Popular Fundraising Event Welcomes New Additions for Participants
Trevor Phipps
This year the Holiday Home Tour has added new properties to celebrate their 25th year of hosting the event, one of the main highlights of pre-Christmas time in the Ute Pass.
Every year, the home tour is part of a weekend filled with Christmas-related celebrations including the Breakfast with Santa and the Lighter Side of Christmas Parade. This year the Holiday Home Tour takes place on December 2 and 3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days.
The tour will feature an array of beautifully decorated homes and venues in the Ute Pass region. Since its inception, the proceeds from the Holiday Home Tour benefit local nonprofit organizations. This is one factor that makes the Holiday Home Tour stand out from other Christmas celebrations in Woodland Park and Teller County.
In its 25 years of existence, the home tour has raised more than $246,000 for various local nonprofits. This year’s beneficiaries are Woodland Park High School Performing Arts Parents Association (PAPA), Rampart Library District Foundation, Teller Senior Coalition, and the Ute Pass Symphony Guild.
This year to celebrate the tour’s 25th anniversary, there will be new venues and holiday offerings. “As part of a ticket purchase, lunch will be provided at The Lodge at Rainbow Valley Ranch in Divide,” according to event organizers. “There will also be a unique holiday display highlighting the tour’s 25th Anniversary at the kiosk outside of Williams Log Cabin Furniture in Woodland Park.”
Like recent years in the past, there will be a Tour Artisan Shoppe at the Hospitality Suites located in the Woodland Professional Building, 400 West Midland at Hwy 24. New to this year, there will be a holiday wreath online auction open to everyone.
The holiday wreaths will be on display on the website www.wphht.org and in the Hospitality Suite throughout the weekend of the tour. Bids will be accepted online beginning at 5 p.m. November 17, and will close December 3 at 6 p.m.
“Quilters Above the Clouds is partnering again with the Holiday Home Tour this year to raise funds for our local nonprofits,” according to a press release, outlining details of the 2023 Home Tour. “Their raffle items will be displayed at each location, where you can buy raffle tickets.”
Each location on the tour will feature the playing of holiday music. In addition, children get the chance to write a letter to Santa at the Woodland Park Senior Center. On Dec. 3, Mr. and Mrs. Clause will be making a special visit at the Senior Center from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Tickets are available at Tweeds Fine Furnishings or online at wphht.org. Ticket prices are $20 for adults, $35 for two adults, $40 for a Family Pass, and $5 for students (K-12).
Tickets purchased online can be picked up at the Home Tour Hospitality Suites, Tweeds Fine Furnishings or The Lodge at Rainbow Valley Ranch. Further details about the Tour may be found on the website or by calling (719) 661-7377.
History of the Holiday Home Tour
Back when the tour started in 1999, it was put on by a nonprofit organization called the Dickson Performing Arts Center, Inc. or DPAC. The group held the home tour to raise funds to put a permanent performing arts center in town for the Woodland Park RE-2 School District.
After a decade of effort, the Dickson Auditorium was built and named after Marta and Morton Dickson who both spent decades teaching music at Woodland Park schools. Once the auditorium was officially up and running, the DPAC was dissolved, and the Holiday Home Tour changed its purpose.
In 2008, the event’s organizers decided that they wanted to see the home tour continue to be the way Woodland Park residents kicked off the holiday season. They then started donating all of the proceeds of the tour to projects at the Pike Peak Regional Hospital.
In 2012, Tweeds Fine Furnishings took over as the event’s underwriter, and now the proceeds go to different local non-profit organizations each year.
According to the event’s board president Karolyn Smith, the home tour provides a decent chunk of dough for the organizations they choose to benefit. “In the past, we have been able to raise around $10,000 each year,” Smith said.
