A New SWOK Christmas Light Challenger Has Appeared
Lawton isn't the only town in Oklahoma that's continually trying to be the next christmas light display drive-thru locale... Yes, Chickasha kind of has a lock on it, but once you've been, you've seen. I know elected officials don't like hearing it, but you gotta spice up that light game from time to time. You may not know, but there are a ton of these holiday light displays all across the state. The Castle of Muskogee does one themed to the dark ages, Rhema out East of here has a pretty sizable display, even my hometown of Ponca City has a short but legit christmas display of old-timey holiday attractions, but Elk City has entered the ring as a contender.
Elk City's annual christmas light display is called, wait for it... Christmas In The Park. While the community may be somewhat smaller, it's one of the cornerstone towns for that area of Southwest Oklahoma. Every year, like in most places, volunteers get together in November to start the process of building out that years holiday display for the city to enjoy. This year, as different as it has been, is no different on that aspect.
While still a humble display, they take advantage of something Lawton can't... Their small outdoor space. We've talked about this before, when the Lawton christmas light displays moved from the Boulevard of Lights on Gore to the park, it's spread so far across a broad open space that it looks small and not as jam-packed as other places. It's just the perception, but human nature interprets perception as reality, so that's that I suppose. Maybe Lawton could drop the alleged crony-capitalism purchasing the mall for nearly 50% more than it sold for in 2019, save about seven million dollars, and spend a little more on the park. It'd pay dividends to the Lawton officials too... people would be far too busy enjoying the holiday displays and will eventually forget to vote out every incumbent currently holding a local office... Then again, I'll probably remind them.