Raw States

Brookfield Zoo Holiday Magic

Brookfield, IL · Holiday

When

November 21, 2026 – January 4, 2027

Where

Brookfield Zoo, 8400 W 31st St · Brookfield · IL

Cost

Not confirmed

Status

Approximate: based on past editions, not announced yet

Brookfield Zoo Chicago's Holiday Magic wraps the zoo grounds in more than 2 million LED lights each winter, with model train displays and seasonal treats. The tradition has run for more than 40 years, typically opening in late November and continuing through the first week of January. Exact 2026 to 2027 dates had not yet been announced by the zoo as of this writing.

The history within reach

• Brookfield Zoo Holiday Magicsame spot

  Brookfield Zoo Chicago's Holiday Magic wraps the zoo grounds in more than 2 million LED lights each winter, with model train displays and seasonal treats.

• Brookfield Zoo opens with moats instead of cages0.1 mi

  Brookfield opened on 216 acres in 1934 and built its enclosures with moats and ditches rather than bars, an approach that drew attention well past Chicago.

• Hollywood station, the Brookfield Zoo stop a land salesman built in 18930.4 mi

  Samuel Eberly Gross, a Chicago lawyer turned real estate developer, put this stop on the Burlington line in 1893 to sell house lots he had carved out of farms and woods on both sides of the tracks.

• The Arcade Building put all of Riverside's shops under one roof0.8 mi

  Olmsted and Vaux laid out Riverside in the late 1860s with curving roads and no grid, and their plan called for the village's stores to sit together in a single building rather than string along a street.

• Hofmann Tower, a brewer's folly over the Des Plaines0.9 mi

  The brewer George Hofmann Jr.