Christmas celebrated in downtown Breaux Bridge

Breaux Bridge – St. Martin Parish’s largest city, with a population more than 8,000, according to the 2010 census, is known for its unique Cajun culture and its quaint downtown area at Bridge and Main Streets where Highway 31 and the Bayou Teche both flow full of historically significant life.
The city is now in the midst of Christmas cheer as its community leaders, residents, and businesses have come together to create an annual Community Christmas Celebration marking the start of the Christmas holidays in the area.
During an opening night event each year, traffic is blocked at the center of town, and a celebration is held in the street, featuring Santa and Mrs. Clause, the Coca-Cola Christmas Truck display, a Santa letter writing station for North Pole delivery, live Cajun and Christmas music, cookies from Champagne’s Bakery with cocoa for children, open downtown business doors, displays at the new Teche Center for the Arts, an outdoor movie under the stars, and street decorations, all culminating with the lighting of a 14 ft. Christmas tree atop the oldest bank in the city. 1,740 lights grace the tree for the fourth year.
Christmas decorations and displays remain up during the duration of the season for all who live in and visit the area. The ambience happening here is best embraced with a walk of the four corners, and a few blocks each way, of Bridge and Main Streets. There is much to experience in the way of food, art, music, nature, and French Acadian life of past and present.
Breaux Bridge is a historical culture explosion in the midst of modern technological life and business. The streets at the intersection of Main and Bridge bring to life the world of a tightly bound yet welcoming community represented at every door in the area. On a normal day or night, a short walk through downtown is a hand full, mouth full, eye full, and ear full for the senses and now especially due to the Christmas decor on display.
This Acadian settlement originated when Fermin Breaux settled the area in 1771 after purchasing a wealthy Frenchman’s land, now Breaux Bridge, and built the first bridge in 1779 across the Teche River in the same place it is today. This bridge, then called Breaux’s Bridge, gave the city its name.
Located at the northwestern edge of the Atchafalaya Basin, only a few miles from The Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, natural resources are abundant in this area and residents often speak fluent French as most of its community members are of French Acadian descent. The upstanding community values of hard work, artistic creative license, and religious value are the normal. Joie de vivre is part of the culture here, which includes some of the best cooking in the world, Acadian music, Cajun dance, art, and an abundance of world famous crawfish giving it the renowned title as The Crawfish Capital of the World.