by Noella Noelophile®
(Photo courtesy of GLAZA/Jamie Pham and used with permission.)
Quick! Which is a better “reindeer name”? “Nutmeg”, or “Peppermint”?
The Los Angeles Zoo would like your vote, at this link, no later than this Tuesday, November 6th.
This week, four live reindeer arrive at the zoo, for their annual Christmastime “Reindeer Romp”.
And you’ll get to see them “in person”, starting on Friday, November 16th.
With “Reindeer Romp”, the zoo is one of the few places in the Los Angeles area where visitors get to see real reindeer during the Christmas season. Zoo attendees can see and photograph the deer in their Reindeer Village habitat ( what a great Christmas-card photo opp!). In addition, the Los Angeles Zoo’s expert reindeer keepers offer talks on “what reindeer are really like”.
(We were intrigued to learn, in our 2016 conversation with L.A. Zoo Curator of Mammals Joshua Sisk, that reindeer are cowlike, very gentle and are, in fact, working animals in Northern Asia and Canada. The indigenous people actually use them for pulling sleighs!)
For the 2018 “Reindeer Romp” one of the four festive, four-legged visitors is a new little female caribou–who is currently nameless.
So–do you think “Nutmeg” sounds more festive? Or does “Peppermint” have more of that Christmas jingle-bell ring to it? The deadline to vote is this Tuesday, November 6th.
And while you’re considering that question…now is a great time to mark your calendar.
In addition to “Reindeer Romp”, Friday, November 16th, starts off the Los Angeles Zoo’s fifth year of “L.A. Zoo Lights”. Honored as one of USA Today’s “10 Best Zoo Lights” exhibitions for multiple years, this lights-and-animation show, with thousands of LED lights and a sleighfull of creativity and showmanship, is set to glow for seven weeks.
And as breathtaking as we found the 2017 edition, this year’s will dazzle us even more.
This year, the popular “Twinkle Tunnel” will double in size, emails the Los Angeles Zoo’s Ashley Rodgers. In addition, she says, the tunnel (which, you’ll recall, is a popular site for Christmas-season marriage proposals!) will have additions of cascading light swirls and a “new, spectacular finale”.
Elsewhere in the Zoo, Ashley says, the giant tree at the entrance, the animated elephant herd and the water show have all been reimagined. New visuals and music will be a part of the show.
Meanwhile, if you’re planning far ahead, you might also mark your calendar for the Zoo’s “Family New Year’s Eve”, with dinner, dessert, games, carousel rides and a live broadcast of the ball drop from Times Square!
