Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Complimentary cookies and chocolate milk are also available.
Children can also visit Santa Claus and get their pictures taken with him in the summer house, which is decorated on the outside to look like Santa's Northpole work shop.