BATAVIA, Ohio — East Fork State Park will swap summer heat for holiday cheer this weekend, hosting a two-day “Christmas in July” celebration at its campground featuring a golf cart parade with Santa Claus, a site-decorating contest, bingo and an outdoor movie night.
The festivities begin Friday with a campsite decorating contest, the park said in a Facebook post. Judges will tour the campground at dusk to review sites strung with lights and holiday decor, and six winners will be announced and given prizes Saturday evening.
Saturday’s schedule opens with a golf cart parade at 10 a.m., with participants lining up at the camp office starting at 9:45 a.m. The park said drivers and vehicles must be licensed, and Santa will award a prize for the best-decorated cart.
The day continues with a $15 tie-dye session for East Fork T-shirts at the Loop C picnic shelter from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., a children’s craft activity from 3 to 4 p.m., and a $1-per-card bingo game from 4:30 to 6 p.m. that the park said will offer three ways to win prizes and two ways to win bigger prizes, including a free night of camping.
Campground karaoke follows from 6 to 9 p.m., and the day wraps up with an outdoor showing of “The Grinch” at the Loop C shelter at 9:30 p.m.
Non-campers are welcome to attend for a $3-per-vehicle admission fee, according to the park.
East Fork State Park spans 4,870 acres in Clermont County about 20 miles southeast of Cincinnati and is built around William H. Harsha Lake, a 2,107-acre reservoir created when the park opened in 1978. Its campground, on the lake’s north side, is among the largest in Ohio’s state park system with more than 400 sites, and the park also maintains the 33-mile Steve Newman World-Walker perimeter trail.
The information contained in this story was obtained from East Fork State Park.