The U.S. Forest Service, with help from its nonprofit partner, Choose Outdoors, will be bringing the US Capitol Christmas Tree to Durango, Colorado. Come celebrate this annual national holiday tradition!

The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree will arrive by police escort and will be on display on Friday, November 9 between 5:00 and 7:00 pm at 8th and Main Avenue in historic downtown Durango. This stop will be one of many along the tree’s 23-day tour across Colorado and the country on its way to the nation’s capital. All festivities with the tree are open to the public and free for all to enjoy.

Free festivities will begin with the singing of "America the Beautiful" by the Durango Choral Society, the VFW Veterans presentation of colors, and Durango dignitaries accepting a live Englemann Spruce tree from the White River National Forest on behalf of the 2012 Capitol Christmas Tree team.

The celebration will continue with free events for the entire family including:

- The San Juan Mountains Association and San Juan National Forest tent with free Smokey Bear items, conifer seedlings donated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and opportunities for children to decorate holiday pine cones. Smokey Bear will also be walking the crowd with a uniformed ranger.

- Durango Mountain Resort, Trails 2000 and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge will serve hot chocolate as you tour the tree display.

- The Durango Arts Center will offer ornament making crafts in the Durango Welcome Center.

- New to the event this year is a national call for artists. Forty-eight artists, 29 from Colorado, will have work in the touring exhibit. Sorrel Sky Gallery will provide a reception for the art exhibit as well as a book signing and multimedia reading by “The Mighty Tree” author Chris Vandeleur.

- Steamworks Brewing Co will tap its seasonal brew, Spruce Goose Ale, to celebrate the arrival of the Christmas tree in Durango.