When did you last walk through the zoo gate at Atascadero Lake Park? If it was before June 2025, it was still the Charles Paddock Zoo. Since then it has a new name, a new play area, a rebuilt lemur habitat and two December events that start in the morning.
Sunken Gardens still owns the evenings, and its lights go up on December 4. This year, though, Atascadero's holiday season runs on two ends of town. The lake end, with the Pavilion, the walking path and the Central Coast Zoo, carries about as much of the calendar as downtown does. Here's how the weeks between now and January 10 fit together.
Before Thanksgiving, the Lake Goes First
The season starts at the lake. On Saturday, November 14, the Atascadero and Paso Robles Optimist Clubs hold their fourth annual Festival of Trees at 2 p.m. at the Atascadero Lake Pavilion. Atascadero News reports about 40 to 45 decorated trees, with proceeds going to youth activities and scholarships.
Thanksgiving week shifts the zoo's schedule. From September through May the zoo is open Thursday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It adds Tuesday and Wednesday, November 24 and 25, and closes on Thanksgiving Day itself. That gives families with kids home from school two midweek mornings before the holiday.
One Date to Put on the Calendar Now: November 20
Downtown's opening night is Friday, December 4, but its ticket deadline comes first. The Atascadero Chamber of Commerce's Sip & Shop, Light Up The Downtown uses three price tiers:
- Early bird: $25, through November 20
- General admission: $30, through December 3
- Day of event: $35, on December 4
Online sales close at noon on December 3. After that, a limited number of tickets are sold in person at the event. Each ticket includes a custom wine glass, tastings from more than 25 downtown businesses, and City Hall tours from the Atascadero Historical Society. Pick up your glass and wristband at the booth near City Hall at 6500 Palma Ave. Bring ID, because you won't get the glass or wristband without it. The Chamber says the event goes on rain or shine and tickets are non-refundable.
That makes the gap between the early-bird price and the door price $10 per person. For anyone already planning to go on December 4, buying before the 20th is the cheapest option.
December 4, in Order
The evening runs on a schedule, and the times matter more than they look.
- 5:30 p.m. Light up the Downtown begins in Sunken Gardens, with Santa, community entertainment, free Model-A firetruck and hay rides, and hot chocolate. Shops stay open late, and participating merchants pour wine and beer.
- 6 p.m. The 3rd Annual Holiday Light display, Garden Lights & Winter Nights, makes its debut in Sunken Gardens.
- 8 p.m. Sip & Shop ends.
The lights will look different this year. The City has brought in Coast Nitelites as its new lighting contractor for the Sunken Gardens area, and the display credits Historic City Hall, Sunken Gardens and the pedestrian bridge. After opening night, Garden Lights & Winter Nights stays on every night from 5 to 10 p.m. through January 10, 2027. That's a week past the January 3 end date the City listed for last season's display.
The Next Night, the Lake Takes Over
On Saturday, December 5, the season moves back to the lake. The free Holiday Musical Walk Around the Lake runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m., with carolers along the path, choir performances at the Pavilion on the Lake, and lights.
The zoo is part of that evening too. The Central Coast Zoo gift shop is open for shopping from 5:30 to 8 p.m., and Santa is at the Zoo Garden Event Center until 8 p.m. That puts the lake end of town on the evening calendar the night after downtown's opening.
The Zoo Behind the New Name
The rename came on June 7, 2025, during the 22nd Annual Ice Cream Zoofari, on the zoo's 70th birthday. In the City's account, the process involved TJA Advertising Agency along with feedback from the City Council, city staff, the Friends of the Charles Paddock Zoo, tourism agencies and community members, and "Central Coast Zoo" came out as the favorite. The brand plan kept the oak-tree logo. It also named the entrance Charles Paddock Plaza, with a bronze statue of Paddock and Cosmo Topper, so the old name stays at the front gate.
KSBY reported that Zoo Director Cynthia Stringfield said people often didn't know where the Charles Paddock Zoo was, and that the new name would tell them it was on the Central Coast. New Times reported that Community Services Director Terrie Banish said the City had considered a rebrand for nearly two years, with the zoo running an annual deficit of roughly $750,000, and wanted more public awareness and visitor traffic.
The name was only part of it. Here's what changed on the grounds:
- January 18, 2025: a pair of hyacinth macaws and a pair of toco toucans arrived.
- February 2025: three young Mexican spider monkeys moved into a freshly painted enclosure.
- Summer 2025: Koba, a mongoose lemur born July 4, went on view alongside his older brother Ravi.
- December 31, 2025: the Wild Journeys Play Zoo opened. It's a nature-based play space for young children, with meerkat-style digging sandboxes and a pretend animal kitchen and veterinary clinic.
- May 15, 2026: the Madagascar Habitat reopened after a 16-month renovation, with a higher lemur canopy, new landscaping and a new home for the radiated tortoises.
The Tribune reported that the renovated Madagascar area houses red-ruffed lemurs Lysae and Borealis, plus ring-tailed lemurs, Madagascar teal, radiated tortoises and tenrecs. If your last visit was before that renovation, that part of the zoo will look completely different.
Two Mornings, Included With Admission
This is where the lake's calendar splits from downtown's by time of day. Every Sunken Gardens event starts at 5 p.m. or later, while both of the zoo's December events run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Holiday Magic, Saturday, December 19. Zookeepers prepare the gifts the community has bought for the animals, and Santa attends. The zoo keeps an Amazon wishlist for the animals, linked from the Holiday Magic event page, so a gift bought now can be one of the packages opened that morning.
Noon Years Eve, Thursday, December 31. Activities run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with a ball drop and cider toast at noon for kids who won't make it to midnight. Last year's edition was the first. The City paired it with the opening of the Wild Journeys Play Zoo, so this is the second year for both.
Both events are included with general admission. The zoo's ticket page lists these prices:
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| General, ages 13 and up | $15.50 |
| Atascadero residents, seniors 65+, military and families, students | $13.50 |
| Child, ages 3 to 12 | $10.50 |
The resident rate requires ID. Tickets are sold only for the same day, at the kiosk in front of the entrance gate or, when the kiosk is closed, in the gift shop on the right side of the walkway inside. Memberships are also available. December 31 falls on a Thursday, which is a regular open day in the zoo's Thursday-to-Monday winter schedule, and the zoo stays open through Christmas week except Christmas Day.
Back Downtown, December 11
The biggest downtown night comes a week after the lights go up. Winter Wonderland runs Friday, December 11, from 5 to 9 p.m. in Sunken Gardens and across downtown, and it's free. The City lists more than 70 tons of snow, the Kiwanis snow slide, children's snow areas, bungee jumps, obstacle courses, Joe's Little Train, Santa at Historic City Hall, and more than 50 craft and food vendors.
Downtown Stops That Weren't There Last December
Several businesses near the Sunken Gardens opened or moved this spring, so they'll be new holiday-season stops for anyone downtown between the lights and the snow:
- Wendy White's Bakery opened April 3 at 5804 Traffic Way, as KSBY reported.
- Specs by Kyla moved to a new storefront at 5915 El Camino Real, at the corner of Traffic Way, which opened April 14, according to New Times.
- Nana's Ice Cream opened May 6 at 5990 Entrada Ave., per A-Town Daily News.
- Binx Coffee opened in May at 6090 El Camino Real, serving lattes, matcha and homemade cream sodas, as KSBY reported.
Put the two calendars together and you can spend most of December without repeating a night. Sunken Gardens has December 4 and 11 and the nightly lights through January 10. The lake has November 14 and the evening of December 5, and the zoo has the mornings of December 19 and 31.
If this season has you thinking about your own place near the lake or a few blocks from Sunken Gardens, and what it might be worth heading into 2027, The Mike Oliver Group is glad to put a number to it over coffee downtown. Request Your Home Valuation whenever you're ready, holiday lights or not.
