Get ready for the most colorful time of the year: Zoolights

Zoolights is set to shine Nov. 27-Jan. 3 at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium 

The holidays are a few weeks away, but Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium staff are already breaking out the bling.

The 28th annual Zoolights kicks off Nov. 27 with nearly 600,000 lights arranged in 3-D displays of life on land and in the sea. Years in the making, this Northwest tradition features old favorites and new creations around the zoo grounds.

Zoolights runs Nov. 27 through Jan. 3 and is open from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. nightly. There is a one-night closure on Dec. 24. 

Tickets are on sale now at www.pdza.org/zoolights and discounted tickets will be available at all area Fred Meyer stores by the second week of November. Just ask for them at a Customer Service Counter.

Online and in-store ticket purchases save time at Zoolights: Simply bring the preprinted tickets, skip the lines, and scan at the turnstiles. General admission tickets purchased online and at Fred Meyer stores are just $8.50 for adults. Zoo members get an even better deal. The price is $5 for member tickets purchased online. Children 2 and under are admitted at no charge.

And for a few dollars more, the zoo offers a Combo Pass: discounted daytime admission to the zoo and aquarium, plus nighttime admission to Zoolights. Perfect for families, for entertaining out-of-town guests, or just for getting ahead of the Zoolights crowds. Visit the zoo during the day, stay inside after normal closing time at 4 p.m., and be among the first to see the lights when Zoolights opens at 5 p.m.

And when those lights come on, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium is transformed. Watch for these and many more dazzling displays.

They include:

• Jellyfish, rays, a seahorse and corals glow in multicolored lights against an inky background, as if they were in their own underwater world.
• Giant pincers of a 9-foot-by-22-foot red rock crab can’t be missed on the side of an aquarium building, near the 100-foot-long, pink-and-purple Giant Pacific octopus.
• Northern Lights glow in the sky above Kids’ Zone in an all-new display guaranteed to dazzle visitors and put them mentally in the midst of the Alaskan tundra.
• Polar bears – a whole family of them – stand majestically on ice floes amid a sea of sparkling blue lights.
• The eyes of the tiger – all 17-feet of him – are on visitors, casting a piercing gaze over Zoolights. This crowd favorite pays tribute to the zoo’s complement of endangered Sumatran tigers and its successful participation in the Species Survival Plan® managed breeding plan.
• Mount Rainier looms large over the landscape, done so realistically in lights that visitors can see the glaciers running down its flanks.
• A stealthy shark chases a school of fish.

Dozens more lighted scenes and figurines are spread across the grounds like colorful jewels in the night – and music from speakers overhead puts visitors in the holiday mood.

Visitors can enjoy plenty of other traditions at Zoolights. Ride the antique carousel, hop onto a camel, or see Santa dive with the sharks. If it’s cold outside, visitors can always warm up in the steamy South Pacific Aquarium.

Zoolights is presented by Fred Meyer. For more information, visit www.pdza.org/zoolights