4 Reasons We Loved Visting The Tulip Festival | Thanksgiving Point

Every spring it seems like all anyone can talk about is Thanksgiving Point’s Tulip festival. Our neighbors take their grandkids every year and always come back with raving reviews. So when we were invited to go on behalf of the Salt Project this year, we said yes immediately!

First thing you need to know about the Tulip Festival is that it is HUGE. We’re talking 280,000 tulips! And, fun fact, they’re all imported directly from Holland! It really is a sight to behold!

I won’t spoil the whole event for you, because you really need to just go see it for yourself but I’ll share our top 4 favorite parts!

1. All. The. Tulips!

I know, it’s a Tulip festival. You expect to see Tulips. But I did not expect so many tulips.

Literally everywhere you go there are beautiful tulips.

All different varieties, all different colors. Big tulips, little tulips, tulips that grow 5 tulips on one stem! The photo ops are endless!

2. The Light of the World Garden

I’m just going to come right now and say it. This was our VERY favorite part of the entire Tulip festival...even though it has nothing to do with Tulips! I’ve really never experienced anything like it.

The Light of the World Garden is a two-and-a-half acre garden with Artwork and Themed landscaping donated by the I Am the Light of the World Foundation. It includes 15 scenes and 35 statues designed to offer guests a walk through the life and miracles of Jesus Christ. The statues were created by local artist Angela Johnson.

When we first walked up to the garden I expected to experience something very similar to a museum. I expected you walk up to one statue, take a look and move onto the next. But we soon realized this was a different kind of experience. Since they’re statues in an open space you can go right up to them. You can look at them from different angles. You can touch them. 

Your kids can walk through the scenes. There was such a neat feeling as our kid’s interacted with scenes from Christ’s life. It gave new perspective on stories we’ve heard a hundred times.

3. Fragrance Garden

I think our kid’s favorite was the fragrance garden!

There are all sorts of Tulips with signs that tell you what kind of Tulip it is and the fragrance. They had so much fun reading the signs and then agreeing or disagreeing with their assigned fragrance.

My only wish is that the Tulips were placed lower so kids could smell on their own. Lifting each of our kids to smell every. single. tulip was a bit much by the end.

4. Fun for the Kids

After a long Winter and all the raining weather we’ve been experiencing lately, it was so fun to spend a nice sunny Saturday out in nature! My kids ran through open fields of grass until their legs couldn’t run anymore. It’s been MONTHS since we could do that and it felt glorious!

There are also so many fun activities for the kids. Free bounce houses, watercolor, life sized games, and a few other experiences. I love that they put the activities toward the end of the route.

It was the perfect way to end the day. We left with happy, tired kids...and that’s a win in my book!

We think the Tulip Festival is totally worth it. It's lovely and the perfect spring activity!

To read about our past Tulip Festival Articles, click here.