There’s nothing like a nighttime walk among the holiday lights with a warm drink in your hand and loved ones by your side. As the sun sets earlier and the holidays get closer, these organizations and homeowners are preparing to show off their legendary light displays.
NoCo Winter Wonderland at Colorado Youth Outdoors
4927 County Road 36, Fort Collins
Those who prefer to wear pajamas and cozy up in their car can drive through Colorado Youth Outdoors’ NoCo Winter Wonderland, a one-mile loop with 19 outdoor-themed holiday light displays and 500,000 lights on the surrounding trees.
“We have 12 ponds, and they all reflect the lights, so I like to say it’s one million lights,” says Heidi Warren, who does marketing and communications for the nonprofit. “It’s a little piece of nature right between Weld and Larimer counties, and it’s a neat place to be. We like to say the loop takes visitors from Ebenezer Scrooge to Buddy the Elf in 15 minutes.”
Colorado Youth Outdoors helps strengthen the relationship between kids and their parents through traditional outdoor recreation, with courses and camps focused on fishing, shooting, survival skills and more. NoCo Winter Wonderland is one of their biggest fundraisers and is run by volunteers who set up the lights and pass out candy canes to the cars as they drive through.
The light displays depict different types of outdoor recreation, from Santa Claus fishing to elves shooting arrows, canoeing and roasting marshmallows by a campfire. Elk, bears, moose and other big game species are also represented, and many of the lights move, including a tunnel with snowflakes and flashing lights. Drivers can tune into Colorado Youth Outdoors’ radio station to listen to holiday classics as they pass through.
NoCo Winter Wonderland takes place from 5-8:45 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays from Thanksgiving to Dec. 15, then every night from Dec. 19-31. Tickets are now available at coloradoyo.org/events and cost $25 per car. The event reaches capacity near Christmas, so online reservations are recommended.
Photo by Matt Short, Whole Brand Agency.
Garden of Lights at The Gardens on Spring Creek
2145 Centre Ave., Fort Collins
The Gardens on Spring Creek transforms its 12-acre botanic gardens into a plant-themed light display every December, with one-of-a-kind sculptures in a variety of species and colors. The tradition started in 2008 to bring the community to the gardens during the slow months, and what used to take 20 minutes to walk through now takes an hour if you’re taking your time, says Kelly Kellow, greenhouse and butterfly house horticulturist at The Gardens. The lit area evolves every year and is about a half-mile long.
The displays combine handmade and custom commercial lights depicting different flowers, vegetables, fruits and insects, including a brand-new inchworm. Each area has a theme—for example, the rock garden has a glacier theme in teal, blue and bright white—and there’s a section with towering flowers built by local welders. The timber frame is one of the most spectacular elements because it’s lit up with icicles and cascading lights, Kellow says, and it has been the backdrop for many engagements.
Near the stage, a 700-bulb color blossom display dances to music on the lawn. The vintage Woodward Governor holiday houses are also on display, including the toy shop with elves sawing and hammering away. On the stage, The Gardens hosts Santa (and Mrs. Claus, depending on her schedule) as well as carolers, LED jugglers and hula hoopers and the popular Sugar Plum Furries, a dog troupe dressed in tutus. Hot chocolate and alcoholic beverages are available for purchase inside, along with poinsettias Kellow grew herself. Additional details, including the event schedule, can be found at fcgov.com/gardens/garden-of-lights.
The Garden of Lights will be open from 5-9 p.m. Thursday through Sunday from Dec. 5-29 and on Monday, Dec. 23, though tickets go on sale early this month. Admission is $12 for guests 12 and above, $8 for children 5-11 and free for children ages 4 and below (members get a 20 percent discount). Reserve your timed entry slot online to secure your preferred arrival. Gates close at 8 p.m.
Winter Wonderlights at Chapungu Sculpture Park in Centerra
5995 Sky Pond Drive, Loveland
More than 200,000 lights illuminate Chapungu Sculpture Park every year, from shimmering snowflakes and snowmen to heart-shaped arches and classic holiday characters. Winter Wonderlights invites guests to stroll through the Zimbabwean sculptures and enjoy a light show on the hill next to the great lawn, where a 23-foot-tall LED Christmas tree and surrounding displays are synched to holiday music. The light shows feature nine or 10 songs and last about 30 minutes, then repeat throughout the evening. The free event is returning for its eighth season on Saturday, Nov. 23, and will run every evening from 5-9 p.m. through Wednesday, Jan. 1.
Winter Wonderlights also features three special nights, called Winter Wonderlights LIVE, from 4:30-9 p.m. on Nov. 23, Dec. 13 and Dec. 14. Stop by the LIVE nights to see performances from local musicians and dance groups, ice sculpting demonstrations, Santa and his reindeer, princesses and other kid-friendly characters. Food trucks and vendors will also be onsite, including a new Artisan Holiday Market with handmade goods from local makers. Non-perishable donations to the Food Bank for Larimer County will be accepted on LIVE nights, though cash donations can be made anytime via QR codes around the sculpture park.
“I love LIVE nights in particular because it is so wonderful to see so many people enjoying the light show and watching all of the talented live performers, ice sculptors and reindeer,” says Chris Bierdeman, group sales and events manager for Visit Loveland, the producer of Winter Wonderlights. “A trip to Chapungu should be on everyone’s list this holiday season for a free, fun, festive stroll through a beautiful park.”
The North Pole at Pelican Farms
2106 Grain Bin Drive, Windsor
Kathy Braun and her family love the holidays so much that they decorate their house with 60,000 lights, including approximately 100 vintage blow molds and an impressive number of themed displays, every year. They first got serious about decorating in 2018 after being inspired by the Greeley Grizwalds (an iconic holiday house that has since retired its decor) but went all in during the pandemic because they loved seeing the joy their house brought people during tough times, Braun says.
“We’ve had people bring their friends who are going through a hard time, and we love hearing the awe and excitement from kids who come by,” she says. “For adults, there’s a nostalgia that comes with holiday lights that we love being a part of.”
The family syncs the lights to holiday music and runs programmed shows every half hour. Their displays show their love for animals—several feature woodland creatures, polar friends and cats and dogs—and Santa and his reindeer sit atop a tunnel on the driveway. Their nightly shows run from 5:30-10:30 p.m. beginning the day after Thanksgiving and conclude on Monday, Jan. 6.
The house takes more than 200 hours to decorate, and Braun’s kids, ages 4, 8 and 11, are always happy to help. They get excited whenever people walk or drive by to see the lights, she says. As a military family, they put all the attention to good use by raising money and collecting donations for Toys for Tots as one of the official drop-off locations. They raise more than $500 for the organization every year, and the toys they collect go to kids in Northern Colorado.
“We love doing this for others and being able to give back to the community in this way,” Braun says.
Christmas Walk in The Woods at The Savage Woods
1750 Savage Road, Loveland
Just west of the Devil’s Backbone is a couple’s private land that they transform into three seasonal attractions: Creepy Walk in the Woods in October, Colorado Medieval Festival in June and Christmas Walk in the Woods in December. It’s a tradition that owners Kitty Wild and Mike Nolden started when their three boys were young, and now, with two in the Marine Corps and one in high school, they have no intention of stopping.
Christmas Walk in the Woods started in 2016 and has grown to nearly 500,000 lights wrapped around trees and worked into dozens of displays with accompanying holiday music. The focus is on Christmas and the birth of Jesus, Wild says, with displays ranging from nutcrackers, snowmen and Santa to a 2,000-square-foot nativity scene. Wild creates many of them herself.
“You start to look at things differently,” Wild says. “You see a piece of rubbish someone is tossing out, and you’re like, ‘I could make that into a star,’ or ‘This would be the greatest thing, turning cable reels into snowmen.’”
Visitors are invited to walk the quarter-mile mulched trail as many times as they’d like—it’s a “gentle rise,” Wild says, so the trail is accessible for those with wheelchairs and walkers—and they can enjoy live entertainment on select nights. This year, The Dickens Carolers will sing Christmas carols on Dec. 14 and Dec. 22, and Tubas at Christmas (members of the Poudre River Irregulars jazz band) will perform on Dec. 21 and Dec. 23. Santa and Mrs. Claus will also make an appearance those four nights.
Christmas Walk in the Woods runs from 5-8 p.m. Dec. 13-31, except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when the woods are closed. Admission costs $7 per person on regular nights, and on nights with entertainment, admission costs $13 for guests ages 10 and up and $7 for kids ages 5-9. Kids ages 4 and under enter for free on both regular and entertainment nights.
The Greeley Holidaze House
1712 37th Ave., Greeley
Adam and Jessica Artz begin decorating for the holidays in September, but they buy holiday lights all year round. Almost every square inch of their two-story house, known as The Greeley Holidaze House, gets covered in Christmas lights and decorations every fall. It’s a tradition passed down from Adam’s Aunt Jo and Uncle Jim, who decked out their Morrison home in Christmas lights for about 40 years before passing them down.
“I told them I’d be honored to take it over,” Adam says. “Some of these lights I remember seeing when I was a little kid in their yard.”
Adam and Jessica have their own kids, ages 10 and 12, and they’re a big reason the couple continues the tradition despite the countless hours it takes to set everything up. Adam takes five or six weeks off from work to install the display, and Jessica helps with the assembly and keeps everything organized in their 14-foot by 11-foot storage room. When everything is packed in, it’s about an inch from the ceiling.
“I take care of the Christmas doll hospital,” Jessica says. “When something breaks that needs to be fixed, I fix the characters.”
The couple has lost track of how many lights and characters they have. They do know that there are at least 15 reindeer and roughly 30 trees, and everything is organized into themes. There’s an ocean area with narwhals, polar bears, penguins and other sea creatures as well as a big tree in front of the house with seven or eight different birds in it—not to mention the 13-foot animatronic Jack Skellington with Sally in a nearby window and Zero floating nearby. Adam even decorates his camper trailer and surrounds it with deer, bears, foxes and other woodland animals.
“The first year I told my wife I was going to paint my trailer red and white and put it out in the yard, she looked at me like I was crazy,” he says.
“You thought I was crazy for putting flying pigs in the tree too. So, you know,” Jessica says with a laugh.
The Greeley Holidaze House is lit on Thanksgiving night and is turned on every night from 5-10 p.m. through Christmas Day. It attracts people from all over, including families who take their holiday photos in front of the house and dance groups who record their performances there. The house has gotten so much attention that it’s been selected to appear on season 12 of the TV show, “The Great Christmas Light Fight.” The Artz family episode will air at 6 p.m. MST on Thursday, Dec. 19, on ABC and then stream on Hulu. Soon viewers will see whether the Artz family won the grand prize of $50,000.
Take a Holiday Lights Tour with BrewHop Trolley
If you’re looking for a festive date night idea or family excursion, you can board Longmont’s heated BrewHop Trolley for a tour of the area’s best holiday light displays. Public tours cost $25 per person (kids who can sit on a parent’s lap ride for free) and run for an hour and a half in the evening Dec. 9-13, Dec. 16-20 and Dec. 23. Visit brewhoptrolley.com for more information.
