Who’s ready for some Saturday Night Lights? Each holiday season for almost a century, there’s been no better place to see them than above Natchitoches’ Cane River Lake, as Louisiana’s oldest settlement stages its breathtaking fireworks display each Saturday night from November 22—New Year’s Eve. Marking its 99th year in 2025, the Natchitoches Festival of Lights stages a 15-minute fireworks show (it extends to 22 minutes Christmas weekend) big and bright enough to rival fireworks shows in cities many times its size. Accordingly to local fireworks master Craig George, owner of Pyroman (his business name and also the nickname George earned while working the Natchitoches fireworks displays as a teen), the best views of his sky show are from the Cane River riverbank, or the Church Street Bridge. Although George and his company have staged fireworks shows all over the country, the full-time banker and part-time pyrotechnist insists that designing fireworks displays never gets old. He especially loves wowing spectators with special effects, both new (like coordinated drone shows) and old. “I live and breathe it year-round,” George says. “Every year we bring back ‘nautical cakes,’ an effect that shoots fireworks onto the Cane River, appearing to float like thousands of candles. Some even come out of the water and make a huge spark. You have to come see it!”
Marking its 99th year in 2025, the Natchitoches Festival of Lights stages a fireworks show big and bright enough to rival fireworks shows in cities many times its size.
After the fireworks, cozy up for bedtime at one of many inn and bed & breakfast options that dot Natchitoches’ Historic Landmark District. Visitors marvel at the mixture of Queen Anne, Victorian and Creole architecture that dominates the 33-block area along Cane River Lake. To travel back in time to 1989’s Steel Magnolias, you might choose to overnight at the Eatenton Estate (now the Steel Magnolias House), where main character Shelby Eatenton slept in her blush and bashful-pink bedroom. It’s tough to choose from among all the options: would you prefer an elegant veranda overlooking the river, a stately turn-of-the-century home with Greek revival touches, a charming and unpretentious country lodge or an 1855 cottage that boasts a massive four-poster queen bed with acanthus leaves and pineapples hand carved into the cherry wood?
In Natchitoches, you might choose to stay overnight at the Eatenton Estate (now the Steel Magnolias House), where main character Shelby Eatenton slept in her blush and bashful-pink bedroom.
“I don’t know of a B&B that I wouldn’t recommend,” said Sandra Dickens, the longtime chair of the Christmas festival, former shop owner, and baker known to locals as the best king cake-maker in Central Louisiana. “The way they’re run, the people who run them, it’s a lot of hands-on, they really cater to the visitors. There’s a lot of customs here that we really follow, and hospitality is almost a rule here about how people treat each other.”
Once you tear yourself away from the elaborate breakfasts offered by the local inns, take time to check out the unique shops in the historic district, which are filled with clothes, jewelry, gifts, candy and more. You could take a cooking class at Cane River Kitchenware, feel your stress melt away at the Magnolia Spa Wellness Boutique, or browse for treasures at the oldest general store in Louisiana.
After stocking up on stocking stuffers, take the whole family to Dark Woods Adventure Park, which boasts Louisiana’s only outdoor gem and fossil-mining attraction. Celebrate Halloween at the park’s award-winning haunted house, or get into the spirit of the holidays while toasting smores over a crackling fire, before wandering through a forest illuminated with more than 350,000 twinkling lights.
No matter how you choose to celebrate this season, plenty of adventure, leisure, and sparkling entertainment awaits in Natchitoches.
To learn more and plan your holiday season getaway, visit natchitoches.com/calendar/natchitoches-christmas-festival-of-lights/
.jpg)
