A Christmas celebration featuring fireworks and the reading of a holiday story by a nationally acclaimed author will be on tap this weekend for visitors to an artist’s colony near Sheridan.
The seventh annual Ucross Christmas Celebration will be held Saturday, highlighted as always by musical performances, the lighting of trees decorated for the holidays, refreshments and the reading of a story by “Longmire” author Craig Johnson, who lives near Ucross.
“The Christmas celebration came from (Ucross Foundation founder Raymond Plank’s) passion for Christmas,” said Ucross Foundation spokeswoman Carly Fraysier. “For seven years it’s been the same routine.”
The celebration is free to the public and will begin at 4 p.m. Saturday. Throughout the event, refreshments will be available, as will crafts for children.
Music will be provided by area resident Taylor Corum and Buffalo High School Balladiers.Johnson, who has read a Christmas story at the celebration for at least the last three years, will read “Who’s Your Daddy,” a story with ties to Christmas from a recent “Longmire” book.
At 6 p.m., attendees will go outside to watch a fireworks show staged by former legislator Bruce Burns, followed by the lighting of thousands of Christmas lights strung on dozens of trees in the Park at Ucross.
“It really is a community-wide celebration,” Fraysier said. “Bruce does an amazing job. The Park at Ucross is a beautiful setting. It’s pretty special.”
Over the years, the event has drawn people from throughout the Sheridan and Buffalo areas, along with some from as far away as Casper, she added.
“It’s kind of a special event and people from even a little further away try to put it on their calendars,” she said.
For more information, visit the Ucross Foundation’s website or its Facebook page.
