Tim Burton has taken over the New York Botanical Garden. Sort of. His team has green-lit “The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail,” an 8,300 square foot immersive attraction that just kicked off its two month run. For $49, experience these grounds like never before, meeting 3D-printed characters from Burton’s beloved 1993 film as its soundtrack swells, and kaleidoscope hues illuminate the trees. The Garden has 30,000 kinds of them.
“The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail” is the first venture by Spanish entrepreneur Iñaki Fernandez and Broadway legend Jeffrey Seller, who’s produced award-winning shows like Rent (1996), Avenue Q (2003), and Hamilton (2015), and created Broadway’s rush ticket program.
Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail” at New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, New York. Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail.
Fernandez’s firm LETSGO has already produced the traveling Tim Burton’s Labyrinth spectacle, currently open in Berlin, but “The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail” marks Seller’s debut in experiences. He considers the move not a transition, but an addition, to his career.
“I found a new way to surprise people,” Seller told me at the press preview. “This is the first venture that I’m doing that takes us out of the traditional theater and puts us out of doors, in a place where you can go with your friends. You don’t have to sit down, you can talk all you want, you can sing all you want, you can take pictures all you want, and just have a rollicking good time. That’s too tempting a human activity to not get involved with.”
Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail” at New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, New York. Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail.
In his opening remarks christening the trail, Seller, who is about to turn 60, recalled spending his 29th birthday touring the San Francisco warehouse where The Nightmare Before Christmas was being filmed.
He and Fernandez met at dinner in Madrid, and bonded over their mutual love for Burton. Fernandez’s team had already worked in gardens, and Seller helped forge the connection with the facilities in the Bronx. “We knew that we had to open in New York,” he told me, “because New York sets an artistic agenda for the rest of the country.”
Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail” at New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, New York. Photo: Manoli Figetakis/Getty Images.
Guests enter the extravaganza through the illuminated outline of a giant orange pumpkin, followed by a tunnel of rainbow light. The film’s infamous scarecrow, surrounded by glowering orange torches in the shape of flames, welcome guests to the Nightmare proper—followed by the genuinely haunting Mayor of Halloween Town, who mutters while scrolling through faces as you pass. Corpse Kid, Dr. Finkelstein, and the lovely Sally follow in rapid succession.
Jack Skellington makes his debut halfway through the trail, amongst a graveyard of incandescent headstones. The trail’s technological centerpiece follows: a 30-foot long projection tunnel, where a four minute-long sequence of spooky visuals like spiders crawling over wood grain transports viewers to the heart of the plot—Skellington’s plan to overthrow Christmas Town. The Oogie Boogie’s installation is the real visual treat of this section, with its towering stacks of dice and projected gambling wheel, replete with the authentic sounds of Las Vegas.
Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail” at New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, New York. Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail.
Nonetheless, nature is the star of this show. Out of all the spectacles, the most mesmerizing part of the light trail is the sight of the trees’ shifting colors. Falling autumn leaves lend gusto to the smoke effects, and spiders have set up shop on the sculptures, their webs adding eerie accents. One of the most striking moments in the show arrives in its first quarter—and it’s just a stark, dead tree set alight in a natural clearing.
Whether you think the rest of the hullabaloo is worth the price depends on whether you and your loved ones love Tim Burton as much as Fernandez and Seller do.
“The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail” is on view at the New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx, New York, through November 30.