"Secret Art Agents: kids sneak decorated clothespins onto guests without getting caught!" That line comes from Weehawken Creative Arts' listing for its Youth Art Show, and the show opens at 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4. If you walk into the Annex on Cora that evening and leave with a clothespin on your coat, a kid between 5 and 12 got you.
That clothespin is a good guide to how Ridgway's Noel Night works this year. The Ridgway Area Chamber of Commerce runs the holiday side of the evening, but most of what's already on the 2026 calendar comes from the town's arts groups. Noel Night falls on the same evening as the final First Friday Art Walk of the year, so the student show, the gallery walk, a handmade gift sale and a free concert all land on one Friday, with a gingerbread table the next morning.
December is the last First Friday until spring
Ridgway FUSE runs the First Friday Art Walk, and its 2026 season ends in December. FUSE says the December edition is "joining forces with the town's festive Noel Night celebration." On every other first Friday, galleries, shops and studios open their doors and you follow the First Friday flags from one stop to the next. On Dec. 4 the same flags lead you through a holiday evening.
The Chamber's Noel Night 2026 announcement lists the holiday pieces: a parade, photos with Santa, holiday shopping specials at local businesses, live music, and food and drinks. The Chamber also handles parade entries and sponsor questions at [email protected], so a business or group that wants a spot in the lineup should write to that address. One small thing on that page: it calls Dec. 4 a Thursday. FUSE, Weehawken and the Sherbino all list the event on Friday, Dec. 4, which is the correct weekday this year.
What's already set for Friday
These are the arts pieces with times posted by their organizers:
- 5 to 6:30 p.m. Weehawken Youth Art Show at the Cora Annex, 145 N. Cora St., with fall-semester work from Weehawken's after-school artists.
- From 5 p.m. Galleries open for the First Friday Art Walk across downtown.
- Evening. The 23rd Annual Holiday Art & Gift Sale opens at the Decker Community Room, 675 Clinton St.
- Doors 8 p.m., music 8:30 p.m. The Hip Snacks play the Sherbino, 604 Clinton St. Admission is free.
Some of the student pieces are for sale. Visitors vote by putting a sticker next to their favorite, and the piece with the most votes on Noel Night gets a ribbon and a small art-supply prize. Weehawken will announce the winner by email after the event. Weehawken's own listing suggests a route for the evening: art show first, then the open galleries, then free live music at the Sherbino at 8.
Hartwell Park has opened the evening at 5 p.m.
The Chamber's holiday pieces have kept a steady pattern the past two years, based on the Ouray County Plaindealer's calendar listings. In both years things started at the tree in Hartwell Park.
| Noel Night 2024 (Dec. 6) | Noel Night 2025 (Dec. 5) | |
|---|---|---|
| Tree lighting | Hartwell Park, 5 p.m. | Hartwell Park with carolers, 5 p.m. |
| Carolers | 5:15 p.m., after the lighting | With the tree lighting |
| Parade | 5:30 p.m. | Started at Hartwell Park, 5:15 p.m. |
| Santa photos | Hartwell Park gazebo, 6 to 7:30 p.m. | Santa and Mrs. Claus outside the Heritage Building patio, 615 Clinton St., 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. |
| Train | Holiday train at the Ridgway Railroad Museum, 6 to 8 p.m. | Holiday train rides at the Ridgway Railroad Museum, weather permitting, 6 to 8 p.m. |
| Also | Several businesses participating | Living nativity at the Ouray County Ranch History Museum, 6 to 8 p.m. |
| Late show at the Sherbino | Not listed | Graham Good & the Painters, 8:30 to 10 p.m., by donation |
These are 2024 and 2025 times, not the 2026 schedule. In 2024 the Plaindealer sent readers to ridgwaycolorado.com for the full schedule, and that's the place to check this year's times.
The table is useful for planning around one overlap. If the tree lighting stays near 5 p.m., it happens during the 90 minutes the Youth Art Show is open on Cora Street. A family with a young artist in the show will probably want to fit both in, and the 2025 times left room for that. Santa and the train didn't start until after 6.
The 600 block of Clinton Street holds the late part of the night
After dark, three addresses on the 600 block of Clinton Street sit close together. The Holiday Art & Gift Sale is at the Decker Community Room, 675 Clinton St. It's in its 23rd year and sells handmade work from local artisans and craftspeople. In 2025, Santa and Mrs. Claus posed for photos outside the Heritage Building at 615 Clinton St. The Sherbino at 604 Clinton St. closes out the night.
The Sherbino calls its late show its "annual Noel Night gift to the community." This year the act is The Hip Snacks, a rock-and-soul band from Denver. Admission is free, and donations go toward Sherbino programming. The 2025 version was Graham Good & the Painters, also by donation, also starting at 8:30. So the free Friday-night concert at the Sherbino has been part of Noel Night for at least the past two years.
Saturday morning goes back to the Sherbino
On Saturday, Dec. 5, Weehawken holds its annual Family Gingerbread House Decorating at the Sherbino from 10 a.m. to noon. It's open to all ages and costs $20 per gingerbread house. The Holiday Art & Gift Sale is also open for a second day at the Decker Community Room, which gives you another chance at gifts you passed up Friday.
For breakfast before decorating, Fireroot Kitchen has reopened the restaurant in the Old Firehouse at 185 N. Lena St. As the Ouray County Plaindealer reported in October, owner and chef Israel Castro started with breakfast and lunch on Pat's Patio in late September, then moved into the main dining hall as the weather cooled. The paper's photo showed sweet and savory Dutch babies. Hours at the time of that report were 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, with counter service and plans for dinner and cocktails sometime this winter.
The building is 144 years old. It started as housing for railroad workers, later became a firehouse, and was a set for the original 1969 "True Grit." Castro told the Plaindealer, "This building is truly a chef's dream come true."
The Sherbino's week before mid-December
Noel Night doesn't end the arts calendar. The Sherbino has three more evenings booked between Dec. 9 and Dec. 15:
- Wednesday, Dec. 9: Matchstick Productions' ski film "The Way Out." Doors at 6 p.m., film at 6:30. Tickets are $15 general, $10 for students and seniors.
- Saturday, Dec. 12: "Before Words There Were Birds," an evening of poetry, storytelling and music. Doors at 5:30 p.m., seated show at 6. Advance tickets are $20 general, $18 for seniors and students.
- Tuesday, Dec. 15: Mountainfilm on Tour: Adventure Shorts. Doors at 6 p.m., show at 6:30. Advance tickets are $20 general, $15 for students.
Mountainfilm's Adventure Shorts play the same room 11 days after The Hip Snacks.
Our office is in Montrose, and we work with buyers and sellers around Ridgway, from in-town lots near Hartwell Park to acreage facing the Cimarrons. If you're thinking about a place within walking distance of Clinton Street, or about selling one, Colorado Land Home & Ranch can walk you through what's available and what the process costs. Schedule a Consultation.
