NEW IBERIA, La. --- Are you ready for a Holiday and Winter season full of family events and fun? The City of New Iberia is hosting the first ever Downtown Advent Activities from Dec. 1-21, 2023. 

Each day will offer a different Christmas and/or winter themed activity for citizens to participate in. This will be a great way to join the community for a fun time. Activities offered will include a movie night, Christmas carol night, hot cocoa night and more holiday fun. There will opportunities for prizes on competition nights as well!

Starting Nov. 30, visit the event's Facebook page daily at 11 a.m. for the live video where they will open each advent box to announce the activity, details and time for the following day just like a traditional advent calendar. 

Most activities will be free, a few will require registration due to space availability, and some will require providing your own materials for the event. Specifications will be announced during the lives. Weekday activities will usually begin around 6 p.m. to allow the entire family to participate, with weekends offering daytime options. 

To see the full list of the local businesses participating as sponsors and hosts, visit the Downtown Advent Activities event Facebook page.

About the Event:

The event is organized by a board of community activists as well as the City of New Iberia. The idea came about from Teresa Courtois, who wanted to give her children visiting home during lockdown, something fun to do for the holidays when businesses were closed. She realized this would be a great community event on a larger scale. 

"New Iberia Mayor Freddie Decourt is a huge advocate for our city, constantly thinking of new ideas that our city can do that nobody surrounding is doing, to make us unique and entice visitors" Courtois said.

"I felt this is a great community builder, to hopefully help our citizens to take some pride in all of the things we have going for us, as well as draw visitors who live in nearby cities and he was very interested in bringing this to fruition."

For more information, contact Teresa Courtois at (337) 369-2300 or by email.