The holiday light show at Montgomery County’s Brookside Gardens is open for about a month and a half. But preparing for the show, which involves 1.5 million twinkling lights, is pretty much a year-round affair.

Practically right after each year’s show finishes in early January, staff members are already thinking about the next iteration of the popular event, said Jeff Patterson, the facilities and grounds manager at the garden.

“We’ll have a wrap-up meeting, and then [it’s]: What do you want to do for next year?” said Patterson, who’s in his 24th year setting up the show.

Brookside Gardens is not alone. Throughout the state, drive-through and walk-through light shows have become winter holiday mainstays that require hundreds of man-hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up ev

See Full Page