Tickets Now on Sale for Puget Sound's Best-Loved Holiday Lights Display

27th edition of Zoolights will dazzle visitors as more than 550,000 brilliant LEDs bring zoo animals and landmarks to life.

Prepare to be dazzled.

Tickets are now on sale for one of the Pacific Northwest’s most-treasured and longest-running holiday traditions.

Zoolights runs Nov. 28 through Jan. 4 at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, and it’s not too early to plan an annual trip to a magical world of zoo animals come to life in colorful LEDs.

Tickets may be purchased at www.pdza.org. So pick them out, print them up and put them in a place of honor on a refrigerator, on the family bulletin board, in a wallet or in a safe. 

Online ticket holders will be able to skip the queues and walk right through the turnstiles by scanning their pre-printed tickets when they arrive for Zoolights.

Zoolights is the perfect outing for Family Night, Date Night and Friends Get-Together Night. 

And in 2014, there’s a lot to see.

A massive shark swims silently through the sea of darkness, chasing a school of 30 smaller fish across the façade of the South Pacific Aquarium.

Visitors will see only one shark, but here’s a Zoolights’ secret: there will actually be three. They’ll be done in sequential lights, so Mr. Shark slinks across the sky as he chases his fleeing prey.

The colorful 60-feet-long-by-10-feet-high shark tableau is the newest member in the Zoolights family of spectacular animal scenes, figurines, created-to-scale landmarks and intricately decorated trees, shrubs and walkways. 

The zoo’s very own Zoolights artists are putting finishing touches on the display now and will begin erecting it in the coming days. They began setting up displays and stringing lights on Tuesday.

Washington’s favorite holiday lights tradition is lyrical, it’s whimsical, it’s the perfect fusion of light and imagination in more than half-a-million brilliantly colorful LEDs.

What will visitors be able to see and do?

Marvel at the 100-foot-long, glowing pinkish-purple octopus atop the North Pacific Aquarium.

Stare in wonder at a replica of Mount Rainier so stunningly real you can see the glaciers running down its flanks.

Gasp in awe at the splendor of a polar bear family standing on ice floes amid a sparkling blue sea.

Sit beside the gloriously green-and-purple Flame Tree for a family portrait.

See a seal chasing a fish, an eagle swooping out of the sky to catch a salmon, a tiger cub stalking a butterfly, and dozens more scenes spread like precious jewels in a necklace of light around the Zoo grounds.

And when visitors want to view some flesh-and-blood animals, they can stop into the South Pacific Aquarium to feel the sandpapery hides of whitespotted bamboo sharks and epaulette sharks, or to run their fingers across the velvety surface of dinner-plate size stingrays.

Nearby, there’s always a majestic water ballet of 17 massive live sharks in their 240,000-gallon home. And on special nights, Santa pays a visit, swimming among the sharks to the delight of visitors.

Over in Kids’ Zone, visitors will smile at the antics of meerkats, peek into jewel tanks at various inhabitants and take a gander at goats. And every evening, a zoo animal will be waiting to greet visitors in the Asian Forest Sanctuary Day Room.

There will be camels to ride and carved zoo animals aboard an antique carousel, just waiting for the young and young-at-heart to hop aboard.

“We are delighted to prepare another edition of Zoolights for visitors from across the Northwest,” Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium deputy director John Houck said. “And we’re particularly excited for our visitors to see many of our threatened and endangered species represented so magnificently in lights. Our new shark scene, for example, will remind us all of the crucial role each of us can take in helping to conserve these amazing animals.”

Crews are working hard to create the magic – with 57 days and counting to the Big Light Up. Zoolights is presented by Fred Meyer.

It’s never too early to begin dreaming of a bright holiday season. It’s going to be absolutely ZOO-TIFUL.