The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is swapping its old holiday lights show for something built from scratch. Starting Nov. 20, the Chaska attraction debuts Northern Lights, a reimagined evening experience with 18 brand-new interactive installations spread across its grounds, running through Jan. 3, 2027.
The University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum describes the event as turning its oaks and towering pine canopies into living light shows, using professional projection, uplighting and synchronized sound, according to arb.umn.edu. The goal, per the Arboretum, is to transform both the grounds and its buildings into what it calls a light-filled wonderland with nature in the spotlight. As Lake Minnetonka Magazine notes, the display is meant to highlight the Arboretum's winter nighttime landscape and illuminate its various tree species through dramatic, colorful uplighting.
This isn't a tweak to an existing show — it's a full overhaul. The station notes that the previous holiday lights event is getting completely reinvented from the ground up, according to kdhlradio.com. That reinvention shows up most clearly in two of the new centerpiece attractions.
A Shadow Wall and Geometric Gardens
One standout installation, called Shadow Play, is a 60-foot-long interactive shadow wall where visitors can move and dance to cast shapes from an explosion of different-colored lights, the station reports. Nearby, the Geometric Gardens attraction will feature five large-scale geometric sculptures that use light and shadow to create what organizers describe as a mesmerizing scene, per the same account.
Beyond the installations themselves, the event emphasizes interactive experiences set against the Arboretum's trees and winter nighttime landscape, according to Explore Minnesota. That framing fits the Arboretum's broader identity: the property contains roughly 46,000 trees across 1,200 acres and includes nationally recognized tree collections, per Lake Minnetonka Magazine, making Northern Lights as much a showcase of the living landscape as a light display.
Hours, Closures and What to Expect on the Ground
Northern Lights runs nightly from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. during its run, with closures on Nov. 26 and Dec. 24-25, arb.umn.edu states. Visitors will also find spots to grab food, warm up with a hot beverage and knock out some holiday shopping while they walk the grounds, the Arboretum notes.
Families get a break on cost: children through age 15 can attend free with a paying adult, and parking is free, the station reports. The Arboretum reflects its mission as a living museum dedicated to cultivating, studying and displaying cold-hardy trees, woody shrubs, and endangered and rare plants, according to Lake Minnetonka Magazine, a mission Northern Lights is designed to put on nightly display through light and sound. Tickets can be reserved directly at arb.umn.edu, per the magazine.
