A baby giraffe now stands along one of the winding paths at McKee Botanical Garden, under trees that were already old when the garden first opened. Nearby there's a cheetah. Further in you'll find an elephant, a hippo, a bear, a zebra, an arctic fox and a giant tortoise. They're sculptures by the artist pair Gillie & Marc, and they're out in plain daylight more than a month before the first lantern comes on at 350 US Highway 1.
That order matters for anyone who treats Jungle Lights as a fixed part of December. The 2026 edition, titled "JUNGLE LIGHTS: Return of the Wild," is built around those same animals. McKee lists the exhibition behind them, "Return of the Wild," as running from October 10, 2026, through December 2027. The holiday event is 31 nights inside a show that lasts more than a year.
A garden marking two anniversaries at once
McKee ties the sculptures to its own history. The garden is marking the 25th anniversary of its restoration and reopening, and also the centennial of its living collections. Gillie & Marc's work focuses on endangered species. The garden pairs that theme with its own rescue story. In the words of McKee's exhibition page, "just as this garden was saved, so too can these remarkable species be protected."
The same page describes where the sculptures sit: "among century-old state champion trees, rare waterlilies, and award-winning living collections." That setting reads differently at noon than at 8 p.m. In daylight the sculptures share the frame with the plants. At night the lanterns take over.
The staff behind those plantings is new in places, too. In July 2026, McKee named Taylor Walker as its Director of Horticulture. He spent more than five years as Horticulture Manager at Bok Tower Gardens before coming to Vero Beach. Earlier in the year the garden created its first Director of Capital Planning and Operations position and appointed Gary D. Boivin. That followed a five-year strategic plan that named staffing and infrastructure capacity as priorities.
Jungle Lights has nearly doubled its nights in two years
The best baseline for this year's event is 2024. According to Vero News' 2024 preview, that season ran 17 nights. McKee's 2025 announcement said those 17 nights drew a record 17,000 visitors, even with heavy rain on two evenings. Last year's edition took visitors through six Amazonian countries with illuminated animals and soundscapes. Lighting designers Teddy Roepke and Tony Schnur were credited in the garden's release.
The 2026 season runs 31 nights, from November 29 through January 2, 6 to 9 p.m., with last entry at 8:30. The garden is closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. McKee's Jungle Lights page says this year's route goes "farther into the historic jungle than ever before," with the Gillie & Marc animals joining the glowing plants and animals of Amazonia.
Returning regulars will see familiar pieces. The 30-foot Christmas tree is back, along with the living bromeliad trees, Candy Cane Lane and the Great Reindeer Hall with its giant illuminated Rudolph. McKee's event page describes the living tree as 15 feet tall and made from 375 bromeliads and orchids, and it lists Rudolph at 16 feet. The 2025 release put him at 12 feet.
Choosing a night by what it includes
Almost twice as many nights means more choice, and McKee prices and staffs those nights differently. The season splits into three kinds of evening.
Night type | Dates | Nonmember adult / child | Member adult / child | What's added |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Regular | Nov. 29 to Dec. 16, except Dec. 1 | $30 / $20 | $15 / $10 | Full light route, tree, Reindeer Hall, café and gift shop |
Members only | Tuesday, Dec. 1 | Not offered | $5 per person age 3 and up | Same route, members only |
Premium | Dec. 17 to Jan. 2 | $35 / $20 | $20 / $10 | Model train, plus Santa and Mrs. Claus before Christmas or holiday characters after |
Children under 3 get in free.
Premium nights cost $5 more than regular nights for a nonmember adult. Children's prices stay the same. The extra $5 buys the model train and a visit with Santa or the holiday characters. The lights, the tree and the new sculptures are on the route every night, so the regular nights from late November into mid-December include all of them. McKee's ticket calendar shows the exact Santa and character dates night by night, and it's the best place to confirm them before buying.
Members get the steeper discount. Regular-night member tickets are half the nonmember adult price, and the December 1 members night is $5 a person. McKee notes that tickets for that night are limited, have to be bought in advance, and may sell out. Member pricing also covers holders of American Horticultural Society Garden Network memberships who live outside a 90-mile radius of McKee. That's relevant if you're hosting visiting family who belong to a garden back home.
The shuttle calendar marks the busiest nights
Parking deserves a look before you pick a date. McKee runs a shuttle from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on only seven nights: December 1, December 19 through 23, and December 26. Every other open event night on the calendar is marked "No Shuttle." Overflow parking is at 146 Vista Royale Boulevard, south of the garden.
The shuttle nights are the members night and the premium evenings closest to Christmas, which is when McKee has planned for overflow. The regular nights in late November and early December have no shuttle, since the garden hasn't planned extra capacity for them.
Two ticketing rules can catch returning guests off guard. Tickets aren't sold over the phone, and guest passes can't be used for Jungle Lights. Advance tickets are sold online and at the Garden Admissions Office until they sell out. McKee says online advance purchase helps you avoid lines at the gate.
The daylight weeks in between
The sculptures are already on the paths, so the weeks before November 29 are a chance to see "Return of the Wild" without the holiday crowds. McKee has scheduled several reasons to go:
- Saturday, October 24, 2 to 3 p.m. The final session of Christopher Fasolino's fall lecture series.
- Friday, November 13, 6 to 8 p.m. "Rhythm in Bloom: Rhythm & Sky," an early-evening concert in the garden. It's free for members, $10 for nonmember adults and $5 for children.
- Saturday, November 14, 3 to 4:30 p.m. "Inside the Jungle Garden: Meet the Author and Book Signing" with Heather O'Shea. It's free for members and free for nonmembers with garden admission.
The November 13 concert is especially useful. It runs from 6 to 8 p.m., the same window as Jungle Lights, so it shows how the sculptures look at dusk a little over two weeks before the lanterns go up. The book signing the next afternoon covers the historic jungle, the same part of the garden this year's light route reaches farther into than ever.
For anyone visiting by day, garden memberships can be bought online at any time or at the Admissions Office during daytime hours. Buying a membership before a regular-night visit means paying the member price on Jungle Lights tickets as well.
After January 2
When the lights come down, the animals stay. McKee lists the exhibition through December 2027. That means the giraffe and the giant tortoise will still be on the paths through next spring's waterlilies, next summer's heat and another full holiday season. McKee says the garden draws more than 130,000 visitors a year. Most of them will see these sculptures in daylight, and the 31 lit nights between November 29 and January 2 are the exception.
At The Sutcliffe Group, we keep calendars like McKee's close because they shape how a season on the mainland actually feels, from the shuttle nights on US-1 to the quiet weeks before the lights. If you're hosting family this December and want to talk through which parts of Vero Beach suit the way you spend your weekends, schedule a consultation.
