Festive Holiday Celebration at Bent's Fort

November 28, 2003

Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site near La Junta, Colorado will host its Traditional Holiday Celebration on Friday, December 5 and Saturday, December 6. Over 40 living history volunteers from Colorado and surrounding states will bring the fort to life with the sights, sounds, and smells of a working 19th Century trading post during the holiday season. Festivities will include candlelight tours, toy making, holiday decorating and children's games. A featured activity this year will be a special performance of Las Posadas, a Spanish holiday tradition, with authentic music by the Manzanares and Monnet families of Fort Garland and Denver, Colorado.

The celebration begins on Friday, December 5 at 7:00 p.m. with guided candlelight tours of the fort. Living history interpreters will guide groups through various rooms where people of the era will be preparing to celebrate the holidays. Tours will be filled on a first come, first served basis. After the tours, everyone will join together at the plaza bonfire for caroling and Las Posadas. The evening will culminate in the forts dining room with mincemeat pie, shortbread, hot cider and other authentic treats from the i8oos. The Fort will close at 9:00 p.m.

Festivities on Saturday will begin at 9:30 a.m. and run all day. Scheduled activities include toy making, children's games in the plaza, frontier medicine, trading scenes, storytelling, holiday decorating and other living history activities. For a break from the fort activities, visitors may visit Indian and trapper camps just outside the fort. Events will culminate with a piñata break and a Yule log hunt. The park will close to the public at 4:00 p.m. and then reopen for another night of candlelight tours, Las Posadas and holiday treats beginning at 7:00 p.m.

A living history fee is charged for the candlelight tours or to attend the daytime Holiday Celebration. The cost is $3.00 for visitors 13 and older and $2.00 for ages 6 to 12. Visitors are asked to park at the main parking lot and pay their fee at the bookstore. The bookstore will be open throughout the event, including before and after the candlelight tours, for holiday shopping. Visitors are asked to dress warmly and bring a flashlight for the evening programs. Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site is located on Colorado Highway 194, 8 miles east of La Junta or 15 miles west of Las Animas. For more information on the Holiday Celebration, including a schedule of event activities, visit the park's website at www.nps.gov/beol/index.htm and click on "Special Events" or call the park at (719) 383- 5010.