Lawton holiday tradition begins Saturday with opening of Holiday in the Park

Work crews for the Lawton Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce are almost ready to kick off Lawton’s annual holiday tradition.

Holiday in the Park will open Saturday in the traditional manner: a parade that starts in downtown Lawton before winding into Elmer Thomas Park to stop at the massive Christmas tree whose lighting will be the official start to Christmas 2023. It’s a tradition the chamber took over in 2021 and one that staff members and volunteers view with great pride — in large part because they have a lot of “sweat equity” in the display.

Chamber President/CEO John Michael Montgomery said chamber staff and work crews have been in the park since the first weekend in October putting up the displays and lights that wind through Elmer Thomas Park. It’s Montgomery’s first year guiding the effort as the new chamber president, and he’s appreciative of the effort that goes into creating a display that delights visitors while highlighting the diversity of the community.

That diversity is reflected in one of the new display areas: Christmas Around the World. Montgomery said those displays represent each of the globe’s seven continents, and it led to a reorganization of sorts for existing displays, as workers pulled together the displays that represent Lawton-Fort Sill and grouped them at the end of the Around the World area.

“The idea is that they are all in one area,” Montgomery said, adding it ties into the diversity that is Lawton, which is why you will see a koala from Australia in the same area you see the Half-Section display.

The new displays are necessary replacements as older displays wear out, but that doesn’t mean visitors won’t see some familiar items.

For example, the light-covered pedestrian bridge along the park’s eastern boundary — still the longest in Oklahoma — was one of the first areas finished by volunteers. The ice skating rink is back, as city crews worked late last week to set the walls into place. Montgomery said City of Lawton crews, led by Parks and Recreation workers, have been an invaluable part of the work force.

“Ninety percent of the work has been by the city,” he said, of the labor-intensive actions needed to encircle tree trunks with lights and pound poles into the ground to support displays.

The popular ice rink is the same, as are plans by Scooter’s Coffee to have hot beverages for sale at the Holiday House every night (Montgomery said more food trucks also will be set up for business this year). The petting zoo offered by Exotic Pets will be back every weekend beginning Nov. 24, and Central Baptist Church will have its Living Nativity Dec. 15-17.

Jason Poudrier, the city’s arts and humanities administrator, said his department has coordinated a list of activities to ensure family-friendly events are going on every weekend between Saturday and Christmas weekend, meaning there will be an excuse to come back to the park every weekend.

“I’m excited about it,” Montgomery said, adding the chamber’s intent with Holiday in the Park is to see the event grow and evolve each year.

Holiday in the Park is an important part of the Lawton-Fort Sill holiday tradition, but it also draws visitors. Montgomery said 20-30 percent of those visitors come from outside Lawton, and they are people who visit other places in Lawton. But, while the goal is to draw people to Lawton to help celebrate the holidays, the guiding principle is simpler.

“We want people to relax and enjoy,” Montgomery said.

Poudrier said he likes Holiday in the Park because it helps counter a misconception.

“You hear so many times ‘there is nothing to do in Lawton.’ This counters that,” he said, adding his office takes that seriously. “We want to engage citizens with arts and humanities, hands-on activities, music and entertainment. That’s what we try to do.”