Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The City & County of Denver Building in Civic Center Park will stay illuminated through Jan. 26, 2025. It's a long tradition in Denver to leave up lights while the Stock Show is in town.
Last year, as January drew to a close, the multi-colored bulbs framing my door and decorating my home were still glowing. I hadn’t taken my Christmas tree down either, or packed away any of my holiday decorations. I plan to keep my Christmas lights up this year, too, until Jan.
26 or even a little later. “Great job keeping your lights up,” my neighbor, whose outdoor Christmas lights were also still shining, told me in passing like it was a secret code shared among Denverites. In some parts of the country, leaving your Christmas lights up for a month after Christmas could mean you’ll get slapped with an HOA fine.
But in Denver, it’s a cherished tradition that longtime residents like myself are clued in on: Christmas lights stay up until the National Western Stock Show ends. Handlers lead longhorn cattle up 17th Ave during the National Western Stock Show Kick-Off Parade on January 05, 2023, in downtown Denver. In Denver, many homeowners and businesses leave Christmas lights up until the end of January when the stock show winds down.
(Photo by Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) Every winter, nearly 70,000 people descend on Denver for the National Western Stock Show (Jan. 11-26, 2025), a Western extravagan.
