Annual Christmas Eve Farolito Walk hits right notes for City Different

Dec. 24—Hours before crowds were expected to descend on Canyon Road for the annual Christmas Eve Farolito Walk, Pablo Pérez was warming up.

Not with a luminaria, or small bonfire, but with a trumpet.

He played "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to a small but appreciative audience strolling along the east-side, gallery-lined road around noon.

"You really are the spirit of Christmas," one woman told Pérez, who wore a Santa hat on top of a cowboy hat and a jacket best described as classic Doc Severinsen, the celebrated jazz trumpeter.

Pérez was also making farolitos — small, brown paper bags filled with sand and a single candle — in anticipation of the evening walk, Santa Fe's decadesold Christmas Eve tradition.

"I love the sense of community, the families, the children who come," Pérez said.

He noted a spiritual significance of the event.

"The farolitos guide the way for letting Christ into your heart," he said.

The Canyon Road Farolito Walk — in which gallery owners and residents on adjoining streets line their properties with farolitos and light luminarias where walkers can gather for warmth and caroling — has come a long way from its humble roots. It began as a neighborhood celebration of a victory against commercial development, said John Pen La Farge, a writer and historian who serves on the board of the Old Santa Fe Association.

The event originated in the late 1970s, he said. At that time, a developer had made an effort to build three-story structures in the historic neighborhood, an initiative residents, with the help of city councilors, managed to stop.

"So on Christmas Eve they put together an event," La Farge said. "Everyone decorated houses with farolitos and put luminaries out on the road on Christmas Eve as a thank you to the city and a celebration of having saved the neighborhood from over-intense development. Everyone enjoyed it so much they decided to do it the next year — and then the next year and then the next year. And then it became a tradition."

Over time, he said, the event grew into what it is today — a beloved tradition that draws thousands of local residents and visitors.

"Bit by bit they kept coming — first in small numbers and then in droves," La Farge said.

He added, "It was never intended to be a huge celebration inviting everybody and his brother to come."

For many Santa Feans, the event has become a must-do City Different holiday festivity, where they visit with friends and family members and enjoy the lights and caroling.

As darkness fell Sunday, people began walking up and down Canyon Road in temperatures that dropped below freezing by 7 p.m.

Couples held hands, friends took iPhone photos of each other and families joined together around bonfires.

Among the celebrants was Whitney Spivey; her husband, Mike Cleveland; and their young twin daughters, Lane and Scout.

All four wore lighted headbands so they could better identify one another in the dark. Lane and Scout, 6, had never been on the walk before, their mother said.

"It's so Christmasy," said Scout, the more talkative of the pair.

Christopher and Radha Svetnicka and their little girl — warmly bundled up in a stroller — stopped to huddle around a bonfire and sing a few bars of "Jingle Bells." Radha said she used to participate in the walk as a child and still "loves the singing of carols, the fires, the atmosphere of fire smoke."

The entire event is popular, she said, because it is all about "cheer."

Musicians performed holiday songs at sites along the road — "O Come, All Ye Faithful," "Joy to the World," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" — and, perhaps somewhat incongruously, a rendition of Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds."

Pérez pulled off a mean rendition of "Over the Rainbow" between his holiday trumpeting.

He and his wife, artist and gallery owner Susan Eddings Pérez, kept both of their Canyon Road galleries open into the night to welcome walkers with hot chocolate, biscochitos, live music and a fire pit.

Eddings Pérez said she and her husband have enjoyed hosting open house events on Christmas Eve since 2021, when they opened their businesses.

"Think of it — it's the one time of year they close Canyon Road for an event," she said. "And how often can we have thousands of people in our galleries?"

On Gormley Lane, just off Canyon Road, Jayne Field was enjoying a roaring fireplace and holiday music while she cooked in her home.

The Texas native, who has lived in Santa Fe for five years, had 120 farolitos lining her property.

Field said she sometimes hosts Christmas Eve parties during the walk — though not this year — and loves the energy the crowd brings to the neighborhood one special night each year.

"It's great for Santa Fe, great for the people," she said. "I enjoy seeing people enjoy it. It reaffirms our humanity."