Highlands Ranch's Two Big Holiday Celebrations Are a Week Apart This Year. Here's How to Get to Each One.

Last December, Highlands Ranch packed its two biggest holiday gatherings into about 24 hours. The Highlands Ranch Community Association held Hometown Holiday at Town Center on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, from 3 to 7 p.m. The next morning, the Highlands Ranch Metro District opened the Mansion grounds for its own celebration.

This year the two events are a full week apart. The Mansion celebration is Saturday, Dec. 5, and Hometown Holiday moves to Saturday, Dec. 12. That gives each event its own weekend, and each one has a different way in. One starts at a high school parking lot. The other is easiest to reach with a free county rideshare, so a little planning before each Saturday helps.

Last Year's Back-to-Back Weekend, Spread Out

Hometown Holiday changed more than its date. Last year it was a Friday-evening event that ran until 7 p.m. This year it moves to a Saturday afternoon. Two different organizations run these events: the HRCA hosts Town Center and the Metro District hosts the Mansion. Both are free. Neither one has to work around the other this year.

Dec. 5 at the Mansion Starts at Mountain Vista High School

The Metro District calls its event the Holiday Celebration at the Mansion. It runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Highlands Ranch Mansion, 9950 E. Gateway Drive. The schedule includes horse-drawn hayrides, visits with Santa Claus, face painting, school choir performances, selections from the Nutcracker by local dancers, holiday story times, reindeer games on the lawn and booth vendors. Volunteer docents will be on hand for self-guided tours of the Mansion, and food trucks will sell food and drinks.

Driving straight to the Mansion is the one plan that won't work. There's no parking at the Mansion except for vehicles with handicapped placards or license plates. Everyone else parks at Mountain Vista High School and rides a shuttle up. The setup is the same as last year: the 2025 celebration also ran its shuttle from the Mountain Vista west lot starting at 9:30 a.m. So for a Mansion morning, the order goes like this:

1. Drive to the west lot at Mountain Vista High School, which is the student parking lot.
2. Catch a shuttle. They start running at 9:30 a.m., half an hour before the event opens.
3. Budget for lunch, since the food trucks sell their food and drinks.
4. Plan to leave by 3 p.m., when the celebration ends.

The vendor booths are already full, and the Metro District is keeping a waiting list. If you were hoping to sell at the Mansion this year, the HRCA gift fair below has better timing.

Dec. 12 at Town Center Runs on a Free Rideshare

A week later, the celebration moves to the center of the community. The HRCA's Hometown Holiday runs from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 12, at Highlands Ranch Town Center, 9315 Dorchester St. It's free and open to the public, with photos with Santa, a holiday gift market, live music, food trucks, holiday games, hot cocoa for kids and a lighting ceremony. There's also a cash bar, and IDs are checked. The whole event is outdoors and will only be canceled for severe weather.

Getting there is simpler than getting to the Mansion. The HRCA lists free parking nearby and also points to Link On Demand. Link is Douglas County's app-based rideshare, run with Via, and it's free to ride. The county doesn't collect any payment information. The Saturday schedule fits Hometown Holiday well:

• Saturday hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., which covers the whole noon-to-5 event with time on either side.
• Booking: the Link On Demand app, or by phone at 719-212-2430.
• Riders: anyone 13 or older. Children under 13 ride with a parent or guardian. Link doesn't supply car seats, so families bring their own.
• Coverage: rides have to begin and end inside the service area, which includes Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Castle Rock, Meridian, Stonegate and parts of Parker.

Rides are shared with other passengers when possible. Before Dec. 12, enter your home address in the county's service-area lookup to confirm your pickup works. Link doesn't run on Sundays, so plan any weekend errands around that.

Two new stops near Town Center

Town Center has a new address worth adding to your afternoon. Joy Batch Cookies & Coffee opened in October at 9315 Dorchester St., Unit 109, the same address as Hometown Holiday, according to the Highlands Ranch Herald and the Discover DougCo openings tracker. Its first December will be the same month the HRCA holds its biggest Town Center event.

A short walk away, the playground at Civic Green Park, 9370 Ridgeline Blvd., has been getting a full replacement. The 19-year-old equipment closed Sept. 8, and the Metro District projected construction through late November. The plans expand the playground's footprint and replace the wood chips with continuous rubber surfacing. They also call for a tall main structure for ages 5 to 12, separate play areas for ages 2 to 5 and for toddlers 6 to 23 months, four swings under a shade awning, a spinning rope tower and a merry-go-round with at-grade entry for inclusive play. The fountains, wading stream and book sculptures aren't part of the renovation and will stay as they are. The Metro District posts the reopening date on its Playground Replacement project page, so check there before you promise the kids a stop after Santa.

The Smaller Dates Around the Two Big Saturdays

With the two major events a week apart, the HRCA's smaller holiday events fill in the weeks around them. The first one comes two days after this post goes live.

• Holiday Gift Fair, Saturday, Nov. 14: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Eastridge Recreation Center, 9568 University Blvd. Admission is free, and it's a good chance to shop early, three weeks before the Mansion.
• Holiday Jazz Music, Wednesday, Dec. 2: 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Southridge Recreation Center, 4800 McArthur Ranch Rd. Doors open at 6 p.m., and tickets are listed at $25. It's the only paid event on this list and the only one on a weeknight.
• Holiday House Decorating map, posted Thursday, Dec. 3: the HRCA publishes a map of decorated homes, and submissions stay open through Dec. 21. Homes added later in the month can still make the map.

The decorating map takes submissions until Dec. 21, more than a week after Hometown Holiday, so it's still useful for an evening drive once both big Saturdays are over.

If the Mansion shuttle or a Link ride to Town Center has you looking around Highlands Ranch, Michael Gordon is glad to talk through how the community's different areas connect to its gathering places. If you're curious what your own home is worth before the new year, start with an instant valuation. Get Your Instant Home Valuation.