Winter is the darkest time of the year. You beat the sun to work in the morning, and it has set by the time you get home. But we've found a way to brighten those long winter nights: a walk through the Brookside Gardens' Garden of Lights.

Brookside Gardens in Wheaton celebrates its 40th anniversary this year with its biggest and brightest walk-through light show to date. Using more than 940,000 lights, the staff has updated familiar favorites with brighter LED bulbs and added sculptures to the 35-acre garden.

Pick up a map from the visitor center and begin your stroll at the giant, walk-through caterpillar. The 7-foot tall, 30-foot long insect has greeted garden guests for more than a decade.

The Garden of Lights is designed in such a way that you don't have to follow a certain trail, so after the caterpillar you can head in multiple directions, including toward the children's garden, home to fanciful animals including a rooster, turtle and penguins.

Another popular display that returns this year depicts the four seasons. There are twinkling snowflakes, blossoming flowers and even a storm with lightning and thunder.

Be sure to stop in the conservatory. Not only does it offer a warm respite from the chill outside, but there is also a model train that travels through a rural scene that includes the Brookside Gardens' conservatory. If you look closely inside the miniature building, you can see a tiny, moving model train.

After the conservatory, head to Nessie's lair in the Perennial Garden. The smoke-spewing Loch Ness Monster, a visitor favorite, has been updated with 10,500 LED lights. The gardens are filled with lit flowers inspired by their warmer-weather counterparts including illuminated wisteria hanging from an arbor that edges the Rose Garden. Every year staffers sketch new designs and send them to a welder, who creates them. A team of eight spends 12 to 14 weeks setting up the lights.

New this year is a flock of honking geese that takes off and lands near the Gude Garden. The animated display includes a light sculpture of a dog, based on Emmie, a border collie who works at the gardens chasing geese.

The best place to view Emmie and the geese is from a memorial dedicated to the 2002 sniper victims. The memorial is tastefully lit with white lights.

Since you can go at your own pace, you can spend 30 to 90 minutes strolling the grounds. But no matter how long you take, end your night with hot cider or cocoa at the visitor center, where there are free concerts nightly from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

-- Amy Orndorff

WHEN IS IT? The light show is open nightly (except Dec. 24 and 25) from 5:30 to 9 p.m. through Jan. 3.

WHERE IS IT? 1800 Glenallan Ave., Wheaton.

HOW MUCH IS IT? Per car: $15 Monday-Thursday, $20 Friday-Sunday. Cash only.

WHERE CAN I FIND MORE INFORMATION? Call 301-962-1453 or visit http://www.brooksidegardens.org.