This is not your run of the mill winter holiday attraction. The NYC Winter Lantern Festival is big, it is bright, and it is kicking off Wednesday at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center for the second year in a row.

The festival honors a tradition going back to ancient China.

A hundred artisans in China design and build the lanterns, and then ship them to New York. Thirty artists from China then live in the cottages on Snug Harbor's campus to assemble them.

But its fixtures don't just pay homage to traditional Chinese culture.

There are oversize mushrooms and a walkway lined with jumbo LED flowers, a request by Snug Harbor to include some displays that connect to its campus. There's plenty of fun stuff, too: a psychedelic tunnel, a massive turtle, a woolly mammoth, and dinosaurs galore.

"Now, our dinosaur park is one acre,” says Haokun Liu, the co-founder of the event. “I can't count how many dinosaurs we have but definitely a lot."

Last year's festival drew a record-breaking 150,000 visitors, the first time such numbers were experienced by a Staten Island cultural center.

A similar festival is running for the first time on Randall’s Island this year, giving Staten Island a rare nod in setting the trend, instead of following it. And to ward off competition, this year the festival is two times as big, encompassing ten acres.

It will run two weeks longer, offer some food and beverage options, and there's even a skating rink.

"It's one of the things that we have here, is this beautiful space,” says Aileen Fuchs, who works for the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. “To already escape and be immersed in, this just activates it in such a new way."

To help with expected crowds free shuttle buses will run from the city's first outlet center, Empire Outlets, meaning passengers riding the free Staten Island ferry won't have to pay to get here.

"We are making it very easy to come to Staten Island and to come to Snug Harbor!" says Fuchs.

You can hang out with these dinosaurs until the festival ends January 12. For information on how to get tickets, head to nycwinterlanternfestival.com.