Planning a Winter Park trip and wondering what is going on while you are here? Beyond the skiing, Winter Park runs a genuinely good winter calendar: holiday drone shows, gondola apres above the treeline, night tubing, moonlit uphill dinners, and skills clinics that actually make you better rather than just tired.
A note on dates. Winter Park publishes most of its event calendar closer to the season. Below, confirmed 2026/2027 dates are listed as such. Where an event runs every year but the date is not yet announced, we have given the typical timing and marked it TBA so you can still plan around it. Bookmark this page, or watch the resort's events calendar for updates.
Season Anchors: What Is Confirmed
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Opening day | As soon as conditions allow. No fixed date announced. |
| 8:00am weekend lift openings | December 5, 2026 to April 4, 2027 |
| Ikon blackout: holiday week | December 26 to 30, 2026 |
| Ikon blackout: MLK weekend | January 16 and 17, 2027 |
| Ikon blackout: Presidents Day | February 13 and 14, 2027 |
| Torchlight Parade | Christmas Eve, Thursday December 24, 2026 |
| New Year's Eve | Thursday December 31, 2026 |
New this season and worth planning around: lifts open at 8:00am on Saturdays and Sundays from December 5, giving you an extra hour on weekend mornings. It also means a genuinely early first chair, so dress warmer than you would for a 9:00am start.
Read the blackout rows before you book. The full Ikon Pass has no blackout days. The Ikon Base and Session passes are blacked out on those dates, which includes the entire week between Christmas and New Year's. If your trip lands in that window on one of those passes, budget for separate lift tickets.
All Season Long: The Reliable Bookings
These run week after week rather than on a single date, which makes them the easiest things to build a trip around. Most require advance booking and most sell out.
Mountaintop Apres at The Lodge at Sunspot
Typically Thursday, Friday and Saturday, mid-December through early April, 4:00pm to 8:00pm. 2026/2027 dates TBA.
The best apres in Winter Park and the one most visitors never find. Ride the Gondola up above the spruce to the Lodge at Sunspot for live music, food and drink specials, and a view that does most of the work. No lift ticket needed during apres hours, which makes it perfect for a non-skiing partner or a rest day. Last ride up is typically 7:00pm and last ride down 8:00pm.
Local's Tip: if you want to ride the Gondola to Sunspot before 4:00pm you will need a valid pass, lift ticket or Scenic Gondola Ticket. After 4:00pm it is free. Check the live music schedule.
Coca-Cola Tubing Hill and Glow Night Tubing
Tubing hill open daily. Glow Night Tubing typically Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 5:00pm to 7:00pm, mid-December through late March. 2026/2027 dates TBA.
Banked curves, a fast lane, and the option to chain your whole group together. It is the single best thing to do in Winter Park with kids who are not skiing, and Glow Night Tubing under the lights is a genuinely different experience from the daytime version.
Book ahead. Walk-up availability is not guaranteed and tubing times regularly sell out. Reserve here.
Sunset Snowshoe Tour
Typically Thursday, Friday and Saturday plus select holiday dates, 4:30pm to 6:30pm, mid-December through late March. 2026/2027 dates TBA.
A guide takes you up the Gondola, then out onto a forest trail at twilight under a starlit Colorado sky. It is quiet in a way a ski day never is, and you get a complimentary beverage in the lodge when you return. No skill required, which makes it a good pick for mixed groups. How much darkness you get depends on where you are in the season.
Space is limited. Book ahead through the resort's guided experiences.
Snowcat and S'mores Tour
Typically Thursday, Friday and Saturday plus select holiday dates, 4:30pm to 6:30pm, mid-December through late March. 2026/2027 dates TBA.
Meet your driver at the Adventure & Supply Co shop and ride a snowcat up to watch the sun set over the Fraser Valley from Vasquez Ridge, then on to Lunch Rock for s'mores and drinks before heading back down. Tour price includes the ride, s'mores and one beverage. Works for the whole family and requires nothing more than warm clothes.
Space is limited. Book ahead.
Moonlit Uphill and Dinner
Typically three dates across January, February and March, 4:30pm to 7:00pm. 2026/2027 dates TBA.
Meet at: Adventure Concierge, 115 Parry Peak Way, Winter Park, CO 80482
Earn your turns, then eat well. Bring boots, snowshoes or uphill gear and make your way up to Snoasis for an on-mountain dinner, with guides stationed along the route if you want them or your own line if you do not. Afterward you ski down under the moonlight. One of the more memorable evenings available anywhere in Colorado, and only offered a handful of times a season.
Book early. These are small and they fill. Menu and details.
Holiday Season Events
Deck the Slopes
Typically late November through the end of December. Free. 2026 dates TBA.
The resort's umbrella program for the holidays, turning the base into a winter wonderland with lights, weekend activities, holiday drone shows and live reindeer. Watch for this year's schedule.
Holiday Tree Lighting
Typically Thanksgiving weekend, late afternoon. Thanksgiving 2026 falls on November 26, so expect the weekend of November 27 to 29. Free. Exact date TBA.
The tree lighting ceremony in Winter Park Village kicks off the season, with holiday songs, the tree brightening, and photos with Santa immediately after. Bring the kids and bring a camera.
Reindeer in the Village
Typically three December weekend days, 11:00am to 5:00pm. Free. 2026 dates TBA.
Santa's reindeer set up in the Village alongside his sleigh, so you can meet them between ski laps and get a photo on the sleigh. Reliably the highlight of the day for anyone under eight.
Holiday Drone Show
Typically the same December weekend evenings as the reindeer, at dusk around 5:45pm. Free. 2026 dates TBA.
Synchronized drones fill the sky above the base with holiday icons, festive designs and colour. Genuinely impressive, and completely free.
Local's Tip: the base village restaurant decks give you the best vantage point. Grab a spot and a drink before the show starts.
Winter Park Resort Holiday Party
Typically a mid-December afternoon, 3:30pm to 5:30pm. Free. 2026 date TBA.
Photos with Santa, hot cocoa, live holiday music, then everyone gathers for the drone show. A favorite of locals as much as visitors.
Torchlight Parade and Fireworks
Christmas Eve, Thursday December 24, 2026. Typically 5:30pm. Free.
The most beloved tradition at Winter Park. Cocoa around the fire while skiers carry torches down the slope under a fireworks display. Expect a full afternoon of festivities at the base beforehand, typically including photos with Santa at the Village Gazebo, sweets, and hot cocoa near the Gondola Circle. A non-denominational church service has historically followed the parade, open to all.
Get out early for a viewing spot. This is the busiest night of the Winter Park year.
Holiday Apres Week
Typically December 26 through January 3, 4:00pm to 8:00pm daily. Free. 2026/2027 dates TBA.
During the holiday week, Mountaintop Apres extends beyond its usual Thursday to Saturday schedule and runs every day. Ride the Gondola up to Sunspot for live music and food and drink specials, with no lift ticket or reservation required after 4:00pm. Glow Night Tubing and the Snowcat and S'mores Tour typically run through the same week.
New Year's Eve Celebration in Town
Thursday December 31, 2026. Typically evening. Free and open to the public. Exact times TBA.
Rendezvous Event Center, 78821 US Highway 40, Winter Park, CO 80482
The town does its own New Year's Eve, separate from the resort. Recent years have featured a tubing and sledding hill plus a silent disco party. Free, family friendly, and a genuinely fun alternative to a restaurant reservation.
Local's Tip: arrive early. Sleds, tubes and toboggans are provided on the event center hill and they go first come, first served.
Mary Jane Opens in January
Worth building into your plans: Mary Jane typically opens in January, several weeks after the main mountain, and closes earlier in spring. If the Jane's legendary bumps and tree runs are why you are coming, aim for mid-January through mid-March.
She turned 50 in January 2026 and is now well into her sixth decade of humbling strong skiers.
Skills Clinics
All of Winter Park's full-day clinics typically run 9:15am to 3:15pm and are offered on several dates spread across January through early April. 2026/2027 dates TBA. Space is limited on every one.
Breakthrough Women's Clinic
A full day designed for women and taught entirely by expert female instructors. The focus is identifying what is actually holding your skiing back, then fixing form and stance through terrain-based learning. Consistently the most oversubscribed clinic on the calendar.
Trees & Steeps Clinic
For anyone who wants to ski the trees of Mary Jane and Eagle Wind, or take on the steeps in the Cirque, with confidence rather than hope. If you are going to ski trees here, this is the smart way to start.
Related safety note: never ski trees alone, and keep your partner in visual contact. See our high country safety guide on tree wells and deep snow.
Bump Clinic
Mary Jane is famous for her moguls, and this all-day clinic is how you stop fighting them. Suitable whether it is your first time in bumps or you want to become genuinely efficient.
Freestyle Clinic
A full day on jumps, rails, half-pipe flow, switch riding and park etiquette in Winter Park's Railyard. Useful for anyone who has been circling the park without committing.
Telemark Clinic
Free-heel fundamentals and flow, with expert coaching and small-group support. Bring your own telemark equipment, because Winter Park Resort does not rent telemark gear.
Book any clinic through the resort's clinics page, and see our full guide to lessons and clinics at Winter Park.
Off the Resort: Things Happening in Town and the Valley
The resort is not the only game here. Worth checking during your dates:
- The Foundry Cinema & Bowl, the valley's only movie theater and bowling alley, with an arcade and wood-fired pizza. (970) 363-7161. The best storm-day plan in town.
- Fraser Valley Sports Complex outdoor ice rink and the Grand Park Community Recreation Center, which runs a full slate of youth classes and has an indoor aquatic center. fraservalleyrec.org, (970) 726-8968.
- Historic Fraser Tubing Hill, locally owned since 1971 and lit for night tubing. (970) 726-5954.
- Colorado Adventure Park in Fraser, with two magic carpets, free sleds for little kids, and a fire pit with s'mores. (970) 726-5779.
- Hideaway Park in downtown Winter Park for free sledding and a playground. Zero cost, zero reservation.
- Snow Mountain Ranch, YMCA of the Rockies, where a day pass covers tubing, the pool, climbing wall, ice skating and Nordic trails.
- Sleigh rides and dog sledding across the valley, including horse-drawn rides at Devil's Thumb Ranch.
- The Headwaters Center, a hands-on museum about the Colorado River headwaters and a good rainy-day option.
More in our Winter Park guide and activity discounts around town.
The Winter Park Express Ski Train
The only ski train in the country that drops you at the base of the lifts. 2026/2027 dates and fares have not been announced. Amtrak has made its announcement in early November for each of the last two seasons, so expect news around then. Recent seasons have run holiday weekend service in late December followed by four-days-a-week service from January into late March. Watch Amtrak's Winter Park Express page.
How to Plan Around This Calendar
- Book lodging first. Everything else keys off your dates, and holiday weeks sell out earliest.
- Check your pass blackout dates against your travel window before anything else.
- Reserve the sell-outs immediately: tubing times, the Moonlit Uphill dinners, snowshoe and snowcat tours, and any clinic.
- Build one free evening in. The drone shows, tree lighting, Torchlight Parade and the town New Year's Eve party cost nothing.
- Use apres as your rest day. Mountaintop Apres needs no lift ticket after 4:00pm, which makes it the ideal non-ski afternoon.
- Take the free town shuttle between the resort, town and Fraser so nobody has to drive. See getting around Winter Park.
Where to Stay
Where you sleep changes which events are easy. A few honest recommendations:
- For the Torchlight Parade, drone shows and Mountaintop Apres: stay at Winter Park Resort or ski-in ski-out, so you can walk to the base and walk home in the dark.
- For the town New Year's Eve party and Rendezvous Event Center: the Town of Winter Park puts you in walking distance.
- For the Fraser tubing hill, rec center and ice rink: look at Fraser and the surrounding area.
- For a big group doing all of it: our private homes and Luxury Collection have the space, plus a private hot tub for the end of a long day.
Check current lodging deals, browse all Winter Park vacation rentals, or call our local team at 970-722-0707.
We live here and we go to these things. Tell us your dates and we will tell you what is actually worth your evening.
More Winter Park reading:
- 1-Day Ski Itinerary at Winter Park
- Childcare Options & Kid-Friendly Activities in Winter Park
- Best Restaurants in Winter Park, CO
Events are subject to change, cancellation and weather. Dates marked TBA had not been published at the time of writing. Always confirm with the organizer before building travel plans around a specific date.