Take a Critter-Cute Holiday Outing, at OC Zoo

Watch the furry residents open "treat-filled gifts" at this joyful event, in Orange.

What to Know

  • Saturday, Dec. 15
  • 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • $2 admission; $5 parking (per vehicle)

The incredible kitchen wizards who dream up new spins on gingerbread cookies and peppermint drinks each season deserve our appreciation and all of the chocolate cocoa snickerbuttons they can gobble in one sitting.

It's an art form, in fact, to take a line-up of seasonal standards and then proceed to fashion fresh desserts from that line-up, each and every year. 

But there are those who prefer their holiday goodies to remain consistent, unchanging, and, above all, exceedingly healthy.

Porcupines like carrots, prairie dogs like pumpkins, and we humans like to watch animals eat their way through surprise packages of tummy-filling foodstuffs.

Which we can do, on Saturday, Dec. 15, during Christmas at the OC Zoo. The sweet day out includes storytime with Mrs. Claus, and an appearance by Santa, and, yes, a host of amazing animals pigging out on "treats hidden inside Christmas trees!"

Well, "porcupining out" and "prairie-dogging out" is more apt, if we're talking about porcupines or prairie dogs. But count on several critters digging into some delicious and diet-appropriate yummies during the five-hour festivity.

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A festivity that is two dollars, plus five dollars to park (and that is per vehicle).

If you had to nosh out on something you found beneath the tree, what would it be? Chocolate cocoa snickerbuttons? A mound of gingerbread?

Or a single carrot, a preferred snack of the ever-amazing porcupine?

Ponder that as you round up your animal-adoring kith and kin for this alfresco December day at the Orange animal park.

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