Christmas Glow in Langley Review - Is it worth it?

Christmas lights and beautiful displays along with holiday music is really the highlight of any holiday season.. but because of COVID-19 this year, things are looking a bit different. Normally, my family and I would go visit some holiday events but this year, there really weren't many options. Besides the drive-in lights event at the PNE, I could only find the Christmas Glow in Langley. The PNE charged $45 for a car load while Glow in Langley only charged $29 for a car load, so I decided to take my family to the latter. 

Buying Tickets: The ticket purchasing experience was a bit frustrating. When I went to their website, it seems like most slots were sold out. The only slots that were available were either at 10:30PM or 10:45PM. To find which days were available, I had to search multiple day and I finally found a day that was available. I decided to choose the earliest slot I can find. Here's the official Link to Glow Gardens: https://www.glowgardens.com/langley-christmas/ 

Arriving for the event: I must say, Langley is quite the drive away from the city. The drive felt longer that late in the evening. However, along the way, we enjoyed looking at the neighbourhoods with light displays. Arriving at Glow Gardens, there were signs that displayed where the entrance were. It was slightly confusing at first because it was dark and besides the main entrance sign, it was hard to tell where to go because there weren't many signage. After we drove in a bit more, a staff member guided us to where the check-in were. There, another staff member scanned my physical ticket with her phone (I printed out a ticket but I'm sure the QR code on your phone would work too). After, we drove in more to a hut where a staff member gave us a bag of popcorn (I would say it's decently sized), a small bag of mini-donuts (perhaps there were 9 mini-donuts in there), and a Christmas ornament. I have to say... I appreciate the sentiment, but I swear I've seen this ornament at a dollarstore somewhere...

During the event: Once all of the check-in procedures are done, there is a radio station that they have that played Christmas Music. Some of the light displays are actually synced to the music and their displays dance with the music. You can tell this venue location is a farm because at the beginning, you would go around the greenhouse on a dirt path. The fences that surrounded the venue and the path the cars would drive on are all lit up. The first sections had light displays of things like penguins, Christmassy snowflakes and such. There were also sections where there were light tunnels that was synced up with the music - I must say I love these light tunnels. It would have been cooler if it were longer. The last section is a Glow Around the World display where they had lanterns that resembled the ones you would see during the Lunar New Year. I thought it was pretty cool to see the Taj Mahal, Big-ben/ London Bridge and some Random Chinese Gate. It was also nice to see some live actors waving along the way (I feel bad for them though... it's cold outside and I can imagine it can be a quite repetitive job). At the end, there was a Santa Claus and his reindeers. Overall, it took us around 15 minutes to drive through it!

Overall: I would say it's not a bad event. The organizers clearly took a lot of time to set this up. Because of the drive-through requirement and that you can't really get off the car and take pictures, the event felt really short. Considering the drive to get here and go back, it's relatively short. I would say that the event itself is worth it if you are nearby, but if you are coming from farther away, it definitely will feel on the shorter side. For me, I was thinking... "it's finished?" at the end of it.. which definitely felt very short... otherwise, I think the event itself was pretty neat. Given COVID-19 and the restrictions in place everywhere, I think I am grateful there's an event like this to enjoy with my family.