Wintersköl Was Invented for Aspen's Quiet Weeks. Now It Shares a Weekend With Opening Day.

In January 1951, Aspen had a problem that's hard to picture now. The holidays were over and town went quiet. Jack DePagter, who owned the Holland House, came up with a European-style winter carnival to bring people back up the valley in that slow stretch. The name came later, from a toast by Mr. Sardy. The Aspen Chamber Resort Association's history of the festival still tells it that way. The Aspen Historical Society timeline dates that first winter toast to January 1951.

Seventy-five years later, Wintersköl sits somewhere very different. The 2026 festival runs December 10 through 13. Its Saturday is opening day at Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk. Its Friday night is the final community stop of a drone-show series that has crossed Colorado for more than a year. A festival built to fill the quiet weeks now lands in the opening weeks of the ski season. That shift explains almost everything about how this year's weekend is laid out.

The Move That Changed What Wintersköl Is For

For more than 70 years, Wintersköl happened in January. Then in April 2024, ACRA announced it would move the festival to mid-December, starting with December 13 to 15 that year.

The clearest explanation came from a soup pot. The Aspen Times reported that Pepperjack's Cafe, The Gant's on-property eatery, won the 2023 Soupsköl with tomato soup and cheese sticks. The trophy sat on its counter all year. The cafe still couldn't defend the title in January 2024, because that month had become too busy to take on anything extra. Lou Eppelsheimer, The Gant's director of sales and marketing, told the paper, "We were kind of in the prime season, and I think no one in this valley is immune to the shortage of staff," and added that "moving it to December gives us a little more bandwidth."

So the January lull the festival was invented for had filled up. December still had room, and Wintersköl went there.

A Weekend That Lines Up With Two Mountains Opening

That room in December comes from the lift calendar. As of this writing, Aspen Snowmass projects Aspen Mountain's opening for Thursday, November 26. It lists Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk for Saturday, December 12. That puts Wintersköl's busiest day on the day two more mountains start spinning. ACRA's schedule lists Highlands and Buttermilk opening day as an all-day Saturday event, with celebration details to come.

The calendar around the weekend has the same early-season feel. ACRA's winter 2026–27 announcement lists Wintersköl first among the season's milestones. It's followed by Aspen Snowmass's 80th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of Aspen Gay Ski Week. The Chamber is billing 2026 as Wintersköl's 75th year.

Thursday and Friday Build Toward Wagner Park

The festival opens Thursday, December 10, at the Paul JAS Center with the ticketed Wintersköl Icebreaker Bash from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. That's where this year's Wintersköl Royalty is crowned. The Chamber also presents its Business and Nonprofit of the Year awards, the Molly Campbell Award and the Colorado Green Business Network of Aspen honors. ACRA describes today's royalty as community-nominated honorees chosen for their community involvement. That's a long way from the original Queen contest. At 7:30 p.m., the Wheeler Opera House runs its traditional free screening of "Aspen Extreme," the 1993 ski film shot in town.

Friday morning, Mill Street Mall becomes a work site. From 9 a.m. to noon, Anderson Ranch Arts Center's KIDSCULPT has local school teams turning snow into sculptures. It's free to watch. The Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club also hosts a community rail jam that evening, free for spectators.

The new piece comes at 7 p.m. at Wagner Park. Wintersköl was picked as one of the community celebrations in Stories in the Sky. The series is close to 150 drone shows from the America 250-Colorado 150 Commission, built with the Colorado Tourism Office and Visit Denver. It marks the country's 250th anniversary and Colorado's 150th. According to History Colorado, the statewide tour started on September 27, 2025, at a University of Colorado football game in Boulder. Since then it has stopped in Ouray, Durango, Steamboat Springs, Vail, Telluride, Glenwood Springs, Snowmass and dozens of other towns.

History Colorado's schedule lists Aspen's Wintersköl show on December 11, 2026, as the last statewide stop. Only Visit Denver's nightly holiday drone program over the Denver skyline runs later, through December 31. ACRA puts it plainly:

"The series ends in December 2026, so Wintersköl will be one of its closing celebrations."

The state describes the shows as set to music and customized to each host event and destination, with each performance telling its own story. A festival that started in 1951 will be one of the last stops of Colorado's 150th, which fits.

Saturday, Hour by Hour

Saturday, December 12, is the weekend's longest day, and most of it happens at Wagner Park. Here's the Aspen side of the schedule in order, with the Snowmass events that overlap it:

1. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Holiday Market at The Gant Aspen, with artisans from the Roaring Fork and Crystal valleys. Free.
2. 2 to 6 p.m. The "Toast of Winter" Beer Festival at Wagner Park, presented by ACRA and Radiate Events. The Chamber calls it the newest addition to the festival. It's open to everyone and ticketed, and tastings are 21 and over.
3. 3 to 5 p.m. Soupsköl at Wagner Park. Free to attend and taste.
4. 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. The Wintersköl Bonfire at Wagner Park, with live music.
5. 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in Snowmass. A holiday tree lighting at The Viewline Snowmass, then a torchlight parade on Snowmass Mountain at 6.
6. 7 p.m. Torchlight Parade and Fireworks on Aspen Mountain.
7. 9:30 p.m. Opiuo, the New Zealand-born bass music producer, at Belly Up Aspen.

The torchlight descent shows the same shift from visitor event to community event. This year's skiers and snowboarders are young athletes from AVSC and other Roaring Fork Valley clubs, covering every ski and snowboard discipline. The descent isn't open to the public.

The Soup Pot Has Changed Hands Every Year

Soupsköl runs the same way it always has. Restaurants from around the valley set up at Wagner Park, the crowd tastes and the winner takes home the Soupsköl soup pot. The Aspen Times described it as a popular vote, with guests sampling each soup and casting a ballot. No restaurant has won it twice in the recent run:

West End Social has finished in the top three at both December contests. It's on ACRA's 2026 Soupsköl roster again, along with defending champion Bangkok Happy Bowl. The other listed restaurants are Lola 41 Aspen, Meat & Cheese Restaurant and Farm Shop, Sodexo at Colorado Mountain College, Aspen Senior Center, Stranahan's Whiskey Lodge, The Bear Den and Rubirosa, with more to be added. Both December contests had full podiums. Pepperjack's had to sit out in January 2024. That's the 2024 move doing what it was meant to do: kitchens have time to compete again.

Sunday Closes on the Holidays

Sunday, December 13, is quieter in Aspen. Limelight Aspen offers free Pup Portraits from 4 to 6 p.m. during a Yappy Hour where dogs are welcome. From 5 to 7 p.m., The Little Nell hosts its annual Tree Lighting Celebration with ACRA in its Wine Bar and Courtyard. The tree is lit at 5:30. The Aspen Animal Shelter will be there, along with Santa and Mrs. Claus and DanceAspen performances. In Snowmass Base Village, TAC Fitness has a $15 sound-healing session with Megan DiSabatino from 5 to 6 p.m.

I've watched Wintersköl move from the January lull into the opening weeks of the season, and I love how this December weekend has become a reason to stay home. If you're hosting family for the drone show and the torchlight parade, or you want to think through how Aspen's December calendar fits your own winter at home, I'm glad to share what I know. Aspen Luxury Real Estate is always ready when you want to talk. Let's Connect.