The second annual Disney’s Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail kicked off on Wednesday, Sept. 24, opening to the public the next evening. It will remain open Wednesday through Sunday from dusk to 10 p.m. at the New York Botanical Garden for ten weeks, closing on Sunday, Nov. 10.
The light walk is made up of over 10,000 square feet of installations, which include LED technology, video projections, and physical sculptures of characters and scenes from Burton’s 1993 film.
“We are here because we need joy in our lives,” organizer Jeffrey Seller said in his opening remarks. “We are here because we want to have fun experiences in our lives, because we want to have fun stuff to do with our kids on the weekends, and because we want to have fun stuff to do with our girlfriends and our boyfriends and our friends of all ages, because we need to smile, and occasionally we want to be surprised. We want to be maybe even astonished. And we love being outside in the most beautiful botanical garden in the country.”
Seller is the founder and owner of Adventureland, an experimental entertainment company that worked as the production team behind Broadway’s Hamilton. Seller himself has worked on the production of other Broadway musicals including Rent, In the Heights, and the recent revival of Sweeney Todd. The Adventureland team worked in collaboration with LETSGO, a creative team that has produced interactive projects across five continents based on theatre and films such as Cabaret, Jurassic World, and another previous Nightmare Before Christmas experience: Tim Burton’s Labyrinth.
“When we do a new Broadway musical, we have previews we start off Broadway, we do eight weeks there, and then we say, what can we do better? And then we go to Broadway, and do four more weeks of previews. And every single night after we do a preview on Broadway, we get together in the back and we go, how can we do better?” Seller said. “And when we did this Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail last year, and then when it was over, we said, how can we do better?”
This years’ experience includes new video projections and scenes, over 1,500 more square feet than last year, more add-on concessions and merch and a longer run time to accommodate more visitors.
“The greatest thing that happened to me – I’m in the forest and I look up and, so help me God, there were the bats flying over my head,” Seller said. “What that means is that by doing it in this natural environment, with the trees, with the leaves, with the clouds, with maybe the rain on one night, or the fog you might get on another night – you never know how you’re going to interact with it, because it’s going to change every single night. That’s part of the surprise, and that’s part of the astonishment. Our job is to astonish you.”
Here is a video overview of the updated 2025 experience. Tickets can be purcha
sed and additional information can be found here.
