The first Christmases in Colorado weren’t in Colorado, which did not become a federal territory until 1861.

Likewise, the first Christmas in Colorado Springs wasn’t in Colorado Springs, as the city recently reviewed. It was in Fountain Colony, organized in 1871 and renamed Colorado Springs years later. “At the time of that first winter, the settlement consisted of only a few rough buildings, scattered tents, and a small number of families who had taken a chance on [founder General William Jackson] Palmer’s dream,” the city says. Mary “Queen” Palmer organized the first Christmas party, and people feasted on oyster stew and roasted antelope.

But the first Fountain Colony Christmas was in Colorado territory! Archived newspapers go back to when the region was known as the Territory of Jefferson, which lasted from 1859 to 1861 and which, as Wikipedia notes, did not have official federal sanction.

One paper that began printing in 1859 was the Western Mountaineer, published by George West out of Golden City, Jefferson. The December 21 edition features on its front page the riveting language of “An Act to Incorporate the St. Vrain, Golden City & Colorado Wagon-Road Company.” But on Page 2, nestled among stories on quartz mines, a legal dispute over property, and an effort to open a school, is the announcement of an upcoming Christmas Ball “at Loveland’s new Hall.”

The December 28 issue describes the ball in detail: “There was a large company present, including a greater number of ladies than we have seen together in the Territory before, on any occasion.” Guests came from as far away as Denver, Auraria, Boulder, and Arapahoe, the paper reported, “and everyone seemed to enter into the spirit of the occasion.”

“The Hall, which is yet in an unfinished state, was elaborately trimmed with evergreens, tastefully arranged in festoons and arches, and had a very fine effect,” reported the Mountaineer. The music was “superior,” and the “tables literally groaned beneath their load.”

Lighting the luminarias

Before the English-speaking and mostly Protestant settlers came the Spanish-speaking and largely Catholic settlers. And long before them came the people who formed the Native tribes of the region and who developed their own seasonal traditions. As Alina Marquez writes for the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage website, the region we now call southern Colorado has hosted traditions from “Native Tribes, Spanish, German, Dutch, Swedes, Japanese, and Amish.”

“The tradition of luminarias in the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area dates back more than 300 years. The tradition began when the Spanish villages along the Rio Grande displayed unique and easy to make Christmas lanterns, called luminarias, to guide the spirit of Christ along their paths,” Marquez writes. And Las Posadas celebrates the journey of Mary and Joseph.

Marquez describes the lighting of luminaria bonfires and the celebrations of older teens in masks who “make the younger kids sing, march in formation, etcetera, all to the beat of a chicote (a horse whip) around the bonfires.” Then children go house to house asking for prayers, and later they return seeking treats. Marquez supposes that Jews in the area, “avoiding persecution in Europe,” might have lit their own luminarias to covertly celebrate their own faith.

Rita Martinez of San Luis recalled how such traditions influenced her own childhood. Martinez told Marquez in 2017: “We would put on tons of clothes and gloves to walk through piles and piles of snow on Christmas eve saying Oremos [prayers] at each house and collecting goodies like empanaditas, biscochitos and candies. Then again Christmas morning we would bundle up again. All the neighborhood kids would all wait outside excitedly for the kids to gather and we would go house to house together saying ‘Mis Crismas'” (or “Mis Crismes”).

Winter traditions

The Southern Ute Indian Tribe describes their ancestors’ winter traditions: “Winter was a time of rejuvenation and the Utes would gather around their evening fires visiting and exchanging stories about their travels, social, and religious events. This was a time to reinforce tribal custom, as well as repairing tools, weapons and making new garments for the summer.” In Spring came the Bear Dance, which marked “when Mother Earth begins a new cycle, plants begin to blossom, animals come out of their dens after a long cold winter.” Other tribes in the area I imagine had overlapping yet distinct traditions.

Even older: It’s possible that some of the structures at Mesa Verde, abandoned by around 1300, served as a “Sun-watching station” to mark the winter solstice, suggest the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Park Service.

Each of our families has its own holiday or seasonal traditions. I remember my grandmother, born at the outset of the Great Depression, tell me about how, as a girl, she would get an orange, some nuts, and some hard candies for Christmas. She delighted in the orange, a rare treat back then.

I propose that we modern Coloradans start a new tradition and take this time of year to reflect on the rich and diverse cultural heritage that makes this place so special. However you mark or celebrate this wintry season, I hope the time brings you meaning, as it has brought meaning to millions of people who for thousands of years have called this region home.

Ari Armstrong writes regularly for Complete Colorado and is the author of books about Ayn Rand, Harry Potter, and classical liberalism. He can be reached at ari at ariarmstrong dot com.