Posted in Past events

Wildlights 2012 at the Columbus Zoo

Earlier we posted an Ohio Christmas Events Calendar, and last night Bob and I chose to go to one of the events being held in central Ohio: the Wildlights exhibit at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. A lot of zoos are now doing an annual holiday lights display, and if you can make it to one of these, they are a lot of fun for the whole family. Here’s what the display looks like in Columbus.

Polar bear


Christmas trees
Antelope
Train
Reptiles
Flamingo and palm trees
Lights reflected in the pond
Alligator
Globe and lit trees around the pond
Crab
Hippo
Lit trees
Galapagos turtle

The Galapagos turtle display is in the most special place at the zoo. While we were there an illuminated question suddenly appeared saying, “Will you marry me?” Yes, while we were there a young man was in the act of popping the question to his intended.

At strategic points at the zoo, there are old oil drums with fires burning in them where you can stop and warm up. You can also get warm by going into a number of heated, indoor exhibits, such as the aquarium, manatee exhibit, or reptile exhibit. Food stands sell hot food and beverages, such as hot chocolate. At regular intervals through the evening there’s a musical show with synchronized lighting effects held at the lake. The Wildlights event will continue till January 1, 2013.




© Deborah Platt, Robert Platt and TrekOhio.com 2012 to 2021


4 thoughts on “Wildlights 2012 at the Columbus Zoo

    1. Zoo attendance is normally low in the winter, but the zoo has to stay in operation to care for the animals. Zoo lights boosts revenue for the zoo during the normally slack period from late November through the end of December. I don’t know which zoo first started it, but many zoo’s now feature a Christmas lights program. The Columbus zoo also has been doing a computer controlled light and music show the past few years. One year the Columbus Zoo music / light display was done by the same guy that had built this light display at his house.

    1. We choose a nice evening, clear skies and above freezing so there was a pretty good sized crowd. However, the Columbus Zoo is huge, so other than around the lake where the light show was running, the crowd was pretty dispersed.

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