The light show at the National Zoo begins at the front entrance. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
Are you looking for a place to take children, a spouse, a date or friends to look at Christmas lights? Consider the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo, which has been transformed with its ZooLights festival, featuring electrical displays of animals and the foods they eat.

ZooLights is on every night from 5 to 9 p.m. through January 1, except for December 24, 25 and 31.

Besides the extraordinary displays of 500,000 lights that can be seen by walking throughout the zoo, there’s a Gin-GRR-bread competition featuring tiger habitats made from gingerbread, Zoo Tubing on Lion/Tiger Hill, carousel and train rides, a carousel and the Zoo-Magination station at the Visitor Center, which includes a Land of Legos and Fantastical Animals sculptures by paper artist Andy Byers.

Many of the zoo’s indoor animal exhibits, which are supervised by the Agriculture Department under the 1966 Animal Welfare Act, are open evenings during ZooLights, including the Small Mammal House, Great Ape House, Reptile Discovery Center, and Think Tank. There’s also a farm animal exhibit featuring cows and pigs and other farm animals.

The zoo is located at 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW, equidistant from the Woodley Park and Cleveland Park metro stations on the red line. Admission is free, but there is a charge for parking.

Food including hot dogs, eggnog and hot chocolate is available in the zoo. For heartier fare, there’s the Zoo Bar across the street. The Zoo Bar Cafe is not affiliated with the zoo, but is a neighborhood institution in Woodley Park. It features a blues jam session on Thursday at 8:30 p.m., live blues on Friday and Saturday at 10 p.m. and jazz on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

• National Zoo — ZooLights
• Friends of the National Zoo
• USA Animal Welfare Information Center
• The Zoo Bar Cafe

  
Pandas, left, and a chameleon in lights. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)

Zebra display at ZooLights. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)