Celebrate the Holiday Season in San Angelo: Your Perfect Winter Getaway
Don’t Miss These Exciting Christmas Celebrations in San Angelo, TX
There’s nothing quite like a small-town Christmas. It captures everything great about the holiday: elegant decorations, quaint shops, and a heartwarming sense of community. San Angelo brings together these qualities during the holiday season with its two biggest Christmas celebrations.
Those would be the Concho Christmas Celebration and Christmas at Old Fort Concho, which each offer uniquely Texan ways to celebrate the season. To find out all the merry details on these festivities, make like Santa and chimney-slide down this page!
Concho Christmas Celebration
The centerpiece of San Angelo’s Christmas feast is the Concho Christmas Celebration. Encompassing a wide-ranging array of events, Concho Christmas starts with the ceremonial Tree Lighting Ceremony and doesn’t let up from there.
Gather the family in the car, get snug with some warm drinks, fire up your favorite Christmas playlist, and cruise down the Tour of Lights. Three-million lights make up this 2.5-mile journey along the banks of the Concho River, where you’ll see one incredible spectacle after the other. Displays include a nativity scene, a gingerbread house, a toy factory, and much more!
If you’re more into watching other people drive than driving yourself, do we have the event for you! The annual Christmas parade lights up the streets of downtown San Angelo with community-made floats, car clubs, and groups on foot. Don’t leave until the very end or you’ll miss the grand appearance of Santa!
While these are the bigger events of the Concho Christmas Celebration, several smaller events will also take place during the month. One of the more notable is Bike Through the Lights, which has cyclists riding through the Tour of Lights guided by none other than Santa himself. For someone who eats so many cookies, he has remarkably good cardio!
Christmas at Old Fort Concho
Texas history comes alive at San Angelo’s Fort Concho, a onetime home to the Buffalo Soldiers and famed military commander, Pecos Bill. Thankfully, the fort’s fighting days are over and it’s turned a gentler leaf. It now spends its days hosting a massive Christmas celebration for all to enjoy.
Christmas at Old Fort Concho takes advantage of all the fort’s 40 acres and 24 buildings, transforming them into a winter wonderland during the first full weekend of December. Every day of the event, you can check out the Winter Rendezvous, a large-scale reenactment of campsites and traders in the 1800s. You’ll also be able to see the “troops” drill, shoot their weapons, and ride around on horseback.
When you go inside the fort, you’ll find a market of artisan goods perfect for your Christmas list or a little something for yourself. A food court will keep you energized so you can keep exploring the fort and browsing all the unique items for sale!
For the kiddos, the fort will have plenty of areas with activities and crafts, all of which are free. And not only will there be live music, but musicians will also be strolling the grounds. So if you can’t find the music, it’ll find you.
Reignite the Childhood Wonder of Christmas
As we get older, it’s only natural to lose the curiosity and wonder of childhood, exhibited no better than on the Christmas holiday. San Angelo hopes to reignite that magical feeling with its two biggest holiday celebrations, the month-long Concho Christmas Celebration and the time-traveling Christmas at Old Fort Concho. Whether you’re interested in a modern Christmas of light displays, a 19th-century Christmas of quaint shopping, or a touch of both, San Angelo will be here with open arms.
You might be so excited right now, you’re already jumping in your car, but wait! You need to book a room first! It just so happens that San Angelo has an abundance of places to stay, from reliable hotel chains to mom-and-pop hospitality.