Half a million visitors expected to attend annual Natchitoches Christmas Festival

NATCHITOCHES, La. (KSLA) - The City of Lights is hosting its 98th annual Christmas festival, expecting to receive 500,000 visitors this holiday season.

KSLA’s Naydu Daza Maya spent the day in Natchitoches as visitors, business owners and city leaders told us about the annual celebration and its impact.

“The economic impact of hosting six weeks of Christmas here is huge for us. And for many of our small businesses, this is the way they afford to remain open throughout the remainder of the year. Tourism...,it’s very important to Natchitoches and always has been since 1714,” said Paige Alost, the Executive Director for Natchitoches Tourism Bureau.

As one of the historic landmarks in Louisiana, Front Street is home to several small businesses. One of them is Kaffie-Frederick, Louisiana’s oldest general store.

“You know, certainly Christmas provides a little boost and gives us an opportunity to help out a few people with some extra employment and just brings some nice economic growth to Natchitoches,” said Luke Frederick, the President of Kaffie-Frederick.

Other business owners say they see three times the number of customers this time of the year.

“But compared to the rest of the season, this is definitely the busiest time of the year for us. We usually have a line through the door non-stop from 7 a.m. until whatever time we decide to close,” said Amber Martin, the owner of Story Brew Coffee Cafe.

This year, organizers of the Christmas festival are anticipating 500,000 visitors from all over.

“We are one of the oldest Christmas festivals, and celebrations in the United States, and we are regarded as one of the top 10 Christmas celebrations in the world. So people always ask, ‘why should I come to Natchitoches for the festival?’ Because we’re professionals at it,” said Alost.

If the city of lights is on your plans for this holiday, the visitor center says they can help you enjoy everything Front Street has to offer.

“This is always the best place to start, so you can find out the specials that are going on that day, what the entertainment is, on top of that, ride the carriages. Do the walking tours that leave from the visitor center each morning,” advised Alost.

For the last two Saturdays of December, along with 300,000 lights, vendors and live music, you will have a chance to enjoy a drone and firework show.

The festival will continue through Jan. 6, 2025. Get your tickets at NatchitochesChristmas.com.