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Two In Tow & On The Go | Zoolights: 37 years of lighting up the holidays in Tacoma
2022
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For 37 years, the annual Zoolights event at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium has brightened the holidays with thousands of string lights wrapping trees, lining walkways, and shaping displays inspired by nature and wildlife. Dazzling guests since late November, the latest rendition of Zoolights is now in its final stretch — hosting its last showings of the season through Sunday, Jan. 5. With online spots filling up fast, folks interested in attending are encouraged to check the zoo’s online calendar for timed entry tickets. (Admission is not available at the gate for Zoolights).
Whether it’s your first visit or your 37th, this walk-through event offers a chance to trek around the zoo after-hours to browse the lighted decorations staff takes months to design and prepare for just for the holiday season. The event takes place nightly, when most of the animals have gone to sleep, and the aquariums are closed. (Tip: but the nearby penguins are usually out and about inside their enclosure.)
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The zoo’s family-friendly showcase of lights began in 1988 as a modestly-priced $1.50 ticketed event news reports at the time said was based off an idea borrowed from a Midwest zoo. Today, Point Defiance has grown the event into a local winter-break favorite as families return year after year.
Some of our favorite pieces are the light-up tigers, polar bear family (you’ll find some on the roof of the zoo’s entrance this year) and the 100-foot-wide giant pacific octopus sporting a hot pink sheen.
Flame Tree
Another one is a longtime light display the zoo calls the “Flame Tree.” Marked on the official Zoolights map by name, this piece was new to my list in 2024 since it was our first time noticing the tree. Arguably, it’s also the first year I had “big kids” who didn’t dart off at any given moment so I could actually spend more than two seconds looking over a map.. When I read the name Flame Tree out loud — the kids said, “Cool! Let’s check that out first!” So off we went.
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On our way there, we passed through our go-to rainbow tunnel (it’s AWESOME for pics!) and wandered down the walkway to where the Picnic Pavilion meets the main aquarium.
I’m pausing here to say that when we first read the Flame Tree’s name off the map a few minutes earlier, I imagined it would be a trunk full of branches caught in the lifelike orange and red glow of a traditional campfire. So those were the colors I kept an eye out for.
Shortly after the tunnel, we were stopped, mid-expedition, due to being completely enamored with a densely lit green and purple stunner. This “other tree” was a real attention-grabber and it held us in the grasp of its illuminated two-tone beauty. Even as the kids started to move on, I stopped to look up to the night’s sky through the tree’s electric-light-dotted canopy — and I couldn’t help but think how much it looked like the most wild outer space scene ever.
As it turns out, the map wasn’t leading us to an orange ball of fire. This special purple-and-green spectacle was—dun dun dun—the one, the only, Flame Tree!
Blurry but beautiful.
We found it! But … why is there the ‘flame’ in its name? (Hey, that rhymes). Well, after thinking it over — I have a few ideas. If fire is captivating enough to make someone stop and stare, then I can see why the Flame Tree’s name fits—even without its colors repping the warm side of the color wheel. But my guess is a chemist (or, at least, a fan of Bill Nye the Science Guy) was on the premises when the Flame Tree first came about 30-some years ago (it’s almost a Zoolights original!).
For funsies, let’s try to crack the code with some real life science exploration on color and tree species:
1. Color
Orange and red aren’t the only flame colors that exist. Science tells us that the elemental composition of whatever is burning dictates a flame’s outward hue. Copper, for example, apparently burns green. And violet? It’s said to be one of the hottest flame colors in the world—produced by burning alkali metals, for example.
2. Tree species
While Earth is home to an actual “flame tree” species, I don’t believe the Point Defiance Zoo’s tree is it. The tropical Brachychiton acerifolius is apparently famous for its bright red bell-shaped flowers. I didn’t see such striking blossoms on the Zoolights’ tree, unless perhaps they only come out in spring and summer. I’d believe that if I hadn’t already read in local news archives that this zoo’s particular Zoolights Flame Tree is actually of the maple variety.
3. History
To be certain of the artistic inspiration behind the tree, I sought out answers by looking back at the event’s community coverage in the 1980s and 90s.
1990 – The earliest mention of the Flame Tree that I’ve found was a photo of what looks like it in this quarterly rec guide for Metro Parks Tacoma included in a 1990 Tacoma News Tribune edition.
1991 – A feature story in the same newspaper didn’t mention the tree under its current moniker, but described it as the “exquisite purple tree,” according this May 18 report..
1992 – In The News Tribune, Nov. 28, 1992 paper, news reporters spoke to early Zoolights’ mastermind David Hillard who gave a step-by-step rundown on how folks can wrap their own Flame Trees at home for neighborhood holiday displays.
1995 – Local news media wasn’t only calling the “Flame Tree” by name, but in this News Tribune, November 30, 1995 story – a reporter wrote that the attraction was the most popular Zoolights exhibit ever. Wowza.
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In the news: Flame Tree fun facts
- In this Point Defiance Zoo 2011 Facebook post: Zoo folks said its famous Flame Tree alone uses “30,000 lights – 20,000 purple and 10,000 green. When staff switched its lights to LEDs, the Flame Tree went from drawing 90 amps to just 10 (amps) and from nine extension cords to two.”
- Facebook comments indicate people have proposed marriage beneath this awesome tree.
- In 1996, Zoolights organizers described the tree’s lights as “green, plum and purple.”
- Zoo gift shop stats from a 1995 news report said, at that time, the zoo stocked boxes of the Flame Tree’s 50-count mini string lights in purple for $10.95. The bulbs were made by G.E., and may have been just like these old eBay boxes sold today. The article went on to say: “‘We usually sell 30 to 35 cases (10 to a case) during the holidays,’ said Lynn Klein, a gift shop supervisor who loves the happy-faced crowds so much she volunteers to work nights during the event. The shop has even mailed orders as far as California and Oregon.”
- In 1999, this is how the zoo’s website described its “infamous Flame Tree” and it included a photo!
http://www.pdza.org/clndrfrm via the Internet Archive.
- The News Tribune reporter from the third and fourth fun facts also gifted readers with a most illustrative sentence about why the Flame Tree’s purple and green hues work so well together. They do so by:
“imprinting the brilliant vision on your brain like a masterpiece in the Louvre.”
… Très magnifique, no?
Other sights
Zoolights 2024
Elsewhere, Zoolights continued to combine nostalgia with fresh surprises as the kids and I enjoyed the light displays for Mount Rainier, the super tall Seahawks Tree in blue and green, and the creative Tacoma Narrows Bridge with headlights and tail lights repping the opposing directions of traffic. (Fun fact: I read that zoo volunteer Thomas Martinelli thought up and built the double bridges display in 1991).
When we got cold on our visit, we headed to the zoo’s café to try out the event’s advertised “hot cocoa float” with two scoops of ice cream (Hint: those melt FAST). Other people order “fried apple fries” topped with whipped cream and caramel. Some dinner foods were also available — so Wyatt ordered a hot dog. Earlier, the kids also took a ride on the same vintage carousel we wrote about earlier this year. This time, the kids chose a hand-carved wild cat and a horse adorned with the Washington state flower and bird. (Flashback: Who else remembers Leland Smith’s 2023 story what he thinks the state bird should really be?).
Back at Zoolights, staff recommends taking a spin on the Christmas-y selections for a fun photo op atop a snowy polar bear or a red-and-green adorned reindeer.
Sasquatch
Don’t forget to hunt for the zoo’s elusive Sasquatch display. It’s a lighted outline of the notorious Pacific Northwesterner hiding somewhere among the decorations – and its location changes each year!
(TIP: don’t base his current hiding spot off this picture online, because it’s probably hiding somewhere else this year).
And that’s it for my recap. Always a fun time at Zoolights!
See ya out there!
IF YOU GO:
Tickets: Buy timed-entry tickets online (member and non member pricing)
When: Nightly from 4:30–10 p.m. until Jan. 5, 2025.
Where: Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Tacoma.
Info: www.pdza.org/event/zoolights/
Dress warmly: Zoolights is almost all outdoors. Waterproof layers will keep you cozy. Although … you can always warm up in the zoo cafe or gift shop.
Weather: Rainy nights = shimmering pathways reflecting the lights and extra magic
Meet the Goats: For an extra fee, book the holiday-themed Groovy Goats encounter under the dome tent to meet these adorable animals in their festive coats.
Hint: check out the goats’ collars – they’ve got names!
@two.n.tow
Tonya Strickland is a Gig Harbor mom-of-two and longtime journalist. Now in the travel and family niche, her blog, Two in Tow & On the Go, was named among the 10 Seattle-Area Instagram Accounts to Follow by ParentMap magazine. Tonya and her husband Bowen moved to Gig Harbor from California with their two kids, Clara (10) and Wyatt (8) in 2021. Find them on Facebook for all the kid-friendly places in and around town.