Beaver Creek to host cookie competition, tree lighting and other festivities throughout opening week

Chocolate chip cookies, corduroy snow, live music, ice skating, tree lighting and fireworks: What more could you ask for in an opening week? (OK, yes: we want snow and more snow and even more snow, but that’s Mother Nature’s department. Humans can only control grooming, baking cookies, lighting trees and generally entertaining ourselves with festivities until the white stuff blankets the entire mountain.)

Beaver Creek celebrates the start of the season with a colorful burst of events, beginning Wednesday and continuing throughout the week.

It all begins on Nov. 23 with the World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Competition. Judge for yourself which of the five finalists will proudly hand over their chocolate chip cookie recipe to Beaver Creek and take home $1,000, a hand-embroidered hat, an engraved wooden spoon and bragging rights as the official cookie of the resort’s 2022-23 season.

Live entertainment revs up the sweet party at 1 p.m. At 2 p.m., 1,000 public judges, armed with lanyards and their own phones (make sure it’s charged — you’ll be using a QR code) will judge the five finalists’ cookies, based on taste, texture, appearance and other criteria. Little ones can join in on the fun, as well, with special keepsake lanyards and separate cookies to devour. Just be prepared for a ton of people:

“It’s such madness that the cookies go really fast,” said Krista Deherrera, Beaver Creek Resort Company director of events.

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On Friday, Nov. 25, continue the Thanksgiving-into-Christmas holiday festivities with free ice skating in the village, visits with Santa, a special Santa’s workshop making hand-painted wooden ornaments, a local arts and crafts market (which also takes place Nov. 26) and three shows, including a skating performance by the Denver Colorado Figure Skating Club, On The Rocks (a male acapella group) and Brothers of Brass (a street-style band featuring brass and bass and snare drums).

The highlight of the day takes place at 6:30 p.m. with the Beaver Creek Tree Lighting Ceremony, followed by fireworks.

“It’s really a magical event,” Deherrera said.