The 2025 Christmas season began in grand style at the “Turn on the Holidays” event Saturday, November 22 in downtown Natchitoches. The riverbank was the place to be for family fun as thousands of visitors enjoyed a free concert by the Louisiana Sidemen and iconic local favorite, the Kelli Roberts Band. Visitors also enjoyed shopping and dining along the iconic bricks of Front Street. The evening proved to be a bit of serendipity for a group of sharp dressed young people from Oak Hill High School who were celebrating their Homecoming with a bonus drone and fireworks show.
The evening’s namesake event was Miss Merry Christmas and the Christmas Belles flipping the switch as the audience counted down to zero and lit up Cane River with thousands of lights. Miss Merry Christmas and the Belles were joined by the Christmas Angels and a contingent of visiting pageant queens. After the turning on of the lights, the popular drone show appeared for the third year. The brightly lit drones made a series of holiday scenes in the sky to the delight of the crowd. The drone show was followed by one of Natchitoches’ iconic fireworks shows. The fireworks have been an integral part of the Natchitoches Christmas Festival for 89 of the show’s 99 years and are a perennial crowd favorite.
The Natchitoches Christmas Festival is in its 99th year of delivering holiday fun and building family memories. It has grown over the years from a local event into an internationally recognized festival. The Natchitoches Christmas Lights are the oldest, and in the Natchitoches Parish Journal’s opinion, far and away the finest, component of the multi-city “Trail of Lights” that stretches across central and northern Louisiana.
With thousands of lights, fireworks, concerts and the festival day’s events, there is nothing quite like the Christmas season in Natchitoches!
