There aren’t many times when I miss Woody Creek, or Colorado for that matter. But the times I do wish I was there happen in the fall when the leaves are dropping from the trees, flying through the air and covering the back roads to Maroon Bells or Ashcroft. 
A very peaceful feeling comes over me when I am the only driver on an orange and golden pathway that flares up behind me in my rear view mirror. It’s almost magical.
Then there is Christmas in the Rockies. For 22 years, there has been no other song that meant more to me at this time of year than “Colorado Christmas.” It was written by the late Steve Goodman and made popular by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s recording, with Emmylou Harris adding her touch to the background vocals. The song was the perfect soundtrack of my life back in 1986.
I was living with my husband in Southern California, impatiently waiting for the summer of 1987, when we could move to our new home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Our property awaited us for the log home we were planning to build. Our neighbors in Steamboat, who owned the property below us, were former co-workers of mine. They both left that hell known as Southern California two years prior and were living the life ‘happily ever after’ in Colorado. I could hardly wait to make the move.
My friends in Steamboat sent us a very personal Christmas present. They knew exactly how I felt, trapped in California, longing so much to be in the mountains. They knew what it felt like to wait, counting down the months and days, the way a prisoner chalks off the days until his release.
This present was wrapped in blue paper with white snowflakes designed to scatter across the paper. It was a small package; about the size of a cassette tape. I learned something new about my friends that Christmas. Music meant almost as much to them as it does to me. What they had chosen as their gift to us was a homemade bootleg tape of their favorite “Colorado” songs. I popped the tape into my stereo tape deck and those first few guitar chords of “Colorado Christmas” began to play. I had never heard the song before, but I knew right away it was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; the lead voice was unmistakable.
“Lookin’ out the window of this Hollywood hotel
You’d never know that it was Christmas Eve
The billboards and the neon took the place of silver bells
And the temperature is eighty-four degrees.”
Oh, how true that was! I hated California. I hated the crowds. I hated the traffic. I hated the weather. I hated the smog. I hated everything about living in Southern California. I had no Christmas spirit.
“But all along the Rockies you can feel it in the air
From Telluride to Boulder down below
The closest thing to Heaven on this planet anywhere
Is a quiet Christmas morning in the Colorado snow.”
This verse did me in. Tears ran down my face and there wasn’t a thing I could do to stop them. It was Christmas morning in Burbank, California and I wanted to be in Steamboat. I wanted my mountains, the snow, the pine trees and aspens. I wanted my Colorado and there were no airline tickets under my Christmas tree that morning.
“But now the sun is setting in the California sky
And I can’t find the spirit anywhere
So I think it’s time for me to tell Los Angeles goodbye
I’m going back home to look for Christmas there.”
The song became my anthem for the next seven months. I played it for everyone who would listen. I recited the lyrics to people who wanted to know if I would miss California at all.
Since that Christmas Day in 1986, that song was my favorite, with more special and personal meaning to me than anyone I knew could understand. I wish I could have met Steve Goodman to thank him and tell him what a profound song he had written. Maybe I should have told the guys in Nitty Gritty, but I never did.
I haven’t been able to listen to the song for three years now, for more reasons than can or should ever be explained in a blog. I no longer have a favorite Christmas song. I might be too old to even need one now.
Even though I do have a few occasional days of snow here on the Oregon Coast, my snowmen are made of sand now. My sandman holds a surfboard instead of a snow shovel. He wears a grass skirt and sunglasses.
Tonight I will be on a boat decorated from bow to stern with Christmas lights. We will form a parade in Yaquina Bay after dark. I’m right where I’m supposed to be.
While I have no regrets of leaving, there are still times when I miss Woody Creek, and Colorado in general. I’m glad they only happen a few days out of the 365 each year. I can happily live with that.
Geesh Kit, you realize I wiped a tear from my eye when I read that? Two actually.
I read that you’ve sought “home” during several times in your life. This is something I really can’t relate to. I’ve always known where home is. I suspect this will never change. This valley has been an unusual constancy in my life, as good a hand hold as it is a distant reverie.
I hope you find what you’re looking for…
Cheers,
M
Thanks, Mitch. I have found what I’ve been looking for… a few times, in fact. The problem arises when ‘home’ doesn’t welcome you with open arms. I knew my home was in Aspen in 1975 when I first moved there. In 1986, my husband actually loathed Aspen and everything about it. He didn’t even want to visit Aspen after I took him there once. So I was willing to settle for Steamboat.
The strange feeling I have now is that I’ve made a new home for myself, and did so with very welcoming arms from strangers here. It’s a new experience for me; one that I’m not quite sure how to accept. While I still feel that I am in that transition state after relocating, and I’m happy to be here with new friends and new purposes for my life, I’m not sure this will ever be my “home.” I may have to surrender all hope of home to Thomas Wolfe’s words.
Merry Christmas, Mitch! May you enjoy the Colorado Christmases for many years to come.
I love this song so much that it makes me cry during the Christmases that I can’t be in Aspen. The most wonderful times I have had at Christmas time have been in Colorado and I can’t wait to be there again in a couple of weeks. I am so glad you wrote this post and reminded me one of the many reasons I am grateful for Colorado Christmas. Yes, absolute thanks to Steve Goodman and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for that song! Merry Christmas to you Kit. I was happy to read your line that you are right where you are supposed to be. Isn’t that a wonderful feeling? I believe home is where our heart is and even if we can’t be there in body, we can always be there in spirit and heart. You carry home with you all the time, so you will never truly be lost.
i live in north carolina and am a big ngdb fan, mostly a huge ibby fan. i read aspen post because i liked to listen to con games when it was put on here. i could hear ibby that way. so naturally when i read this i had to sign up to respond.
i never spent a christmas in aspen or colorado but the song means alot to me too. it makes me wish i could spend one christmas there before i die. you people who live there now or spent christmas there are lucky. what i am wondering is if you lived in woody creek why didn’t you ever tell ibby how much the song meant to you or say thanks to him for singing it? if he reads this i want to say thanks for the song and all the feelings it invokes in me.
i dont think i could ever spend a christmas in a warm climate. it doesnt seem right for some reason but i have seen pictures of boats that get all decked out with christmas lights and i think i could enjoy that one year. it sounds to me like you have had so many of your dreams come true kit. you may not feel like you are at home but you sound like you get alot out of your different adventures in life. sometimes i think i would trade that kind of life for the doledrums of my normal life. i envy you in so many ways.
Thanks Kit, nice reverie.
Coming from the same place of longing for Colorado as I was growing up in California, I can identify with your experience. I spent many a Christmas eve watching the lighted boats parade through Newport Harbor wishing I was enjoying a white Christmas in Aspen.
I feel fortunate to be here now and I hope forever. As we wait for snow and inspired by Kit’s post and the comments, I’ve composed a little poem…
Winter Wishing Wistfully
by Sue Gray (aka reckless G)
Morning dawning mistily
Trees bare and bristly
Holly berry thistly
Snowflakes falling fairily
Children laughing merrily
Choirs singing caroly
Snow crunching crispily
Icicles dangling drippily
Chickadees chirping chipperly
Wind quick and whispery
Sidewalks all slippery
Ornaments hanging frippery
Noses glowing rosily
Fire crackling cozily
Kitten curling dozily
Very nice, Sue! Thank you for your poem. I spent many afternoons in a very small sailboat in the marina in Newport Beach, as a self-taught beginner. Newport and Marina Del Rey had the best boat parades of light.
I read about this blog on another forum and would like to comment about the song and Steve Goodman. I have loved this song since the first time I heard it, and it was sung by Steve Goodman himself. Granted, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band did a much better job, but Steve had his own way with performing his own songs. This was no exception. The man was a genius who has generally been overlooked or remained in the shadows of those who sang his songs. His name should be recognized more often. Sadly, it isn’t and probably only the true music fans who are as familiar with a songwriter as they are with the singer know who Steve was.
Thank you Kit for reminding me of a wonderful song that brings plenty of memories to me too.
I read about this too, Bonnie; probably at the same place you did. Dirtheads are greatful that Goodman wrote the song and NGDB recorded it. The song is a standard play for my family at Christmas.
While I have never been to Colorado the song has some special meanings to me. It speaks of being in a place where you don’t feel at home and that longing to be where you know you should be. Whether that is Colorado or North Carolina or Florida or Hawaii — Christmas is a time when people want to be with loved ones, and not stuck somewhere else.
Steve Goodman has a very interesting biography. I wonder how many people would answer the question “who wrote City of New Orleans” by saying Arlo Guthrie. Probably 90% and they would be wrong.