Asian Lantern Festival at the Chattanooga Zoo

For the first time, the Chattanooga Zoo has decorated for the holidays in a unique way – with an Asian Lantern Festival. I’ve seen these types of lantern festivals before at other zoos. Most notably for me, at Wild Lights at the Louisville Zoo. Since the Chattanooga Zoo is so much smaller, its display isn’t quite as grand. But they’ve done an excellent job and all the lanterns are new and pretty (which isn’t always the case!)

Chattanooga Zoo

The Chattanooga Zoo is one of the smallest zoos accredited by the American Zoo Association, at only around 13 acres. It’s located inside Warner Park, which is a larger downtown complex of ball fields and a water play area.

Even so, they boast the largest indoor habitat for red pandas in the world, and house chimps, some big cats, and more recently, three new giraffes.

Christmas at the Chattanooga Zoo

In the past, the Chattanooga Zoo has decorated for Christmas with regular string lights and seasonal, “normal”, decorations. They hosted an evening Santa Claus meet & greet in the week or two leading up to Christmas. In fact, I wrote all about it here.

Asian Lantern Festival

This year, the zoo is switching it up big time by adding large-scale silk lanterns throughout the zoo and being open many more evenings. The festival stretches from November 10 all the way to January 15. Most weeks, that excludes Monday & Tuesday nights, though they’re open more the two weeks around Christmas. Make sure to check the calendar.

Since it’s an evening event, you won’t see many, if any, of the zoo animals. But the Chattanooga Zoo does do a good job of representing its animals with the new lanterns! There are red pandas, giraffes, mountain lions, and sloths. And my favorite, two komodo dragons with swishing tails and hissing tongues.

That’s right, these aren’t just static lanterns, some of them move! There are other animals in lantern form that can’t be found at the zoo, like a horde of pandas, tigers, and gorillas, plus plenty of flowers and butterflies.

There’s a prescribed trail around the zoo for the lights, ending in a big finish with a huge, animatronic peacock. Led lights constantly change on the tail feathers, while they go up and down. The action isn’t quick, so if you see the tail down, wait a few minutes, or go take pictures down the way and come back so you make sure to see it up and in all its glory!

Play Areas

There’s a large interactive play area in the field near the front with light-up swings, pads that light when you step on them, and a fun lantern cannon – when you step on the pad, a red fuse goes from the pad to the top of the cannon and it whuffs out a puff of smoke! Nearby, large and small kaleidoscope mirrors let you take trippy photos of your friend’s faces. (Though it’s too far of an arm stretch for a selfie.) There’s also an Instagram-ready backdrop with “Chattanooga Zoo” in neon near the entrance.

Later along the trail are photo ops with a bear and huge color-changing wings to pose with. These are kind of around the big peacock, so that area might become congested on busier nights.

Food and Gifts

There are some themed food offerings, almost all of which are at the cart at the front of the zoo. It’s not much, but there are some egg rolls, Chinese donuts (which looked like cronuts to me), and hot chocolate (which is just a big jug of pre-made mix.) Then there are the usual zoo treats of hot pretzels (both salted and cinnamon sugar) and bagged popcorn and cotton candy.

The regular zoo restaurant and gift shop are closed during the evenings, but there is a cart with some fun souvenirs. Included are wooden ornaments specific to the Asian Lantern Festival and generally for the Chattanooga Zoo, enameled cups and bracelets, mugs, and stickers. (The cart says “gifts and glow,” making me think they also sell glow items, but I didn’t see any. If you want to level up your experience, it might be fun to buy some dollar-store glow sticks for your family before you come!)

Admission & Hours

Regular zoo hours are daily from 9 am to 5 pm. You can see the lanterns in the park, but they aren’t lit up. Hours for the Asian Lantern Festival is 6 pm to 10 pm, with the last entry at 9:00. Tickets for the daytime zoo and the evening event are separate – a ticket for the evening event won’t get you in to see the animals during the day, and a day ticket won’t allow you into the evening event.

The cost to see the Asian Lantern Festival at the Chattanooga Zoo is $21.50 per person, though certain weekday nights are slightly cheaper at $19.50. Zoo members save $3 per ticket. Kids 2 and under are free, but they still need a reservation. There are no ticket sales in person – buy all tickets online beforehand, at the chattzoo.org website.

There is still a chance to meet Santa Claus at the zoo this year, though it’s only for one day. On December 17, you can meet Santa, drink hot cocoa, and participate in crafts and activities. Click here for more details.

Conclusion

The Asian Lantern Festival at the Chattanooga Zoo is definitely a unique way to see lights at Christmas, and I’m glad they are open more evenings this year. I almost wish it were open well into February to give Chattanoogans something to do during the winter months when there isn’t so much else going on, especially since it’s not exactly Christmas-specific. And honestly, I liked the old decorations!

I think the Chattanooga Zoo did a great job with this first year, and I hope they can add to their collection even more as the years go on – though it feels pretty complete as it is! It’s a great option for the price and I’d recommend it to anyone. It’s a great whole-family activity.