Cleveland Botanical Garden is trading its icy winter motif for palm fronds and tiki torches this year, unveiling a new holiday exhibit called Tropical Holiday that opens November 21 and runs through January 3 at its University Circle campus. The show follows a storyline about a shipwrecked crew traveling through desert and jungle landscapes to reach a holiday bazaar, blending tropical-inspired plant displays with familiar Christmas traditions.
The concept marks a real departure for the venue at 11030 East Boulevard, which spent the past several winters leaning into snow-and-ice theming. According to Cleveland.com, Ryan Sandy, associate director of guest experience at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, said in a release that the exhibit combines vintage Christmas and tropical tiki aesthetics to bring warmth and wonder to the holidays. The garden's earlier multi-year Frost installation provides a contrast to the new theme.
Frost debuted in 2023, following the garden's even longer-running Glow concept, which launched in 2012, per Holden Forests & Gardens. Tropical Holiday represents the latest reinvention in that lineage, a periodic re-concepting the organization uses to keep regional visitors coming back each winter.
What's Inside the Glasshouse and Beyond
Centerpiece attractions include a decorated 20-foot living tree standing in the Ellipse, surrounded by bromeliads, ferns, monstera and fan palms, the report notes. Indoor gardens will glow with champagne lights, jewel-toned ornaments, hundreds of poinsettias and tropical plants, while an outdoor light tunnel stretches from Geis Terrace to the Rose Garden.
Families can follow a storybook trail scavenger hunt through the Madagascar and Costa Rica biomes inside the Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse, redeeming a completed hunt card for a free postcard. That glasshouse opened in 2003 as part of an expansion and spans 18,000 square feet under glass, according to The Cultural Landscape Foundation, replicating both a dry spiny desert and a tropical cloud forest year-round. The Japanese Overlook and Clark Hall will feature decorated trees and wreaths from affiliate garden clubs, and the Garden Room and Perennial Playspace will add seating plus an expanded kids' play zone with an oversized slide.
A Gingerbread Tradition Turns 20
Even as the overarching theme shifts, one fixture stays put: the garden's gingerbread house competition celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, with creations lining the walls of Eppig Gallery. The contest has room for approximately 100 houses, with participants including local bakeries, families and kids, per WKYC. Registration closes November 8, 2026, and participants will drop off their creations November 17 and 18.
A holiday bazaar will feature rotating vendors selling gifts, seasonal goods and work from local artisans on weekends, select Thursdays and Fridays in December, and daily during the week before Christmas. Tropical Holiday also includes family-friendly activities, evening marshmallow roasting and solstice-season educational events, with nighttime hours Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays until 9 p.m. featuring live performances by local musicians, plus Sunday shows from 2 to 4 p.m.
Santa Visits, Workshops and a Krampusnacht Benefit
Storytime with Santa, offering a festive story and photos, is set for 10 a.m. to noon on November 22 and 29 and December 6 and 13, with tickets going on sale Friday. Breakfast with Santa follows with 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. seatings on December 20, though those tickets will go on sale later. Adults can sign up for Winter Wonderland Paint & Sip on December 4 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., a beginner-friendly acrylic class for ages 21 and up led by M.E. Kuzma, priced at $49 for members and $64 for nonmembers. The same afternoon brings a Botanical Wreath Workshop from 1:30 to 3 p.m., guided by Sommer Tolan using a grapevine form, costing $48 for members and $63 for nonmembers.
Kids can join classes in tropical paper wreath-making, nature ornaments, yeti pillow crafting and holiday cookie decorating, while on-site add-ons include Tropical Wishes, a Coconut Shell Oasis and a Cacao Challenge activity. Art lovers can also check out Ohio's Winter Embrace, a frozen encaustic photography exhibition by Jann Dieringer that transforms photos of Ohio trees, landscapes and native plants into textured works using molten beeswax, natural resin, pigments and mixed media.
On December 5 from 6 to 9 p.m., the garden hosts Krampusnacht, featuring costumed Krampuses, local vendors, live music from the Darpelgangers, and food and drink specials. Tickets cost $35 for nonmembers and $30 for members and require advance registration. Proceeds will support Buddy Strong Academy in part, a Twinsburg nonprofit serving people of all abilities through movement, according to Buddy Strong Academy.
Sponsorship, Pricing and Hours
JPMorganChase is serving as presenting sponsor of the exhibit, per the Cleveland Botanical Garden's Instagram
, helping underwrite the production costs behind the large-scale seasonal installation. Tropical Holiday is included with general admission, which costs $21 for adults and $15 for children ages 3 to 12; kids age 2 and younger get in free, and Holden Forests & Gardens members receive free admission. Visitors must obtain advance timed tickets.
The garden will be open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m., except December 20 and 27, when Sunday hours extend to 9 p.m. It's typically closed Mondays, though it will open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on December 21 and 28. The garden is closed entirely on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and closes early at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
The venue traces its roots to 1930, when it was founded as the Garden Center of Greater Cleveland inside a converted boathouse on Wade Park Lagoon, becoming the first civic garden center established in an American city, according to Cleveland Historical. It moved to its current University Circle site in 1966 and adopted the Cleveland Botanical Garden name in 1994. In 2014, it merged with the 3,500-acre Holden Arboretum in Kirtland to form Holden Forests & Gardens, a history Hoodline previously traced in its coverage of the Herb Fair. The 10-acre campus also includes the Hershey Children's Garden, which opened in 1999 and was the first of its kind in Ohio.
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's Wild Winter Lights display, featuring over 1.5 million lights, is another Cuyahoga County winter attraction.
