"Let's build cool stuff," is how Bill Widi described the starting idea behind Winter Wonders when he talked with WMTW in November 2024. "Let's build stuff that really is impressive that nobody's ever seen before that you couldn't see at somebody's house."
Six seasons later, the walk-through light show at Sandy Hill Farm opens its seventh season on Friday, Nov. 13. Most people think of it as a December outing. The farm doesn't. Its booking calendar runs through Sunday, Feb. 28, 2027, and its lighted Rainbow slide doesn't run at all during the December holidays. It opens January 2. For anyone who lives close enough to pick a quiet Tuesday, that second half of the season deserves a look.
What the Lights Pay For
Sandy Hill Farm sits at 34 Sandy Hill Lane in Eliot, off residential roads near River Road. It is a working farm first. The farm holds two public events a year: Sunflower Summer in July and Winter Wonders in the colder months.
The light show is what keeps the farm going. Widi started it in 2020, and he told WMTW it had grown ten times in scale since then. "It's the overwhelming majority of the revenue that comes here, and it can allow for full-time staff," he said in that 2024 interview. "It can allow for better equipment, stuff that you probably can't afford on just our regular farming budget."
That money comes from what the farm builds. The ticket page says most of the props, sculptures and light displays are designed and built on the farm by its own artisan team, using metalwork, recycled materials and techniques worked out in its barns. This season's list includes illuminated aircraft, interactive tunnels and a large clipper ship. In 2024, WMTW counted more than 2 million lights along the one-mile trail. The farm says the exhibits celebrate the winter season, local culture, farm life and wildlife. Its FAQ, written for last season's show, said the displays did not focus on any particular religion or on Santa Claus.
Getting permission took some work. Widi told WMTW that Maine, unlike New Hampshire, has no zoning protections for agritourism. "If something is not specifically in zoning ordinances, it's a no, which is why we had to do a citizen petition to specifically put agritourism in our zoning ordinances," he said. That effort started before the lights. In August 2019, the Portsmouth Herald reported that Eliot's Select Board agreed to put Widi's proposed agritourism ordinance on the November ballot. The proposal covered activities like corn mazes, crop art, rides and pick-your-own.
Because the show pays most of the farm's bills, it has every reason to keep going past Christmas. Its location, a small farm in a residential part of town, also means the farm has to limit how many people come at once.
Why You Can't Just Drive Over on a Whim
Every ticket is for a specific date and time slot, and every ticket has to be bought online ahead of time. The farm says plainly that it does not sell tickets at the farm.
According to the farm's FAQ, it caps each slot for a few reasons. The parking lot is small, so cars need to come and go at about the same rate or the lot backs up. A trail with fewer people on it is a better walk. And Eliot has a Mass Gatherings Ordinance that limits how many people can be on the farm at one time, which the farm says it is "required to strictly adhere to."
The farm enforces these limits. On busy nights, people without tickets are asked to leave the parking lot right away and buy for another night. People who show up with tickets for a different night or slot are asked to come back at their booked time. "There are no exceptions to this policy!" the FAQ says.
For a local, this changes the planning. Because the limits are fixed, the crowd on any given night depends on which nights and slots fill first. The farm has published which ones those are.
The Season, Split at New Year's
Here is how the 2026–27 season breaks down, based on the live booking calendar and the farm's own descriptions:
| Nov. 13 to Jan. 1 | Jan. 2 to Feb. 28 | |
|---|---|---|
| Operating nights | Mostly Wednesday through Sunday, plus extra weekday dates around Christmas and a New Year's Day night | Mostly Friday through Sunday, plus extra dates around school vacation |
| Rainbow slide | Closed | Open |
| Crowds, per the farm | Busier the closer it gets to Christmas | No holiday rush |
| What changes | Opening of the seventh-season displays | "Fresh snow, fresh music choices, and new props," per the farm |
Christmas Day is not on the calendar, and no March dates show up in the current booking system. Opening night runs from 4:15 to 8:30 p.m., according to an event listing for the season.
The farm pitches the January and February nights as a different visit. Its description invites people to "visit us after the New Year to bring some light into your January and February." The slide is only part of that. A show built mostly by hand in the farm's barns can keep adding pieces after opening night, and the farm says it adds new props for the winter run.
Picking a Slot Like Someone Who Lives Ten Minutes Away
The FAQ is unusually open about when the trail is busy. In the farm's own words, roughly:
- Weekdays are calmer. The farm recommends a weekday if you want a quieter walk and have a flexible schedule. Weekend nights often sell out.
- Dusk is the busiest slot. The show starts around dusk. Families with young children, many with strollers or wagons, fill most of the earliest slots, and older visitors like that time too. These slots are busiest on weekends.
- 7:15 to 8:00 p.m. is quieter. The farm says these slots have fewer children and a little less activity.
- After 8:00 p.m. is the least busy. Those are the quietest slots of the night.
- Mid-to-late December is the peak. The FAQ notes that the event gets busier the closer it gets to Christmas.
Put that list next to the table and the timing works out. Someone with a Wednesday night free in late November, or a Friday after 8 p.m. in late January, will be walking a less crowded trail than a family coming the Saturday before Christmas. Tickets are sold in a limited number per slot, and the farm says the event "sells out well in advance, especially on the Peak nights."
Price, Footing and the Drive In
Tickets come in three tiers: Value at $18, Regular at $21 and Peak at $24. The price depends on the date you pick. The farm says these are the same prices as last year, and that the $18 Value price hasn't changed in five years. The farm's calendars show which tier applies to each night, so check the date you want on the ticket page before you plan around a price.
A few practical details from the farm:
- The trail is a loop of compacted gravel, about a mile long, through 14 acres of mature woods with gentle hills and a few moderate climbs. It takes about an hour to see everything.
- Wheels with all-terrain tires can handle the path. Wheelchairs, wagons or strollers with small or narrow wheels are not recommended. There are no ride-through options.
- Food and drink include warm cider donuts, warm apple cider and hot chocolate.
- Blinking lights of varying intensity appear throughout the show, and the farm advises anyone with photosensitive epilepsy to weigh that before going.
- The roads in run through residential neighborhoods. The farm asks drivers to slow down, especially on River Road, where people walk.
That last one goes both ways. The timed slots that shape your visit are also how a busy holiday attraction on a farm road stays manageable for the people who live along it. The farm's stated goal for its slots is a steady flow of cars in and out of the lot.
The slide opens January 2 and the season ends February 28. If you're curious how attractions like Sandy Hill's fit into everyday life in Eliot, or how a farm road changes with the seasons, the team at Williams & Co. would be glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
