Superior's Winter Festival has been held somewhere different almost every December. The first festival was held at the Superior Community Center in 2023. In 2024 it moved to Blue Sport Stable. In 2025 it went out onto the streets of Downtown Superior. On Saturday, December 12, 2026, the fourth annual festival comes back to Main Street, so for the first time it's in the same place two years running.
That second year downtown changes how the day works. Back at the Community Center, the festival was a few afternoon hours in one building. Now the Stocking Run 5K opens the day downtown at 10 a.m., the festival fills the streets from 2 to 5 p.m., Skate with Santa runs at the rink at the edge of the district, and the Superior Community Tree is lit at 5 p.m. If your family does all of it, you'll spend most of a Saturday downtown, and you'll want a plan.
Three Homes in Three Years
The festival has worked its way toward Main Street over the years:
| Year | Where it was held | What the day looked like |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Superior Community Center, 1500 Coalton Road | Two days, Dec. 9 and 10, from 1 to 5 p.m. Skate with Santa was a separate Chamber event on Dec. 16 |
| 2024 | Blue Sport Stable, 1 Superior Drive | One day, Dec. 14, from 1 to 5 p.m., with Skate with Santa folded in |
| 2025 | Downtown Superior, 2250 Main St. | One day, Dec. 13, from 1 to 5 p.m., with the Stocking Run that morning |
| 2026 | Downtown Superior, Main Street and Superior Drive | One day, Dec. 12, from 2 to 5 p.m., with the tree lighting at 5 p.m. |
The first year was the Town's festival, held on two days in December 2023. The Town's bulletin warned that parking at the Community Center would be "very limited" and suggested parking at Community Park across Coalton Road. When the 2024 festival moved to the Sport Stable, Colorado Hometown Weekly reported that the Superior Chamber of Commerce was based in that building and that the Chamber wanted to put local businesses in front of visitors. Executive director Leslie Espinoza summed up the message for the paper as "Support the businesses that support your community." Main Street is where most of those businesses are, and that's where the festival has stayed.
The crowd has grown along with it. The Chamber counted more than 5,000 people at the 2025 festival, its first year downtown.
The Day Starts at 10 With a 5K
Because the festival is now downtown, it shares the day with the Superior Stocking Run, a family 5K run and walk put on by Racing Underground. Organizers say the race moved to its Main Street venue in 2024. This year it starts and finishes downtown and kicks off the Winter Festival.
Here's the race-day schedule from the race's official page:
- Friday, Dec. 11, 2 to 5 p.m. Early packet pickup at the Superior Community Center, 1500 Coalton Road.
- Saturday, Dec. 12, 8:30 a.m. Race-day registration and packet pickup open.
- 10 a.m. The 5K starts.
- 10:45 a.m. Awards.
The course is mostly flat. It gains about 100 feet over 3.1 miles on paved roads and paths through Superior's parks and neighborhoods, and there's a water station at the halfway point. The entry fee is $40 through Nov. 30, $45 from Dec. 1 to 11, and $50 on race day. Kids 12 and under pay $25 if they register in advance. RunSignup adds a processing fee at checkout. Entries can be transferred to a friend until 15 days before the race, which makes Friday, Nov. 27 the last day. Every registration comes with a race T-shirt, hot cocoa, and Jill's Home Baked Banana Chocolate Chip Bread.
The Stocking Run is also the first race of Racing Underground's Winter Running Series. The Yeti Chase follows in January and the Ralston Creek Half-Marathon & 5K in February, so a December 5K can turn into a three-race winter.
The Hours Between Awards and Santa
The festival runs from 2 to 5 p.m., so there's a gap of about three hours between the 10:45 a.m. awards and the festival start. Downtown businesses are what fill those hours.
The Town keeps a Downtown Superior business directory. These are the food and drink spots it lists:
- Paul's Coffee & Tea and The Stable Bar & Grill, both inside the rink building at 1 Superior Drive
- Boulder Baked, Krak Boba, and Menchie's Frozen Yogurt, all on Main Street
The same directory lists the shops a few doors away: Arts Off Center, Colorado Carbon Bicycles, Innana Creations, Lily Rae Flowers, Originata, and Popped 5280. Arts Off Center is now at 2245 Main Street after moving from Superior Marketplace, and the Town reported in January that Lily Rae Flowers was opening at 2250 Main Street. Both fit into a late morning between the race and the festival.
The Chamber's Shop Local Passport works well with that gap. You collect a stamp at each participating Superior business or restaurant. After five stamps, you turn in the passport at the Superior Community Center, the Civic Space, Town Hall, or the Chamber office to be entered to win prizes.
Two to Five on Main Street
The Chamber's festival is centered on Main Street and Superior Drive and is free. It's put on by the Superior Chamber of Commerce, the Town of Superior, and Blue Sport Stable, with InBank as title sponsor. These activities run the full 2 to 5 p.m.:
- Santa visits, with keepsake photos by Samantha Markey of More Than Serendipity
- The Grinch Experience, hosted by Halcyon
- A Reindeer Encounter with live reindeer
- Tractor hayrides around Downtown Superior
- Live performances
- S'Mores Galore stations, where you pick up a kit and roast it at the fire pits
- The Elf Express Letter Station, where kids can write or paint letters to the North Pole
- Free face painting with winter designs
The hot cocoa bar opens at 2 p.m. and is served "until it runs out," so the order of your afternoon matters. If cocoa is the priority, get there early.
The Rink Holds the Afternoon Together
Skate with Santa takes place at Blue Sport Stable from 3 to 5 p.m. The Chamber calls it an annual tradition, and it predates the festival's move downtown. The Grinch is expected to stop by, and Blue Federal Credit Union is handing out free cookies. The festival lineup also includes a Polar Bump N' Spin.
The rink is a big part of why the downtown version works. Blue Sport Stable is a year-round indoor complex with two NHL-sized rinks and one smaller rink. Blue Federal Credit Union holds the naming partnership. The Town records the Sport Stable complex as opening in spring 2016. Because the ice is indoors, part of the afternoon stays warm whatever the December weather does. For regular public skating, the rink lists admission at $8 a session, or $6 for Superior residents with a valid ID, plus $4 for skate rental.
At 5 p.m. the Superior Community Tree is lit, and the festival ends.
The Clock on Main Street
If you do everything, from packet pickup at 8:30 a.m. to the tree lighting at 5 p.m., you'll be downtown for more than eight hours. This is the first Winter Festival since the Town's parking vendor, Parkwell, started enforcing time limits again. The Town says Parkwell started giving warnings along Main Street in July and will issue citations starting in November to vehicles parked past the 2-hour limit. The Town's Downtown Superior parking page says on-street limits run from 2 hours on Main Street to 3 hours on nearby streets. Enforcement uses digital chalking software that records each car's plate and location, so there's no app to feed. The private lots that serve residents and Main Street tenants are enforced separately under the developer's contract.
The Stocking Run has its own rule. Racing Underground tells runners that some downtown roads will be closed for the festival and that many lots are reserved for residents, so all runners must park in one of the two parking garages near the start and finish. For a family planning to stay from the race through the tree lighting, a garage spot is the simplest way to avoid watching the 2-hour clock on Main Street.
If you want to try downtown before the big day, the Civic Space at 2250 Main St. hosts a free Boulder Film Friends screening of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever on Friday, Nov. 20, from 6 to 8 p.m.
One Week Earlier, the Bazaar Stays on Coalton Road
The Holiday Bazaar hasn't moved. The sixth annual Superior Holiday Bazaar is on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Superior Community Center, 1500 Coalton Road, the building where the Winter Festival started in 2023. It's free, has more than 50 vendors, and part of the vendor-sales proceeds support the Superior–Khandbari Sister City partnership. Superior's sister city is Khandbari, Nepal. The Town established the relationship on Feb. 8, 2021, to exchange resources and cultural ideas, and its Sister City Committee has promoted the bazaar.
That makes two Saturdays in a row. The bazaar on Coalton Road covers your shopping list on Dec. 5, and Main Street covers the reindeer, the 5K, and the tree a week later.
The festival moved twice before it settled downtown, and Downtown Superior is still adding new neighbors one storefront at a time. Janet Leap has watched Superior grow for many years and is glad to share what she knows about Main Street, the corners nearby, and what your own home could be worth here. Request a free home valuation, then go get a cup of cocoa before it runs out.
