{"id":2451676,"date":"2019-11-28T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T03:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/kicking-off-the-holidays-with-a-half-million-lights\/"},"modified":"2019-11-28T20:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T03:40:00","slug":"kicking-off-the-holidays-with-a-half-million-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/kicking-off-the-holidays-with-a-half-million-lights\/","title":{"rendered":"Kicking off the holidays with a half-million lights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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People walk to check-in to their rooms at the Hotel Colorado before the 30th Annual Holiday Lighting Ceremony taking place on Friday evening.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When the Melville family purchased the Hotel Colorado last year, they were adamant about keeping the historic hotel\u2019s annual holiday lighting ceremony intact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a commitment they made to continue it,\u201d said Christian Henny, Hotel Colorado general manager. \u201cThey had heard from folks in town about how important the lighting ceremony and fireworks are to the community.<\/p>\n

Shortly after 7 p.m. Friday, Marian Melville, Henny and Santa will lead the thousands expected to attend the lighting ceremony in a countdown.<\/p>\n

Then, at 7:15 p.m., with one flip of the switch, fireworks will light up the sky as over 500,000 holiday lights illuminate the Hotel Colorado simultaneously.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe towers with the American flag and the Colorado flag, in front of those balconies, that is where the fireworks get shot from,\u201d Henny said.<\/p>\n

According to Henny, crews started setting up for the lighting event nearly three months ago.<\/p>\n

And, while the fireworks and holiday lights serve as the ceremony\u2019s headlining act, there\u2019s even more to the festivities, which begin at 3 p.m. with a live ice carving demonstration by Paul Wertin in the hotel\u2019s courtyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be showing off his skills carving ice in front of everybody.\u201d Henny said. \u201cSome of it will be with a chainsaw and some of it will be with hand tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Symphony in the Valley will also perform two 45-minute sets in the hotel\u2019s grand lobby beginning at 5 p.m. and again at 7:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Santa will host three different meet-and-greets in the hotel\u2019s Devereux Ballroom at 3:15 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanta does need a couple of breaks,\u201d Henny laughed.<\/p>\n

The lighting ceremony is free to all and features a main stage on Sixth Street that has continued to grow since its inception three decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really proud that this is the 30th anniversary of the lighting ceremony,\u201d Henny said.<\/p>\n

With chilly temperatures expected Friday, Boy Scout Troop 225 will sell hot cocoa and cookies in the hotel\u2019s courtyard, too.<\/p>\n

According to Henny, in addition to the fireworks display and over a half-million holiday lights, the community celebration features 62 Christmas trees, four Santa figures and three talking reindeer.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Henny said the holiday lights typically stay up until the first week of January.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People walk to check-in to their rooms at the Hotel Colorado before the 30th Annual Holiday Lighting Ceremony taking place on Friday evening.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent When the Melville family purchased the Hotel Colorado last year, they were adamant about keeping the historic hotel\u2019s annual holiday lighting ceremony intact. \u201cIt was a commitment they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 04:28:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}