Celebrate Zoo Year's Eve At Brookfield Zoo

BROOKFIELD, IL – Bring the family to Brookfield Zoo on Monday, Dec. 31, to ring in the New Year at its Zoo Year’s Eve celebration. The zoo said the festivities, which take place on the final evening of Holiday Magic, presented by ComEd and Meijer, get underway at 6 p.m.

The Holly Jolly theater will be filled with music provided by a DJ, fun games, party favors, prizes and more. The zoo said the early countdown culminates with confetti cannons being set off at 8 p.m. Families with children under age 6 are also welcomed to venture over to Hamill Family Play Zoo, where kids can make noisemakers while also enjoying an early, kid-friendly countdown.

The final days of Holiday Magic are Dec. 26-31. The zoo is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day of the event. Come early to enjoy the entire zoo and stay later for the festivities, which begin at 4 p.m. Guests will have one last chance to stroll throughout the zoo lit with more than one million LED lights as well as new light displays.

The zoo said the North Mall is aglow with a spectacular 19-foot-tall orb lit with 20,000 colored lights. In addition, there are bison, giraffe, and bear animal figures as well as gigantic reindeer created from telephone poles that are surrounded by lit spheres. Searchlights illuminate the sky on the West Mall. Finally, lining the walkways along the zoo’s four malls and around Roosevelt Fountain are more than 600 lit trees decorated with ornaments by Chicagoland communities and corporations.

Zoo Year’s Eve activities are free with general zoo admission of $21.95 for adults and $15.95 for children 3-11 and seniors 65 and over. Parking is $14.

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