Park employees dress up Honor Heights for holidays

Cathy Spaulding, Muskogee Phoenix, Okla.
·2 min read

Oct. 26—Work on the Garden of Lights holiday extravaganza at Honor Heights Park began a little earlier this year.

Honor Heights closed to vehicular traffic on Monday, said Rick Ewing, assistant director of Muskogee Parks and Recreation.

"We have areas around the tennis courts and the spillway where people can park and walk in," Ewing said. "Of course, they're welcome to walk in."

Crews will spend the next four weeks putting up the light displays in time for the annual display, which runs Thanksgiving Day through New Year's Day. Thanksgiving is Nov. 24 this year.

It usually takes weeks for parks and workers to install the 1.2 million lights, found on trees, azalea plants and animated displays, Ewing said.

"We have given ourselves five extra days this year because we have a lot of new people this year," he said. "Any given day we have eight people working on it, and at the max, we have probably 14."

Visitors can see new versions of favorite displays.

"We have done some new construction programming on our animation, especially on our large trees out in the middle of the field," Ewing said. "We also have some resurrection of some of the displays we've done in the past. They had just been worn out, so we reconstructed those."

Crews continue to update animated displays, Ewing said.

"Everybody seems to have their favorite animated display," he said. "We trade them in year in and year out. We will have somebody's favorite this year. Everybody seems to have their favorites."

Visitors also are in store for some surprises, he said.

"We are always looking to find the latest type of light that uses the lowest energy, coupled with the longest light hours," Ewing said.

Garden of Lights will run 5:30 to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and 5:30 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. Admission is $5 per car load, and $10 for larger vans and buses. Monday nights are free admission. The gift shop will be open and hot drinks will be sold.

If you go

WHAT: Garden of Lights.

WHEN: 5:30 — 10 p.m. weeknights; 5:30 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Thanksgiving Day through New Year's Day.

WHERE: Honor Heights Park, 1400 Honor Heights Drive.