Christmas lights come to life at Point Defiance Zoo 30 years in a row

Need some exercise after stuffing yourself with turkey? What about a walk around Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium?

The 30ths Annual Zoolights event at the Tacoma zoo begins Friday, Nov. 23, until Christmas Eve, Dec. 24.

“Thirty years and Zoolights – with more than 700,000 brilliantly colorful, energy-efficient LEDs – is the Puget Sound region’s longest-running, best-love holiday lights extravaganza,” a Point Defiance news release said.  

The zoo is open during the day from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Zoolights runs from 5 – 9 p.m. Tickets to Zoolights are $10 when purchased online at www.pdza.org/zoolights or $12 at the gate. 

Day and night combo passes are available and cost $17 for 3 to 4-year-olds, $21 for youths, $24 for seniors and $25 for adults.

“Dozens of animal figurines in stunningly beautiful tableaus and whimsical scenes welcome visitors all around the zoo,” the news release stated. ” There are majestic polar bears and walruses on ice floes; sledding penguins; ice-skating puffins; a 100-foot-wide octopus; a 3-D sea turtle; a howling red wolf; a carnivorous plant; and nursery rhyme figures like Humpty-Dumpty and the Cheshire Cat. Made-to-scale replicas of Mount Rainier and the twin Tacoma Narrows bridges (complete with traffic) tower over the landscape. And even Sasquatch will pop up on the zoo grounds.”

The zoo will also have sharks at the South Pacific Aquarium, goat feeding, a lit-up carousel and camel rides.

For more information visit www.pdza.org/zoolights.