Harvest Fest and Christmas in the Garden welcomed thousands to experience the Garden’s ever-popular and growing community traditions
Harvest Fest & Pumpkin Patch
For the seventh year, Queens Botanical Garden hosted Harvest Fest & Pumpkin Patch on Sunday, October 15, 2017. The event featured live music, bounce houses, petting zoo, face painting, tours, demonstrations of henna art and pumpkin carving, magic and puppet shows, craft and food vendors, beer and wine tent, the ever-popular Pumpkin Patch, and more.
“We want to encourage people to get outdoors and see what nature is all about, so many of the offerings throughout the day touch upon that,” said Regina Minerva, QBG Visitor Services Manager. In addition to the expected seasonal fare, the Garden’s Farm and Compost team offered tours of the Farm, and gave away free compost. There was fun had by all! And the post-event feedback from the public was overwhelmingly positive, confirming that the Garden’s goal to make family-friendly events fun and accessible for all is successful.
Thank you to lead sponsor NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, and sponsors New York City Council, Amerasia Bank, Flushing Bank, New York Life, and Sunrun!
“It was awesome. So glad we made it! Last year was great! My son had a blast.”
— Rosanna Waters, Harvest Fest Attendee
“Great day for families. Thank you for making it possible!”
—Nancy Polanco Almonte, Harvest Fest Attendee
“Thank you so much for this beautiful and fun event! We had a blast!”
—Es Ya, Harvest Fest Attendee
Christmas in the Garden
The Garden helped hundreds of families and visitors get into the holiday spirit at Christmas in the Garden, which returned to QBG on Sunday, December 3, 2017. The day was filled with live musical performances by The Rough Dozen acapella group, photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, a tree lighting, holiday crafts, and a Swag and Wreath Workshop.
Attendees were also encouraged to take advantage of blowout sales at the QBG Shop for their holiday shopping, as well as donate their gently used coats for the New York Cares coat drive.
Top Left to Right: Children chased gigantic bubbles at Harvest Fest; a family wearing the crafts they made together; the Pumpkin Patch was filled with little ones posing with the pumpkins they picked; Musical performances took place throughout the day at Harvest Fest
Bottom Left to Right: Santa took hundreds of photos with families, wonderful takeaways as mementos of their time at QBG; The Rough Dozen acapella group caroled with festive energy; Santa and Mrs. Claus led the countdown to the tree lighting
Photo Credit: Anne Tan-Detchkov; Stephanie Ehrlich; Jess brey