Christmas

Reader: Something stinks when RiNo tweeters covet scentometers

Neighbors are raising a stink over smells that they say emanate from a dog-snack factory that moved into the River North neighborhood -- now the hot-hot RiNo -- long before most of them did. This past spring, the city issued an odor citation to Kasel Associates Industries -- but the company's owner ... More >>

Avoid your family! Eat at Boston Market for the holidays

Some of the best holiday memories are made in the kitchen. The wafting aroma of ham and reheated Hawaiian rolls, the rush to make sure the cream of mushroom soup moistens that green bean casserole, the agonized sighs after reading the calorie count on the Sara Lee pie box. And, if you are me, the sc ... More >>

Santa on the Slopes

Gathering of the Tribe

Jingles All the Way

A Creepy Christmas

Michael Buble's Christmas raises the bar for all holiday tracks, plus a breakdown of the charts

It's going to be a holly, jolly Christmas with Michael Buble's new collection of holiday classics.​Michael Buble put out a killer Christmas record, and it could not have come at a better time. While the charts are currently flooded with dance-pop beats, synthesizers-laden hooks and auto-tuned ... More >>

Winter Park Wonderland

Ask William Breathes, Westword marijuana critic, anything until 4:20 today

William Breathes​The holidays are upon us here at Westword. Editors have begun leaving for vacation, and the gaggle of unsupervised reporters have already begun dipping into the egg nog, singing dirty Christmas carols and wrapping up interns like presents.

Have yourself a Merry dubstep Christmas

​Every holiday season, almost as sure as you can count on Christmas falling on December 25, you can depend on some obsessive, Griswold-wannabe somewhere crafting a lighting display that makes all the previous standouts from past years seem like also-rans. You know the type -- the kind that lit ... More >>

Top 10 White Elephant Christmas gifts of 2011

Big pics below.​Last December, our friends at Arc Thrift Stores of Colorado shared their choices for the top White Elephant Christmas gifts of 2010 -- and they've wisely continued the tradition this year. Page down to check out their must-have countdown picks for the season, featuring Arc's p ... More >>

Dear Mall Santa: Get here already. And bring that guy who smelled like Christmas with you.

Quit hiding the Ice Palace. Gimme Santa.​The Ice Palace will open its doors at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center at 5 p.m. today -- which means that Santa Claus will finally be in the house. Er, the mall. The Ice Palace -- a fancy name for a faux icicle-covered indoor forest -- will feature six ... More >>

And a very merry Kloewer Christmas to all!

​I've been making the pilgrimage every Christmastime to the Kloewer family home on Elati Street, just north of Belleview, for at least the last eleven years, and this is why: Being Jewish and all, it doesn't really feel like Christmas until I've immersed myself in some sort of urban electric m ... More >>

Guess where I'm eating?

Lori Midson​Christmas Day at my house is completely uneventful, unlike Christmas Eve, which is a day-long marathon of gluttony and wine- and champagne-filled debauchery. We wake up late on Christmas morning and pad around in our sloppy pajamas, eventually surrendering to our hangovers late in ... More >>

Commerce City is dead end for dueling decorations: Kenny Be's Yard Arteology

click image to enlarge​ The photograph above features a decorative dead end in the Reunion subdivision of Commerce City. The center of the picture looks out into the future of planned suburban expansion. Until then, the nearly identical homes face off in a duel of nearly identical holiday deco ... More >>

Return policy scenarios for after-Christmas shoppers: Kenny Be's Worst-Case Scenario

Time for an Exchange.​ There is only one thing people love more than Christmas gift shopping, and that is after- Christmas gift-return shopping! As seen below, It's also the one time of the year that Josh McDaniels and Carmelo Anthony can return what they've been handed, and ask for exactly ... More >>

A Talulah Jones 24 Days of Christmas: Days Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four

​We're all hearing a lot of talk this holiday season about shopping local and what it means to a community. But Talulah Jones shop owner Robin Lohre is doing more than that: Beginning December 1, Lohre will host a reception showcasing a different local artisan every night through Christmas Eve ... More >>

Festivus and ten more made-up holidays for the Holidays

​Tomorrow, Rick Gold will host a traditional Fesitvus celebration at the Shag Lounge. There, you can commune around the Festivus pole, air some grievances and perform some feats of strength. There will also be a ($5 maximum) gift exchange. In honor of disillusionment everywhere, we present 10 ... More >>

Ten non-traditional Christmas records you should listen to this year

Stop! You don't have to!​So we're well into the Christmas season, and chances are good you're getting a bit tired of Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby and the Time-Life Christmas collection in general. What had been a charming return to familiar holiday standards -- and perhaps the only reason to ... More >>

The Christmas movie selection on Netflix Instant Streaming is terrible

Yep, that exists.​It's 2010. We demand a solution to our seasonal movie needs that doesn't require leaving the house. Netflix Instant Streaming is our usual go-to in these sorts of occasions, but holy crap, have they dropped the ball on this one. There is no convenient way to browse what's ou ... More >>

The Ratcracker and ten other sad endings to Christmas stories

​Everyone knows The Nutcracker, but few people know the story -- and that's for a good reason: It's is so slight, it's almost incoherent. Yeah, there's a pseudo-plot in the first act about a battle with a Rat King or something, but that's all wrapped up by the second act, which is devoted pret ... More >>

O Christmas Tea

Denver Nativity Scene: What grinch stole this Christmas mural?

​Denver's holiday display wasn't always such an orgy of bad taste. Back in 1935, just three years after the Denver City and County Building was completed, muralist Louise Emerson Ronnebeck created a 76-foot-long Nativity painting for its pediment -- a painting that has since gone missing. What ... More >>

Top 10 Booze-Fueled Holiday Songs

​It's a holiday tradition no less practiced than trimming trees and visting family. We're speaking, of course, of drinking. And while "Frosty The Snowman" works just fine for opening presents with junior, kids songs start to sound a little creepy once you go in for thirds on the 'nog. We, of c ... More >>

Wake-Up Call: Baby Jesus says goodbye

​Last night, for the first time in eight weeks, the garish holiday lighting of the Denver City and County Building was not my night-light. That's because the city had finally flicked the switch, turning off the display at City Hall and packing up everything on the steps: Rudolph and his fellow ... More >>

Kenny Be's Yard Arteology: Unorthodox holiday traditions on the 12th day of Christmas

The study of neighbors through their holiday decorations... click image to enlarge​ January 5 is considered the last of the twelve days of Christmas. It is the time for the family living in the home pictured above, to reflect upon their unorthodox traditions in preparation for celebrating Epi ... More >>

Kenny Be's Yard Arteology: Little baby Jesus asleep in the... hey!

The study of neighbors through their holiday decorations... click image to enlarge​ Of the twelve days of Christmas, today is devoted to the eleven pipers piping. Lest we forget, they are tooting for the birth of the little baby Jesus. The historical account of elbeejay's birth, revealed in ... More >>

Heebonism Hedonism

Xmas Marks the Spot

Dialed In: This week's local music radio playlists

​Here what the area's local-centric specialty radio shows were spinning this week. We're currently tracking the playlists a number of different shows, including Radio 1190's Local Shakedown, KTCL's Locals Only*, 99.5 the Mountain's Homegrown Show*, the Colorado Sound, which originates at KRFC ... More >>

Feast of the seven fishes at Oceanaire

​Italians know how to do a lot of things right. They make sexy cars, damn good wine and great cheeses. Most important, they know how to celebrate Christmas Eve. On the night referred to as "the vigil" or La Vigilia, Italian-American families gorge themselves on seven-course seafood feasts. I ... More >>

Top five most overplayed Christmas songs in stores

"Do I irritate you?"​Worry over the outcome of a mail-in vote on a new contract isn't the only thing stressing out King Soopers workers this season, as I learned during a shopping trip yesterday. When "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" came streaming over the speakers, our teenage s ... More >>

Wake-Up Call: City Hall's Santa knows when you've been bad or good

​"Oh, we know you were here," a city official told me Monday, after I'd returned from my undercover mission to inventory the shlock and awe that is Denver's annual holiday display on the steps of City Hall -- and then explain why, exactly, it's legal to have a Nativity scene at a a public faci ... More >>

Parental Advisory

Tweetup for tots tonight

​The holiday season is in full swing, and even Denver's monthly Tweetup is getting in on the action. The November meeting of the Twitter faithful is pairing up with the Denver Santa Claus Shop for the latest event, to help ensure a merry Christmas (or other culturally appropriate winter holi ... More >>

Sing for Your Dinner

HANU-Karaoke takes Hanukkah songs to the stage.

A Very Scantily Clad Holiday

3 Kings brings back a Christmas favorite.

It's Christmas, Charlie Brown

Catch a multifaceted rendition of this holiday classic.

Skate Or Die

Strap on your ice skates and start enjoying the holidays.

Sweet Memories

The Christmas memories of Dylan Thomas take the University Theatre stage.

Tambien

This restaurant’s time has come.

Our Savior

Consider the alternative at 3 Kings.

Winter Wonderland

Jump-start the Christmas spirit at WinterWorld.

Ten Days 'Til Christmas

Drink of the Week

Bourbon "Spiked" Hot Chocolate

Drunk of the Week

California Pizza Kitchen

Bite Me

My Letter to Santa

Drunk of the Week

Funky Buddha

Season's Eatings

Cooking up the perfect holiday party to cap off the year.

It's My Party

And I'll dine if I want to.