Elk City's Commitment to the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

November 13, 2023

By Landry Brewer

Decorating Elk City’s largest park and primary streets for Christmas requires a substantial yearly investment.

Elk City Park Superintendent Mike Ross oversees the weeks-long job of decorating Ackley Park for Christmas in the Park.

“Placing at least 1 million lights and approximately 150 individual displays takes considerable time,” Ross said.

City crews usually decorate from the second weekend in October until Thanksgiving, stringing every light and placing every display.

They started a little later this year, so they’ve brought in reinforcements.

“Normally, just the park crew decorates, but right-of-way and rock yard crews are helping us this year,” Ross said.

Working feverishly, Ross and City crews will spend more than 1,720 hours over several weeks in October and November turning Ackley Park into a winter wonderland for weekend park activities and the nightly light display beginning the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Tim Bagby and his street crew work 160 hours putting up Christmas lights and decorations on the City’s primary streets to enhance the festive municipal mood.

This is after they’ve spent 320 hours beginning in late June going through each decorative ornament’s lights to verify that they work—and replacing the ones that don’t—before decoration time arrives.

The 2,200 hours spent decorating Ackley Park and City streets requires $48,400 in labor costs. The City also spends an additional $10,000 each year on new and refurbished Christmas lights.