The event is free, thanks to donations at the event itself and the generosity of sponsors such as Hotel Telluride, New Sheridan Chop House & Hotel, Peaks Resort and Spa, the Schmid family, and Wilkinson Public Library. “It’s truly a sincere celebration of the holiday spirit,” said Erica Kinias, executive director, Telluride Historical Museum. The fourth annual Old Fashioned Christmas Celebration at Schmid Ranch feels like a Norman Rockwell painting. Guests can even cut down their own Blue Spruce tree. There, at the ranch – a centennial farm that has remained in the Schmid family since the 1880s – the celebration will include horse-drawn carriage rides, a bonfire, hot chocolate, cowboy coffee, wreath making, Santa Claus and gifts for children. The gathering takes place from 12 – 4 p.m. On Saturday, December 8, the Telluride Historical Museum honors the “Spirit of Christmas” at its annual celebration at Schmid Ranch. Meanwhile, outside her cabin at Tomboy, equipped with snow shoes, a fleece-lined jacket, fur hat, and, of best of all, a sack of toys slung over her back, “The Spirit of Christmas” labored from shack to shack without discrimination, the annual ritual of Beth Batchellor, Harriet’s best friend.

On Christmas Day, 1908, Harriet Fish Backus, the “Tomboy Bride,” awoke to a gift that would certainly turn the most modern San Juan citizen Christmas-colored with envy: “sparkling diamonds,” from the surface of ten-foot deep snow. Batcheller was known to deliver holiday gifts to all the children who lived at Tomboy. Beth Batcheller, circa 1910, pictured here on the roof of her Tomboy home.

Tomboy Bride by Harriet Fish Backus