Day Trips: Enjoy holiday lights – with wild animals

Holiday light shows? There’s a whole twinkle-verse of them out there. There are some drive-through versions so large they can choke traffic (Belmont’s Christmas Town USA, in McAdenville; the Festival of Lights at Tanglewood Park, at Clemmons). On the coast there are holiday flotillas: You watch illuminated boats bob by on the Intracoastal Waterway.

But Columbia stages the only walk-through in these parts that includes wild animals.

From 5 to 9 p.m. through Dec. 30, Riverbanks Zoo holds the 28th annual Lights Before Christmas. That’s when the zoo reopens after its regular 9 a.m.-5 p.m. winter hours and turns on the lights – nearly 1 million bulbs strung along the zoo’s walkways or arranged into electric displays.

The 170-acre zoo is open; stroll where you wish. There are no wide-open spaces between exhibits at this urban zoo – a plus when you’re traveling with kids or seniors who can get tuckered out or can’t handle iffy winter weather. Roughly 2,000 animals represent more than 350 species from around the world, from giraffes and elephants to kangaroos and apes. Admission includes entry to Riverbanks Farm (cows, goats, alpaca, owls).

The 40-year-old zoo is in the midst of a major expansion. Habitats that debuted this summer include Grizzly Ridge (for grizzly bears) and Otter Run (for North American river otters). Sea Lion Landing is set to open next spring.

With the holidays in mind, plan to visit the facility’s polar personnel. The park has 28 penguins, including nine Gentoos, the type featured in “March of the Penguins.”

Besides holiday lights and animals, the zoo will sport a bonfire. Food items for sale include funnel cakes, cinnamon sugar pretzels and biscuit cakes. Also to enjoy: holiday music and a snow machine.

And get this: Visit the zoo during the day, and you can stay for Lights Before Christmas at no additional charge.

The zoo is 90 minutes south of Charlotte. Instead of heading home at 9 p.m., head 12 minutes west to check out Lights on the River, a 2-mile stretch at Saluda Shoals Park. What’s considered the largest drive-through light holiday light show in the area runs 6-10 p.m. daily through Dec. 31. Admission is $15 per car. Details: www.icrc.net/holiday-lights.

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 5:34 AM.