El Dorado Holiday Lighting Celebration

Families drove from miles around for one of the greatest holiday traditions anywhere: the holiday lights in downtown El Dorado. But before they throw the switch, they throw a party in the streets. They celebrate with athletes and cheerleaders. Lovely young ladies in tutus dance to the nutcracker suite on the Courthouse steps. A small town with so much excitement, so many families and kids, so much Christmas cheer. All that cheer caused eight year old Malik Ford to lose track of his job helping the Salvation Army. Ford said, "I cant find my bell!" Eric and Sarah Hatley have been taking their children to the El Dorado festival for years. Eric Hatley said, "Its one of the neat things that you can see in South Arkansas. People know each other and people support each other and so its really neat." Really neat for all of Mainstreet downtown, every store, every street sparkling with lights and decorations, including whats billed as the tallest man-made Christmas tree in the country, lights on the old KTVE tower. And then the moment when they flip the switch. The crowd counts down, "three two one ... cheers!!!"