Winter is an ideal time to embrace hygge, the Danish and Norwegian term for getting cozy. But during Vermont’s roughly eight months of cold and dark — give or take — fleece blankets, crackling fires and hot chocolate go only so far. It’s important to get out and experience the breadth of happenings, indoors and out, that truly make Vermont a winter wonderland. Read on for some of this season’s top events.
Stifel Killington Cup
Friday through Sunday, November 29 through December 1, at Killington Resort. $10-100. killington.com
In November 2022, Mikaela Shiffrin finished fifth in the slalom at the Stifel Killington Cup. It marked the first time in five years that the Vermont-trained skier hadn’t won that race. Here’s hoping the rest of the world enjoyed the blip while it lasted.
Shiffrin won 14 Audi FIS Ski World Cup races in the 2022-23 season and another nine the following year, including her sixth Killington Cup. As the 2024-25 season opens this weekend in Finland, she’s up to a record 97 World Cup wins, putting the winningest Alpine skier in history in position to claim her 100th victory in front of the home crowd at the Stifel Killington Cup later this month.
How Shiffrin fares against the rest of the top female skiers in the world will grab headlines, but there’s plenty of excitement off the slopes as well. Musical guests at this year’s Cup include Fitz and the Tantrums, Mt. Joy lead singer Matt Quinn, Eve 6, and DJ Ross One.
— Dan Bolles
If you like that, try this…
Harris Hill Ski Jump Competitions: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s some of the world’s top ski jumpers lifting off at this annual contest, a New England tradition dating back to 1922. Saturday and Sunday, February 15 and 16, at Harris Hill Ski Jump in Brattleboro. $15-25. Info, harrishillskijump.com.
Highlight
Tuesday, December 31, at various locations in Burlington. $15-18; free for kids under 6. highlight.community
What are you doing New Year’s, New Year’s Eve? If you’re in the Burlington area, your plans probably involve Highlight.
In 2018, the citywide festival, coproduced by Burlington City Arts and Signal Kitchen, replaced the Queen City’s long-running First Night celebration. Highlight similarly offers a range of entertainment options all over town but with a twist: Much of the programming is developed using crowdsourced pitches from local artists.
Community curation adds an element of intrigue to the proceedings, which happen at walkable indoor and outdoor venues stretching from Waterfront Park to downtown to the South End Arts District. The full lineup will be announced this Friday, November 15. But if we’ve learned anything from the past six years of Highlight, it’s to expect the unexpected.
— D.B.
If you like that, try this…
First Night North: Ring in 2025 with thousands of your closest friends and some 70 events at the longest-running New Year’s Eve celebration in Vermont. Tuesday, December 31, in downtown St. Johnsbury. $15-50; free for preschoolers. Info, catamountarts.org.
Cabot Village 12th Night Celebration
Friday and Saturday, January 3 and 4, at various locations in Cabot. Free. cabotarts.org
When it’s time to welcome the New Year, one night of revelry just doesn’t cut it in Cabot. Over the course of two days, the Cabot Village 12th Night Celebration offers a dozen events — all free. Music, dance, storytelling, theater and crafting are on tap for the January event, along with hot cocoa, mulled cider and a sunset lantern parade.
Launched in 2020 by Cabot Arts — and supported by grants, donations, and a host of community businesses and organizations — the festival has become a beloved celebration for people of all ages. Five-piece country band Wild Leek River will bring honky-tonk rhythms to a Friday night dance, Village Harmony will sing seasonal songs from around the world, and Brendan Taaffe will present a cranky show, a story told on an illustrated scroll accompanied by song and narration.
Other performers include Cabot Community Theater, the Midnight Capers morris dance troupe, the Georgetown Chimes a cappella singers and Sap Line, four musicians who infuse youthful energy into jigs, reels and foot-stomping favorites. Festivalgoers can create paper lanterns and Newfoundland ugly sticks — makeshift percussive instruments fashioned from household items — and then parade with them around the Cabot Village Common.
The merriment wraps up on Saturday evening with Wassail, the festival-finale community sing-along.
— Mary Ann Lickteig
If you like that, try this…
A River of Light Lantern Parade: Enchanting paper lanterns illuminate a festival featuring live music and fire spinning. Saturday, December 7, 5 p.m., parade departs Brookside Primary School and proceeds to Dascomb Rowe Field in Waterbury. Free. Info, makerspherevt.com.
Vermont Burlesque Festival
Wednesday through Sunday, January 15 through 19, at various locations in Burlington and Barre. Various prices. vermontburlesquefestival.com
Winter heats up at the Vermont Burlesque Festival, a five-day celebration of body positivity and the art of the tease. At venues across Burlington and Barre, the event promises a mix of sultry dance moves, bedazzled costumes and cheeky humor. Watch performers such as Bailee Bandersnatch of Pittsford, Lady Fingers of Albany, N.Y., and Pepper Grinds of Cape Cod, Mass., as they shimmy, shake and tantalize the audience with their signature moves.
Want to get in on the action? Sign up for one of the festival’s workshops, including Burlesque 101, Let’s Get Flexible, Taming the Boa and The Art of Attraction. And there’s not just one but two feather fan classes — one for beginners and another for those who have already started to master the art of fanning with flair.
The festival culminates in a grand finale performance at Hotel Champlain featuring Los Angeles burlesque performers Jessabelle Thunder and Tito Bonito. Attendees are encouraged to dress to impress in black-tie attire, and those who dazzle on the red carpet may win a prize. Don’t skip the after-party, where local DJ Craig Mitchell keeps the beats flowing.
— Hannah Feuer
If you like that, try this…
Green Mountain Cabaret: ‘Sugar on Tap’: The Sugar Shakers stage a burlesque variety show promising “sass, class and ass-tronomical local talent.” Saturday, December 7, 8-10 p.m., at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington. $20-25. Info, greenmountaincabaret.com.
Stowe Winter Carnival & Winter Rendezvous
Wednesday through Sunday, January 22 through 26, at various locations in Stowe. Various prices. facebook.com/stowewintercarnival, winterrendezvous.com
Why save Pride celebrations for summer when you can keep the festivities going all winter long? Catch Winter Rendezvous, a weeklong Pride festival that draws hundreds of LGBTQ skiers to the slopes. Often called Gay Ski Week, the celebration features an opening party at Stowe Bowl, a run down Mount Mansfield in costume, bingo hosted by Vermont drag duo the House of LeMay and a pool party at Trapp Family Lodge. On Saturday, dance the night away at Alfie’s Wild Ride during a performance from drag queen Varla Jean Merman.
Don’t miss the concurrently held Stowe Winter Carnival, ranked last year by Country Living as the fifth-best winter festival in the U.S. If you like beach volleyball, you’ll love snow volleyball — players bump, set and spike on a court of groomed snow. Or give snow golf a try. Believe it or not, this quirky winter sport was invented by Rudyard Kipling in Vermont in the 1890s. The author of The Jungle Book would paint his golf balls red to make them easier to spot in the snow, then hit them into tin cans serving as makeshift holes.
The fun continues at the 24th annual ice-carving contest, where artists chisel massive ice blocks into intricate works of art. Let’s just hope the temperatures stay low enough for the sculptures to last.
— H.F.
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Snow Golf: Chip, Drive & Putt for Preservation: As part of the Brattleboro Winter Carnival, players tackle a unique course to benefit the Landmark Trust USA, a nonprofit that preserves Rudyard Kipling’s 1892 Dummerston home, Naulakha. Late February, details TBA, at Scott Farm Orchard in Dummerston. Info, landmarktrustusa.org, brattleborowintercarnival.org.
Lamoille Valley Rail Trail Sled Dog Races
Saturday and Sunday, January 25 and 26, at Oxbow Park in Morrisville. Free. northcountrymushers.com
In the North Country, “mush” isn’t porridge or a cloyingly sentimental rom-com. Mushing is how winter travelers got around in the days before snowmobiles. So, if you find yourself on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail in late January and hear someone behind you shouting “Gee!” or “Haw!” — musher commands to their sled dogs to “turn right” and “turn left,” respectively — step aside and let the dog teams race by.
Each year, weather permitting, North Country Mushers sponsors two days of sled dog racing on the rail trail. (The 2024 races were scuttled due to lack of snow.) This January, about 30 teams from around New York, New England and Canada will compete in various classes: Two- to four-dog teams will cover three miles, while eight- to 10-dog teams will travel 14 to 18 miles. All races start and finish in Morrisville’s Oxbow Park.
If you’re a dog person and have never watched sled dogs in action, it’s a sight to behold, marked by an abundance of joyous yipping, tail wagging and flapping of tongues. Volunteers are also needed at the start and finish lines and at road crossings along the trail. For more info or to volunteer, contact race organizer Ingrid Bower: ibower@uvm.edu. Get your huskies on!
— Ken Picard
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Sled Dogs LIVE: Get to know the October Siberians sled dogs of Hinesburg on the museum’s outdoor terrace. Saturday, November 30, and Monday, December 30, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., at ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain in Burlington. Regular admission, $16.50-20; free for members and children under 3. Info, echovermont.org.
Ice Bar
Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15, 5:30-9:30 p.m., at Hotel Vermont in Burlington. $75 per night. hotelvt.com
What’s cooler than being cool? Hotel Vermont’s Ice Bar. The annual outdoor winter bash returns for its 13th edition with elaborate ice sculptures, bumping beats, snacks from chef Doug Paine and appropriately frosty cocktails — served on ice, literally. This polar party embraces winter in all its frigid glory.
Past years’ themes have taken revelers to the moon, the circus, the 1960s and an ’80s après-ski party. You’re welcome to wear those vintage snowsuits again — they might be the best way to stay warm, since the event is rain or shine or snow — but this year is all about unlucky 13. The Yeti, who makes an annual appearance, is feeling superstitious, so gather your horseshoes, knock on wood and avoid ladders. The winners of “best dressed” each night get two free tickets to the following year’s festivities.
Crystal-clear ice bars sling beer, cider and drinks featuring local spirits while DJ Cre8 spins cool tunes. Dance the night away, test your luck on an ice game or snuggle into the photo booth. Just don’t let the fun slip away.
General admission tickets go on sale Friday, December 13. If you don’t want to wait — or tempt fate, as the event often sells out — Hotel Vermont’s Ice Bar package, which includes a room and food and drink tokens, is available now.
— Jordan Barry
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Brookfield Ice Harvest and Winter Carnival: Revelers witness an 1800s-style ice harvest on the lake, then enjoy cold-weather sports and ice sculpting. Saturday, January 25, on Sunset Lake in Pond Village in Brookfield. Free. Info, brookfieldhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Northern Lights | Vermont’s top winter events brighten the season ahead”
This article appears in The Winter Preview Issue 2024.
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