The Fat Okie

Yukon Christmas in the Park

My absolute favorite Christmas light display in Oklahoma is in Yukon at their city park. The three parks have over 5 million lights and 500 displays. You start the drive at NW 10th Street and Holly Avenue. There are lighted snowmen pointing the way, the traffic usually starts right here, so be prepared to wait. The first park you will go through is the Yukon City Park. It’s a nice drive down a wooded lane with displays on both sides of the road. As you get near the pond, there will be places to park. You can get out and walk around or keep driving. As you get back to Holly Avenue, you will turn to the west (right) and head to the next park.

Not much driving to Freedom Trail Park. If you don’t know it’s there you’ll miss it but this small park has a bigger parking area. You can walk to the other 2 parks or just drive through. It’s really just circling around the parking lot but there are displays set up. If you get out to walk, there are plenty of selfie stations to take pictures. Mulvey Pond is right there with bridges lit up as well as great views of the large displays across the water. Really is beautiful the way light reflects off the water.

The last park is a longer drive north on Holly Avenue (right again), then back east on Vandament Avenue. Traffic is always backed up here as well, but you will only go a bit before you can turn (right once more) and be in the last park, Chisholm Trail Park. This is where you’ll find the ice-skating rink and the park train. This is where the biggest parking lot is but be careful, it’s dark and lots of people running around. While I haven’t tried ice skating, and with my knees probably won’t, it looks fun. My favorite part is the ride on the park train. It’s always done up in lights, grab one of their blankets they have to borrow, and take a ride through Chisholm Trail Park on it. Takes about 20 minutes but always worth it. Another of my favorite things to do is hike to the top of the hill just south of the parking lot. Not for the weak of heart but it is really worth the view. You can see all 3 parks, lights twinkling off the water, the train traveling through, perfect for photos. You can also walk the trails in the park and find more opportunities for selfies or pictures of family (if you don’t want to be in the pic). The new Santa bus is always fun for group photos.

If you don’t want to do any of these things, just keep driving and you get to the last part of this Christmas journey. Past the parking lot, you are on another small tree lined road. There are displays next to the road plus you can see everything further into the park (where the train runs). The very last parking lot is where you can stop and watch the tree with dancing lights. There is a radio station you can turn on and listen to the Christmas music. The park is free to drive through but they take donations, usually the costumed characters are in the last lot taking donations.

The first time I remember driving through it was in December of 1996. We had just moved to NW Oklahoma City and this was close. We loved driving through, the traffic wasn’t bad yet, so you could drive through in about 30 minutes. There were also only 2 parks at that time, the last park got lights later. They also used to leave the lights on all night, we went through one night after midnight in the fog. Was so pretty, never have seen it like that again. When my daughter was younger, this light display was used as a reward for good behavior. One year we went through well over 20 times. Even with the traffic, this is one of my favorite Christmas light displays in Oklahoma. Hope you have fun while visiting.