Colony Christmas! Three-day annual festival biggest ever in 27 years

PALMER — The first year Palmer hosted the annual Colony Christmas festival, “Step by Step” by New Kids on the Block was a pop hit, kids really wanted those pair of acid-wash jeans in the JC Penney’s Christmas catalog, and the top-selling item at Toys’R’Us was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure.

But even then, Colony Christmas in Palmer was a small-town affair that celebrated a “gentle” spirit of Christmas, Palmer Historical Society member Gerry Keeling said.

Keeling is a “Colony kid” who remembers when Palmer was first organized as a city in 1935. “That was 68 years ago, and now that I’m in my 80s, 68 years doesn’t seem like a very long time,” Keeler said, adding that the Colony Christmas festival originally came about as a holiday version of a much older festival, Colony Days begun in Palmer in 1936.

“We in Palmer appreciate a small-town feel,” Keeler said. “And for people who love that lifestyle, they appreciate it too. You don’t have to be an old-timer to love that small town sense of community, and perhaps a less frenetic way of life. We love the simple things. In many ways Colony Christmas is revisiting the spirit of Christmas of the past, where families celebrated the holiday in more gentle ways.”

The now three-day festival begins today at 10 a.m. with an opening of the Festival of the Trees at Palmer Depot, and boasts two day-long arts and craft fairs, one at the depot and the other at United Protestant Church. The Alaska Veterans & Pioneer Home hosts a Gingerbread Houses display. The Palmer High School Boys Basketball Team hosts holiday food and drinks at the depot, and various businesses around town host events for making the season bright before the Bright Up the Night Light Display opens for free to the public at the Alaska State Fairground at 4 p.m. The Palmer Moose Lodge 793 hosts family Christmas movies starting at 6 p.m., and the Alaska Nutcracker plays at the Glenn Massay Theater at 7 p.m., and the Palmer Museum of History & Art hosts a concurrent “’Twas the Night Before Colony Christmas” wine tasting. Fire dancers with the Alaska Fire Circus top off the night with an outdoor performance at the Palmer Museum of History and Art at 8:30 p.m.

But Friday is just the warm-up. If you are a holiday crafts bazaar shopper, get ready to get your knitted knickers on early in the morning on Saturday, Dec. 10 to hit up the five Colony Christmas bazaars and craft fairs, starting at 9 a.m. at the Mat-Su Senior Services, and at 10 a.m. at Palmer Depot, Mat-Su Borough Gym, United Protestant Church and Klondike Mike’s.

Kids or the kid-in-you will enjoy Free Kids T-Shirt Coloring at Silvertip Designs and Photos with Santa at Downtown Palmer Deli at 10 a.m., Gingerbread House judging at Pioneer Home and a cookie Contest judging at the same time at Colony Inn Parlor, more Santa Photos at Palmer Moose Lodge 793 starting at 11 a.m. along with a Make a Marshmallow Snowman activity, Free Pony Wheel rides starting at 11:30 a.m. near the Large Pavilion in Palmer, Free Kids’ Games at Palmer Depot at noon, and Free horse-drawn sleigh rides near the Large Pavilion, also at noon.

And of course, there are the must-love small-town festival hallmarks: A lions Club Pancake Breakfast at Alaska bible College serves Colony Christmas goers from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., Connect Palmer hosts a Live Nativity Scene from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and at the Colony House Museum, carolers will serenade guests to the sounds of an 1895 piano that was brought up from Boston to a an original Palmer Pioneer’s home in 1935. Alaska Bible College hosts a free Chili Feed from 3 to 5 p.m., and the annual Smoosh Race – think advanced-level three-legged race, but with four people strapped on to a single set of extra-large wood-plank Alaska-engineered skis – runs from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Then, the annual Parade of Lights begins at 5 p.m.

If you can handle that much Colony Christmas, you get a prize: The BP Fireworks Extravaganza lights up the sky in downtown palmer after the parade.

“This is the largest one we’ve ever done,” said Palmer Chamber of Commerce executive director Ralph Renzi. “It’s all a committee of volunteers that puts this together.”

In addition to the festival’s main events, small businesses all over Palmer put on sales, decorations, and host activities and holiday treats.

Sunday, Dec. 11, the final day of the festival commences with the Palmer Winter Triathlon, with registration from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Palmer Pool, and race start at 11 a.m., also at the pool. The Alaska Celtic Pipes and Drum play at the Palmer library at 2 p.m., and at the same time, the Pioneer Amateur Hockey Association hosts a steak feed at Palmer Moose Lodge. Mat-Su Community Chorus Christmas Concert begins at St. John Lutheran Church at 4 p.m., and the City of Palmer hosts the final event of the evening, a Colony Christmas Free Public Skate at MTA Events Center from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

For a full listing of the many, many events that make up Colony Christmas, go to the events schedule on the Palmer Chamber of Commerce website, at http://www.palmerchamber.org/events/colony-christmas.html.