Oklahoma City Tree Lighting Festival

About this adventure

The 25th annual tree lighting that opens Downtown in December, held on the Mickey Mantle Plaza of the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The free festival has photos with Santa, a Letters to Santa station where children write and mail letters to the North Pole and decorate holiday postcards, a make-and-take ornament station, a life-size snow globe, face painting, balloon art, OKC ThunderBolt and entertainers, and Metropolitan Aerial performers. Downtown restaurants hand out free samples, and the stage features the Oklahoma Opry House Band, Ballet Folklorico Yetzali, lion dancers, OKC Ballet and the Thunder Drummers. Mayor David Holt counts down to the lighting of the Bricktown Christmas Tree at 6 p.m.; the tree stays lit through New Year's Day. Street meters are free after 6 p.m., and parking receipts are good for free streetcar rides.