Ever wondered what it’s like to stroll through a real-life winter wonderland of glistening lights? Enchant Christmas grants guests the opportunity to explore the World’s Largest Christmas Light Maze in all of its 90,000-square-foot light glory. To the tune of festival melodies, guests wander into an alternate universe of out-of-this-world light sculptures, beautiful arches and hanging lights. This year, Enchant Christmas brought this ethereal experience right to Nationals Park.
“We’re taking an iconic building that [residents] have known in one capacity, and we’re totally transforming it,” said Jordan Birch, the director of business development at Enchant Christmas. “We’re creating unique structures that they have never seen before, and it’s a really immersive experience.”
Each year, Enchant Christmas adapts this experience to different U.S. cities. This year, you can find Enchant Christmas in Washington D.C., St. Petersburg, Florida and Seattle. Birch explained that this year, Enchant Christmas selected D.C. as a location due to how cooperative the team at Nationals Park has been with Enchant’s vision. Because of their World Series win this year, the Enchant Christmas team only had 17 days to construct the entire concept. Another influential part of the decision was D.C.’s proximity to so many cities, making it an easily accessible location for guests.
The extravagant design of the maze follows a scenic storybook of “The Great Search,” written by Leanne Johnston, whose husband founded Enchant Christmas. The story follows Santa’s nine reindeer that escape just before Christmas Eve and guests in the maze are on a mission to find them, complete with complimentary scratch off cards as you find each one.
“The reason we set it up as a scavenger hunt is because we want you to experience every foot of this ballpark, “ Birch explained. “Everything in the maze is designed by us, so you can’t really find this anywhere else.”
Because Enchant D.C. features a completely new, custom-designed maze, it incorporates elements that are unique to the D.C. location, like a photo opportunity with Lincoln’s chair. What’s also impressive is Enchant Christmas’ largest Christmas tree, which has been in design for three years.
“It’s an 100-foot tree, and there’s no guy-wires on it,” Birch said, referencing the tensioned cables that are normally attached to large, free-standing structures. “It’s larger than the Rockefeller Center tree. It has 4,600 individual branches and over 250,000 lights on that tree alone, and again it’s just held in place by cantilever weight, so it’s a very unique engineering specimen right there.”
Amidst the ornate, reindeer-shaped light structures are overhangs of lights and a light-up trail that guests can walk on. For many visitors, Enchant’s giant, diamond-shaped light structures carry a special meaning.
“One of the things about Enchant is that it is a really popular date night,” Birch said. “A lot of people choose to propose at our events, which we’re really honored by because they want to make our event part of their life story, which is really touching for us.”
The maze offers countless photo opportunities, complete with an opportunity for younger guests to meet Santa at Santa’s Landing and an ice skating rink under the moonlight, which Birch explained is unique for its open air element.
Another unique element is the Christmas Market, which includes a selection of local vendors who have grown with the company, according to Birch. At any given time, there are 40 local vendors that rotate by week. Some of these include Ben’s Chili Bowl, Capital Candy Jar and Dog Tag Bakery.
“Every city is different, and every city has a culinary side and a musical side, and so we try to bring that together in the aspects of our event, so that we make this a D.C. event, not an event in D.C.,” Birch said.
You can experience Enchant Christmas D.C. for yourself at Nationals Park until December 29. Guests are encouraged to buy tickets online in advance.
