All the Twinkling from Denver’s Zoo Lights

This evening I took my youngest and her pal to the Denver Zoo for their annual Zoo Lights festivities. Opening night, actually, and as the event is sponsored by Toyota, it was only appropriate that Toyota’s local PR team invited us to join them for the evening too. Darn nice of ’em, appetizers and admission included.

Zoo Lights runs from 5:30pm-9:00pm every night from Dec 5 to Jan 4, covering 38 sparkling acres of a rather remarkable Christmas light installation, including nighttime rides on the train and carousel, along with vendors selling hot chocolate and scarves that have embedded flashing lights. Oh, did my girl want one of those scarves!

Santa was there too, and Toyota had a fun little area with games that the girls really enjoyed, and not just because of the candy cane prizes!

Here are some photos I took, with commentary:

toyota play area, denver zoo lights

First stop was the Toyota area. The illuminated red and green lines on the left were for “red light/green light”, a fun game that the girls played quite a few times, to general laughter.

neon, led, christmas lights, zoo lights, snowflakes

You can see just how beautifully it’s all lit up for Christmastime, including some wicked big snowflakes!

pathway lit up for christmas

The pathway is lit up too, and the girls are even waiting for me to catch up. Notice that K- is holding a big bag of kettle korn. A delish treat for us all.

Santa's Workshop - reflection in a tree decoration sphere ball

One of my favorite photos of the evening, a tree decoration from the queue to see Santa. Fortunately, the line was short and it only took us 10min or so to catch up with the jolly guy…

santa doesn't know how to deal with girls

They’re pushing and quizzing him, asking if he remembers what they said (to a different Santa, elsewhere). He had it covered with his answers, from what they reported, but I like this photo where he’s just looking at me and presumably hoping for some help!

christmas light dragon

This terrific dragon figure is even more vivid in person.

And then there were the bats…

illuminated light up bats, moon

Another shot that turned out really well with the big, bright full moon behind. Rather creepy, if I say so myself!

denver zoo lights with falling stars

I liked the “falling stars” lights a lot. You can see them on the upper right.

And, finally, my cheery little snowmen:

cheery little snowmen

And with that, we wrapped up a fun evening at the Zoo Lights and drove home.

Disclaimer: Toyota generously supplied us with three tickets to Zoo Lights. Thanks!

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