01 Dec 2025 A festive 501!

Stop the presses! For the first time, I shopped early for Christmas gifts. You should not be tempted to hate me because I’m not saying that every name is crossed off my list or that the packages are wrapped in coordinating colors and arranged tastefully under the tree. That may be your reality at the start of December, but those are only retirement goals in my world.

I’m putting perfection off because there are so many festive events in Central Arkansas that I hope to attend, and that takes time. This will be my family’s sixth Christmas in the 501, and we still have not attended the State Capitol’s Tree Lighting Ceremony. We haven’t driven through The Living Nativity in Searcy or walked through Bethlehem Revisited in Conway. My schedule hasn’t allowed time to visit the Arkansas Pecan Festival in Keo, to ride a horse-drawn carriage at Christmas in Clinton, or to enjoy the Night of Luminaries on the campus of the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton. But they are on my 2025 wish list!

And just south of the 501, I hope to attend one of the 39th Annual Christmas and Candlelight evenings in Historic [Old] Washington State Park in Hempstead County. Don and I were married in the quaint community only a week before the Jonquil Festival that is hosted each spring, so it will always be a place that pulls at my heartstrings.

I also hope to watch the Nutcracker Ballet at the beautiful Perot Theatre in Texarkana, or to enjoy one of many events hosted by Main Street Texarkana and, closer to home, events hosted in Historic Downtown Conway.

It’s time to hang the greens and the glittering ornaments! (Did I say glitter? Now that’s a four-letter word.) And if you seek decorating inspiration, you will discover it in these pages. We take you into six homes that have decked the halls with boughs of holly and jolly, striped, shiny, sparkling, fun and festive Christmas décor!

Let’s celebrate the season and give glory to the newborn King!

Stefanie Brazile
Editor