Experience the Holidays in Arkansas

Explore Hot Springs’ new Winter Garden Festival

Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs will debut a new daytime Winter Garden Festival this year that will showcase their outdoor winter garden with light and sound displays. The event draws inspiration from the garden’s annual Holiday Lights, a popular holiday tradition for many in the state where they experienced the grounds at night while enjoying the many creative light display scenes that transformed the gardens into a whimsical winter wonderland. However, due to current COVID circumstances, the new Winter Garden Festival will take place at the gardens instead. Holiday Lights favorites such as the 50 ft. Rose Tree, James the Train, and more will still be part of the fun, but reimagined as daytime exhibits. Since the event is taking place during daytime hours, areas that were previously closed during Holiday Lights will now be open, including popular areas such as the Evans Tree House and Hixson Nature Preserve. The Winter Garden Festival goes from November 21 through December 31 and the gardens are closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas days.

Experience the holiday season in Eureka Springs

There’s no place like home or Eureka Springs for the holidays. This historic Victorian town offers an experience at Christmas that gives a nod to Dickens as well as contemporary holiday lights. Plus, for your gift giving needs, the city has block after block of shops, boutiques, fine art galleries, and craft emporiums.

Eureka Springs embodies the romantic revival of Christmas traditions embraced by Charles Dickens’ 1843 masterpiece, “A Christmas Carol,” which rekindled the joy of Christmas and re-emphasized the season as a time of giving and thinking of less fortunate others. The city is the ideal stage with its Victorian-era architecture. More than 150 independent and unique stores and restaurants fill its elaborate gingerbread Victorian storefronts. On street after street, turn-of-the-century homes in colors of vibrant, flower bouquets hug cliff sides. Secluded and peaceful, Eureka Springs’ entire downtown area is on the National Register of Historic Places.

In more modern style, Eureka Springs also sets the city ablaze with colorful lights. Not only can you drive the streets to see holiday decor, attractions like the Great Passion Play offer a large drive-through light display. Eureka Springs spreads the holiday spirit with its ambiance as well as through its numerous holiday events and activities.

Media Contact
Leah DiPietro, Deputy Director, Division of Tourism, [email protected]
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