49th St. Zoo Lights
Countdown to 2023's Zoo Lights
Our Story
Welcome to the 49th Street Zoo Lights holiday display!
In 2012, most of our holiday lights were crushed when a tree in our front yard fell – BUT, this started our family talking about our love of zoo lights…and the result you can see in our front yard.
Many of our decorations have special meaning for our family each year. For example, one summer our youngest child volunteered at a raptor rescue so now Gillis, the black (purple) vulture, guards our Little Free Library™. The giant tortoise celebrates our family’s trip to the Galapago Islands.
We make these holiday decorations ourselves! Using a type of welding (brazing) our oldest child joins metal pipes which we bend into the shape of each animal. Then we attach holiday lights to the metal frame.
Each year our menagerie grows. Read on to hear the story of each of our zoo animals.
Visit the 49th St. Zoo Lights on the 4400 block of 49th St in Northwest Washington, D.C.
The Animals
2013 – The Giraffe (retired – see 2024)
The first animal we built was the lovely giraffe. The giraffe is the 49th Street matriarch’s favorite animal so it had to be the first. After eleven incredible years, we retired the original giraffe and built a new one in 2024!
2014 – the Monkey
Our youngest son has always loved to climb trees (including this one). We call him our family monkey…so the monkey (or the ape, depending on who you ask) had to be the 2nd animal.
2015 – Galapagos Tortoise
A fantastic trip to the Galapagos Islands following some family history led us to a love for the critically endangered Giant Tortoise.
2016 – Birds Landing
Our daughter works in theatrical lighting and knew just how to bring these birds to life and make it look like they were landing on our roof!
2016 – Giant Panda
We had a lovely young woman stay with us for 8 months in 2016! She had a soft side for the pandas at the National Zoo – so a natural pick for that year!
2017 – Red Fox
Have you seen all the foxes in AU Park? Of course, most of us have. An homage to the neighborhood foxes.
2018 – Dolphin
After a lovely holiday trip to Florida, featuring Key West and St. Pete beach we had to choose a dolphin for this year’s animal.
2019 – Gillis the Black Vulture
Standing guard at our Little Free Library™ is Gillis, the black (purple) vulture. Our youngest worked for a summer at the Owl Moon Bird Rescue in Boyd’s MD and Gillis was a young vulture that would never be able to be placed back into the wild due to injuries. Gillis and our son had a wonderful bond.
2019 – Washington Nationals “Curly W”
Can we say Go Nats!!! We honored the world champion team in 2019 after the Nationals won the World Series!
2020 – Flamingos
Flamingos are a highly social animal who flock together in large groups. In a year of social distancing and isolation, some bright pink flamingos brought cheer to 49th street.
2021 – Zebra
The zebra is such an amazing animal; every zebra has different stripes. This fellow joined the menagerie in 2021.
2022 – Beehive
In honor of the new apiarist in our family (and the new bees living in our backyard), we added a beehive and a string of honey bees buzzing about.
2023 – Elephant
Elly the Elephant joined the 49th St menagerie inspired by a lovely trip to South Africa and Botswana where the family saw amazing herds of elephants (one time 42 of them gathering by a waterhole).
2024 – The Owl
Owls are so cool and a favorite animal of the family! They are sooooo hard to find when we are hiking! This owl reminds us of the owls we see and photograph on the C&O Canal Towpath.
2024 – The Giraffe
Gregory the Giraffe is a redux of our first animal in the menagerie! And giraffes are the matriarch’s favorite animal. Gregory is modeled after a photo taken in Africa in 2023.