Oh the weather outside is frightful, but it is worth freezing your butt off to go check out Lincoln Park Zoo’s ZooLights, starting up again tomorrow (18 December) and lasting through 3 January from 5 to 9 pm.

This display of lit up trees, which sits behind the seal enclosure, is set to twinkle to holiday music

ZooLights is especially great for kids, but just because it is family-friendly does not mean that there is not plenty for you to enjoy. For one almost all of the animal exhibits are open, which means if you have a hard time getting to the zoo because of daytime commitments, you can finally take it all in at night.

To quench the thirst of your inner badass, ZooLights has ice carving demonstrations that feature two dudes hacking massive cubes of ice with chainsaws, surprisingly producing some gorgeous work.

Ice sculpting at ZooLights

Needless to say the lights are impressive and I was really blown away at the selection of animal-themed lights. The coolest is one that my camera could not pick up: a rhino lit with dark purple lights.

If you have been to the zoo before you will probably not need to stay long at ZooLights. The downfalls of this free event are that it is crowded and most of the animals are snoozing. A stroll through the park is all you need to feel festive but don’t expect this to be an event you stay at for more than an hour.

Still, I had a fabulous time at ZooLights and was particularly wowed by the effort that went into creating the event. Oh, and just in case you are wondering, LP Zoo’s ZooLights went greener this year by providing more LED lights! Yay for saving energy!

See more pictures after the jump!

This picture looked way cooler than the other, more clear pictures I took

Huge tinsel snowman named Humphrey Snowgart provided popular photo-ops

PS, Follow Humphrey Snowgart on Twitter! @HumphrySnowgart!

I'm sure King Tut would be rolling in his sarcophagus if he knew he was being depicted like this.

Dev xx

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