Christmas at the Zoo
✓ Last confirmed for the 2025 season
Where: 1200 W. Washington St., Indianapolis, Indiana
When: November 22, 2025 - January 4, 2026, select evenings
Hours: Evenings
Cost: free
over one million lightsSanta's Magic CottageTropical Santa meet-and-greetsensory-friendly evenings December 3 and 17animals active after darkattraction
The Indianapolis Zoo in White River State Park glows with more than a million lights on select evenings, and winter-hardy animals like seals, walruses and tigers stay visible after dark. Admission is included with regular zoo tickets, and 2025 added sensory-friendly nights with softened sound and lighting.
Best time to arrive. Sunset in Indianapolis is around 5:21 PM in mid-December, fully dark by about 5:51 PM. A typical December night here bottoms out near 24°F, so dress for standing around outside.
Other displays nearby
There are 10 other displays within 5 miles of this one, and 63 within 15 miles. Most people make a loop of it rather than driving out for a single house.
- Christmas Nights of Lights
- Corner of Madison and Banta Road Lights
- Festival of Trees
- Circle of Lights
- Alabama Street Lights
- Lights on Auburn
- Happy Holidays on Fisher
- Fisher Avenue Lights (2101 & 2105)
Make a night of it. This is stop 6 on our 30-stop Indianapolis lights loop — about 105 miles and 372 minutes of driving in total.