Calgary Zoo staff putting finishing touches on 2022 Christmas light display

Gone are the days of unscrewing a dead bulb to replace one on a string of Christmas lights.

The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo uses LED lights for its annual Zoolights display.

It's hard to keep track of how many are used, but it's safe to say there are more than a million installed every year.

Stefano Ferrara is a ZooReady technician who heads a team of anywhere from five to 10 dedicated staff to set up the lights.

"It takes about three months to set them up and then it's three months to take them down," said Ferrara.

"We usually start beginning of September, and we're done by end of November, but with a bit of a time change and the more events we've added on, we start a little bit earlier. So we started at the end of August this year, (and) we're supposed to be finished by Nov. 14."

Ferrara is in his 10th year working on the seasonal light display and has experienced all kinds of November weather to work in.

"It is a lot of work and dedication, doing this all the time," he said.

"Yes, people think we go a little crazy working on Christmas all year round. We're kind of like elves that way, but it actually does build your patience a little bit, it does build your attention to detail."

Corinne Hannah is working indoors in the ENMAX Conservatory on decorations for the entire space with a Nutcracker theme.

She's the botanical curator at the zoo and also a designer and jokes that she's in charge of making things pretty.

"We want to add our personalized touch so it's special to the zoo, and because I have such a talented team, let them do what they're good at and have fun with it," she said.

"It's usually a nice change from snow removal and ice patrol, so they really enjoyed this process too, but it's long days."

Hannah shows off the latest 'mice' decorations that had to be made to fit the theme of the conservatory.

"These are our mouse kings, because you know the Nutcracker battles triumphantly over the mouse kings and so you can't just buy mouse king ornaments of any size, so we had to make them."

Zoolights has turned into a tradition for many southern Alberta families and Alison Archambault, the zoo's brand and engagement director, says staff take that seriously.

"It is the most magical time of the year at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo," she said.

"Every season is special, but this season just feels like more. We have so much extra planned this year with our 26th year of Zoolights, we have some extra special experiences as well as some preferred favorites."

Archambault says the display typically changes every year and money raised goes toward animal and plant conservation.

"People can feel really good that their family tradition of coming to the zoo for Zoolights supports something so much bigger and so much more enduring," said Archambault.

"We all know how important conservation and biodiversity are. We want to make sure that the kiddos that we're bringing to Zoolights get to have a really rich, wild experience."

The switch will be flipped on for this year's Zoolights on Nov. 18 and the display will run nearly every night from 5 to 9 p.m. on St. George's Island.

Learn more about it at calgaryzoo.com.