The holidays are well underway at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Their annual Christmas and Holiday Traditions Around The World exhibition features more than 40 holiday trees and displays from around the globe. This magical time of year includes glow of 300,000 lights, unique hand-made ornaments and blossoming holiday plantings.

Hidden in a lush garden of juniper, arborvitae, cypress, bugleweed, holly, birch, dwarf spruce and sedum is the memorable “Railway Garden.” A model-sized train travels through forests and valleys, over high trestles and past glittering lights in this indoor garden display.

Among the plants is a miniature Grand Rapids. 19 buildings are modeled after the area’s most well-known landmarks. Each building is a work of art with details created entirely from natural materials like dried fruit willow branches, acorns, walnuts, mushroom caps, coconut fiber and cinnamon sticks.

Pantlind Hotel

Three Grand Rapids landmarks are a few of the highlights in this year’s display:
- Fountain Street Church, a gorgeous church built in 1924, which still stands today.
- Pantlind Hotel, built in 1913 and is now the home of Grand Rapids’ famous Amway Grand Plaza
- Flanagan’s Pub, built in 1873 and is still located in the heart of downtown.

Flanagan's Pub

It takes the Railway Garden’s train four minutes to complete one lap of the 500-foot track. At the end of the holiday season, that will equal 1,000 miles or the distance of a one-way trip from Michigan to Florida.

The Railway Garden opened in 2005. Nationally known railway garden designer Paul Busse and his team of artists designed the Railway Garden, which opened in 2005. Busse has built railway gardens for some of the largest botanic gardens in the country, including New York and Chicago.

Christmas and Holiday Traditions Around The World and the Railway Garden will be on display until January 10, 2010. For more information, please visit MeijerGardens.org.

All information and photos courtesy and copyright Meijer Garden