OKMULGEE – The MCN Marketing and Tourism are hosting their annual Christmas Carnival at the Mvskoke Dome on December 5. The carnival is from 3-8 PM and includes carnival games, vendors, door prizes, free hot chocolate, concessions, free pictures with Santa, and make and take activities.
The department tries to keep costs down for families during the holidays. “Our prices there will be as bare minimum as possible just because the theme of this event is to make sure everyone is welcome. This is a time to come together, it’s not about time to make money,” said MCN Director of Marketing and Tourism Ryan Logan (Mvskoke).
“Throughout the evening there will be carnival games that people can play, there is a fee of about $1. We try to keep everything very affordable to make sure that folks can have an enjoyable Christmas,” Logan said.
The carnival offers guaranteed prizes for games. For the door prizes, they ask every vendor at the carnival to donate one item for a door prize, throughout the night door prize winners will be announced.
Logan’s department also works within the local schools such as Okmulgee, Morris and Twin Hills to spread the word about the event. They put flyers into the children’s backpacks so that they could enjoy another fun activity for Christmas.
Making sure the carnival is open as soon as school ends was another way to accommodate families. According to Logan, the event starts at 3 pm so local children who attend school, especially for those families that live in the rural area, can make it to the event. Logan knows that sometimes once families are home and settled they tend not to want to come back into town.
What Logan enjoys the most is seeing the joy and happiness in the children’s faces.
“It’s just seeing the expressions in our kiddos, it just lets them really see the joy of Christmas. This is a time when money is always on the conscience of everyone but an event like this really is humbling to be a good community steward. So my favorite piece of this is just seeing the joy on our kiddos and parent’s faces,” Logan said.
Last year, the Christmas Carnival partnered with the Okmulgee Christmas Light Parade, and the event. Due to the cold weather, it hurt their attendance, but they did have a lot of fun. Even elders told Logan it reminded them of being kids again. “It was a wonderful time to partner with the city and our other partners down there. But we are looking forward to coming back into a heated and aired location to where everyone can feel comfortable,” Logan said.
Logan hopes to see everyone enjoy their time at this year’s Christmas Carnival.
