1. You can hunt your own turkey—or deer
The turkey and deer hunting seasons take place, roughly, from October to January, conveniently enveloping the holiday season like a warm blanket. Rather than lug a frozen bird into the kitchen and anxiously watch it thaw for eight hours, wondering if it’ll be ready for the oven in time for dinner, grab a cabin around Beavers Bend, polish the rifle, grab a friend and hit the woods for a good ol’ fashioned turkey hunt. Same goes for deer—there’s no shortage of public hunting opportunities in McCurtain County.
Just be sure to keep it legal by consulting the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation for details on licensing fees and requirements, rules and restrictions, seasons, maps and more.
2. You can convert your luxury cabin into a holiday wonderland
The typical cabin you’ll find in McCurtain County ain’t your grandparents’ single-room shack. These are sprawling, spacious, and fully furnished—meaning there’s plenty of room to deck every wall and hall with lights, tinsel, mistletoe, and whatever else you need to make the cabin your home for the holidays. Most cabins will already be decorated for the season, but you can always customize it to fit the unique holiday spirit of you and your family. Most importantly, the cavernous vaulted ceilings mean you can get the biggest, baddest, widest Christmas Tree your heart desires.
Finally, these cabins come equipped with wi-fi and furnished with flat screens, which means the kiddos can marathon Christmas movies late into the night.
3. You can split your time between a hot tub and a fire pit
Did we mention the cabin amenities? You basically get a spa in the woods. Warm up and relax in the roiling, therapeutic waters of your outdoor hot tub—regardless of the weather—and then dry off and migrate to the fire pit with your friends and family for hot chocolate, jokes and games around nature’s crackling heater.
4. Forget decorating one Christmas tree. In Beavers Bend, you’re surrounded by pines.
Granted, you can’t hang ornaments on them, but you’ll feel the holiday spirit surrounding you in the woods, and if you have children, you can string up popcorn and send them out to wrap the other “Christmas trees” without worrying about a mess of popcorn in the cabin.
5. You can spend the last moments of the year surrounded by nature’s beauty, away from the rat race of the city.
Clear your head and contemplate the future by going on an extended hike through Beavers Bend. Soak in the majesty of the forest, get your heart rate up, and think about the coming New Year and its accompanying resolutions.
