Gold Camp Country Christmas

At noon on Saturday, December 13, 2025, the Gold Camp Country Christmas Parade moved up Bennett Avenue in Cripple Creek, Teller County. Entrants gathered from 11:30 on East Carr by the Train Depot. The route turned onto Bennett at 5th Street and ended at the Aspen Mine Center, where Santa came down off his float to meet the town. The city calls his ride a float; the Aspen Mine Center calls it a sleigh.

The entries were whatever businesses, organizations, community groups, and individuals chose to bring: floats, decorated vehicles, marching groups. The Teller Times describes the parade as a mix of holiday music, floats, and creative displays through the historic downtown. The 2025 theme was the event’s own name, “Gold Camp Country Christmas.” The City of Cripple Creek runs the parade, and admission to the day is free. Uncover Colorado listed the 2026 date as to be determined.

Cider and lunch at AMC East

Nearly everything around the parade belongs to the Community of Caring, the organization behind the Aspen Mine Center. It works from two buildings on Bennett Avenue: AMC East at 166 East Bennett and AMC West at 100 West Bennett.

The 2025 day began before the parade. CC Parks and Rec opened its annual holiday craft fair at 9 a.m., with more than 30 vendors selling handcrafted goods and treats until 3. From 11 to 1:30, hot chocolate, cider, and s’mores were served outside AMC East, with a luncheon inside. Santa took up his post there at 12:30, and children’s activities ran until 2.

Lunch is eaten among the trees, wreaths, and baskets of the silent auction. The auction winners and the parade entries are recognized at the same gathering. One of the town’s photographs of the festivities, reproduced by Uncover Colorado, carries the caption “The Grinch gets arrested.”

The Aspen Mine Center also sends visitors out to see the Cripple Creek Donkeys in their winter pasture. Precautions there guard the animals against Equine Herpes Virus. Anyone who has been around other horses or donkeys in the past 30 days is asked to stay away, and everyone else is asked to use hand sanitizer and keep the visit under 30 minutes.

Soup, cookies, and decorated trees

The parade closes a longer season. According to Uncover Colorado, the festivities begin in early November and run on select days through December.

In 2025, organizations and individuals brought decorated trees, wreaths, and baskets to the Aspen Mine Center from November 24 through December 5 for the Holiday Silent Auction. Bidding ran through December 13, and all funds went to the Community of Caring. On December 11 the trees were lit for the Winter Wonderland Reception, the center’s annual community Christmas party. Guests had food and hot drinks to the SilverWood Flute & Guitar Duo, Treese Kjeldsen and Sherri Kardong.

The next day, Friday, December 12, from 11:30 to 1:30, the center held its Soup for the Soul contest and the Greatest Gold Camp Cookie Contest. Contestants paid $5 to enter a bowl or a plate of cookies, and tasters paid $5 to sample everything. The center’s notice says the event “pits staff against staff, friends against friends, and everyone against everyone else,” and adds: “Competition is fierce.”

The money goes to work the center has done at Christmas since 2006, when the Community of Caring began meeting the needs of struggling families for the holiday. Each year it buys Walmart gift cards, and local families choose children from the Angel Tree to give gifts to. Staff and volunteers call families and pick up donated food and gifts. The center’s Christmas list also includes a Benevolence Tree, a toy drive, and Shop With a Hero.

The chorale on North First Street

At 3:30 on parade day, the Colorado Springs Chorale gave its annual holiday concert at Cripple Creek Baptist Church, 137 North 1st Street, a block north of Bennett Avenue. Adam Torres, artistic director, and Lee Meyer, assistant conductor, led the chorale through a medley of holiday songs, with Joseph Galema as accompanist. The concert ran until about 5.

No ticket is needed. A free-will donation to the Aspen Mine Center is asked, since the concert is one of the center’s annual fundraisers. The center advises arriving a little early, because the church generally fills to standing room only.

Headframes from the gold camp

After dark, the town’s mining headframes are hung with holiday ornaments as large as 20 feet tall. These are the tall frames that stood over the old shafts, and they still stand from the 1890s. Uncover Colorado describes the display as a self-guided drive, taken slowly with the windows open to the mountain air. The Aspen Mine Center lists a Lighted Headframe Guided Tour among the events it hosts or sponsors.

The frames date from the boom that named the country. Bob Womack and his brother William bought the Broken Box Ranch in 1878 for $500 and two pigs. After ten years of prospecting, Bob found gold ore in Poverty Gulch in 1890 and filed a claim. By the city’s account, that claim began the last gold rush in Colorado.

By 1894 the district had 150 active mines, and the town’s 5,000 residents had a water system and electric arc lights. On April 25, 1896, fire destroyed half the city, including much of the business district. Four days later a second fire took much of what was left. The town council then banned wood construction for new downtown businesses, and within a few months the city was rebuilt in brick and stone.