At 4:40 on the second Saturday in December, I filled our big thermos with cocoa, dropped in a handful of marshmallows that immediately dissolved and wedged it in the cup holder wrapped in a dish towel. Ben was in charge of the music. Harper was in charge of complaining that the music was Ben's.
We have driven some version of this route every December since Harper was four. One night, one thermos and three stops, starting in downtown Decatur and ending on I-565 with a kid asleep in the back seat. It gets a little more organized every year. This year it was almost efficient.
The route
Stop one: downtown Decatur. We parked near Bank Street just after dark and walked. The historic storefronts were lit up, and downtown has the kind of December that makes you walk slower than you need to. I had been on Bank Street exactly a week earlier for the second career coffee, at 9 a.m. with twelve women and a box of pastries, and it looked like a different street at night. We walked for about 30 minutes, long enough for cold noses and short enough that nobody started bargaining.
Stop two: Galaxy of Lights at the Huntsville Botanical Garden. This is the big one and the only one with a ticket. The garden runs it from mid-November through December, and some nights are walking nights while others are driving nights. We went on a driving night, which is priced per car instead of per person, and for a family of three that is the cheapest way to do it. I bought the ticket ahead online. It was about $30 for the car, plus tax.
The drive through the garden takes a while when it's busy, and mid-December Saturdays are busy. We crept along with the radio low and the cocoa going around. There are thousands of lights shaped into animals, flowers and whole scenes, and a few of them move. Harper ranked every display out loud on a scale of one to ten, and nothing that stood still scored higher than a six. Ben argued for a seven on one stationary display and lost.
Stop three: a street in Madison on the way home. A coworker told me about a street where every house tries to outdo the one next door, and she was right. Inflatables, music on outdoor speakers, one house with a light show timed to a song. It's free, and the people who live there seem to enjoy the parade of slow cars. We rolled through with the windows cracked while Harper waved at a twelve-foot snowman. Then I-565, a drive-through for fries, and Harper was asleep before we crossed the river back into Decatur.
When to go, and one tip
Go early in the season or on a weeknight if you can. We can't, because Saturday is the only night nobody has to be up early, so we leave the house before 5 and do downtown Decatur first, while it's quiet and before the cold wins. Check the garden's calendar before you buy, because walking and driving nights change from year to year and tickets are tied to a date.
The tip: make the cocoa at home. A thermos and a sleeve of paper cups cost less than one round of hot drinks anywhere with a menu board, and nobody has to get out of a warm car in the cold to stand in line. I also pack a roll of paper towels, because marshmallow cocoa and a moving car are not friends, and Ben's coat learned that in 2022.
Moose, who has strong feelings about inflatables, stayed home on the couch with a chew and the porch light on. He seemed fine about it.
Next week we load the car for Christmas in Florence with my parents, where the lights are my dad's, the extension cords are older than I am and the tradition is that one strand never works. I'm already looking forward to it.
What it cost
- Gas: about $10 (Decatur to Huntsville and back, plus the Madison detour)
- Galaxy of Lights, one car on a driving night: about $33 with tax
- Cocoa mix, marshmallows and paper cups: $6
- Drive-through fries, because Ben asked nicely: $8
- Downtown Decatur and the Madison street: free
Total: about $57. Three stops, one ticket and a kid who announced at breakfast the next morning that this was "the best one so far." She says that every year, and I hope she keeps saying it.
