Whoville has nothing on Palmer Lake when it comes to genuine Christmas spirit. The north-side hamlet is home to the longest continuously running Yule Log celebration in the United States. The festive holiday tradition is filled with hundreds of children and adults in red and green capes, trumpets, bagpipes, singing, a hunt for the hidden yule log, a roaring fire and ceremonial wassailing. It’s a scene straight out of Currier and Ives following the same traditions handed down since it began in 1933. Most of all, the Yule Log Hunt is a celebration filled with joy, goodwill and community.
“It is beautiful,” says Patricia Atkins, Mistress of Ceremonies for the Yule Log Hunt for the past 35 years. “It’s a time to come together and see all the people you know and all the town. Everybody keeps coming back, and new people learn about it. People love traditions, and this is such a precious one because it comes from days of old. All of us came from other areas of the world, and this brings the whole community together.”
What Is a Yule Log?
Yule celebrations are ancient enough that the details of their exact origins are murky. Scholars have traced their roots back to fifth and sixth century pagan rituals and celebrations marking the winter solstice in the deepest, darkest days of Scandinavian and Northern European winters. The word yule comes from the Old English geol and is similar to the Norse jól. As Christianity spread through Europe, the traditions were modified and woven into Christmas festivities during the Middle Ages. Regardless of specific location, gathering together for feasting and large fires was a literal bright spot to carry people through the long winter season.
By the late 1800s in the U.S., part of the Yule tradition involved passing the ceremony from one location to another. A “splinter,” essentially kindling, from one town’s Yule log was given to another. Palmer Lake’s came from Lake Placid, New York, in 1933 at the encouragement of Lucretia Vaile, a young librarian in Lake Placid who had grown up in Denver, spending summers at her family’s cabin in Palmer Lake.
Vaile had enjoyed the Yuletide celebration in Lake Placid (started by Melvil Dewey, founder of the Dewey Decimal System) and thought it would be perfect for Palmer Lake’s location nestled against the mountains, says Atkins, who is also the board secretary for the Palmer Lake Historical Society. Vaile presented the idea to Evelena Macy, the Quaker minister of Palmer Lake’s Little Log Church, and the church’s youth group hosted the area’s first Yule Log Hunt. The Yule Log was burned in the largest fireplace in town at the home of Charlie Orr. (The local furrier became known as Mr. Palmer Lake and lived to be 101 years old before dying in 1988.)
In 1935 the volunteer fire department added a large fireplace to Palmer Lake’s Town Hall to be specially used for the Yule festivities. And the tradition has happened there almost every year since. The only exceptions are two years during World War II, when nationwide blackouts suspended the celebration and also prevented Palmer Lake from lighting its large mountainside star.
Old Tradition, New Generations
The Palmer Lake Yule Hunt today looks much the same as it did 90 years ago. Several hundred people gather around Town Hall on the second Sunday before Christmas. (Dec. 14 this year.) At 1 p.m. the ceremony begins as the crowd sings “Joy to the World” and parades through Town Hall. A trumpet is blown, and the cheering crowd runs and hikes into the surrounding hillsides hunting for the hidden Yule Log. Sometimes bagpipers play. Laughter and shouting always echo through the forest, and colorful capes flap behind the hunters.
“The capes really make it festive. They’re red and green, and they have hoods. So we look like little trolls out hunting in the forest,” Atkins says with a laugh.
Yes, you can rent a cape for $1 if you don’t have one. Volunteers with the Yule Log Association sew them as needed when the old capes wear out.
The hunt may take minutes or it could stretch over an hour, depending on how well the appointed log cutter has hidden it ahead of time. The log is usually 12 to 14 feet long and about 16 inches in diameter. “The log cutter will notch all the way around one end and tie a red ribbon on that log,” says Gary Atkins, Patricia’s husband and past president of the Palmer Lake Yule Log Association. “Then he secretly he hides it from the community, and it lays in the forest in wait for the special day of the log hunt.”
In one of the most recent years, a father was carrying his 3-year-old daughter on his shoulders during the hunt. He set her down and told her to wait while he crossed the stream to take a look on the opposite hillside. “When he came back, he bent down to pick up his 3-year-old daughter and discovered he had set her right next to the Yule log,” Gary says. “It was buried under close to a foot of snow, and she stood there guarding that Yule log until he returned.”
It’s a great honor to be the log finder, and neighbors and residents will remind a log finder all year and beyond that they are one of the lucky few among thousands of hunters through the years. Of course, that father gave all the credit to his daughter.
Once the log is found, trail leaders blow whistles and gather the crowd. With the log finder riding upfront and children hopping on and off behind, the log is pulled by ropes back to Town Hall. Patricia says it’s quite an adventure. Icy, snowy conditions make it easier, while dry years mean more dragging and pulling.
Back in town, trail leaders carry out the double-handled saw used since 1933. With the log finder on one side and another chosen log cutter on the other, the Yule Log is cut in half. At the signal of the master and mistress of ceremonies, last year’s kindling log is placed in the Town Hall fireplace to start the fire. “I lead the ceremony with songs of the bringing in the logs to the firing,” Patricia says. “The ceremony was given to us in 1933 from Lake Placid Lodge.”
Next comes the new Yule log, added to the roaring fire while a pianist plays and the crowd sings another song. And finally, the new kindling log is carried in and stood beside the hearth until it will start next year’s fire. The community recites an ancient rhyme together as the final log is put in place.
While the mistress of ceremonies retrieves the large pot of homemade wassail, the crowd sings “Silent Night.” Then a choir of wassail singers leads the group in a round of “Here We Come a Wassailing” as the spiced cider is ladled into cups. “Wassail to your health,” says the mistress of ceremonies as she hands a special silver cup to the log finder, then the log cutter. Then everyone is invited to come get a cup of wassail.
A Tradition of Coming Together
Community lies at the heart of the Palmer Lake Yule Log Hunt. The entire event is run and executed by volunteers like the Atkins and other families they describe who have participated through multiple generations. Children begin hunting for the log or singing in the wassail choir before growing into log cutters, trail leaders, wassail makers, bagpipers, board members, organizers and roles that keep the tradition alive.
There’s a purity and nostalgia to the celebration that is often lost in our hectic holiday seasons. “This event is put on for the community and families at no cost, and there’s no commercialism in any fashion ever allowed,” Gary says. “That’s part of the tradition — keeping it and maintaining it as just a fun holiday event for everyone to enjoy.”
Perhaps it’s that unifying effect that has keep Yule traditions alive for millennia. It seems to be something especially needed in Palmer Lake this year after the town’s recent political upheaval over a proposed Buc-ee’s travel center. And you can say the same for us all during a particularly fractious time in our nation.
“This is intended for everyone to put away their differences and put aside their political feelings or their prejudices and just rejoice in the season and the festivity together,” Gary says.
Throughout the years, Palmer Lake has passed on its tradition, sending Yule log splinters to hundreds of other towns, Patricia says. Beulah and Steamboat Springs are two nearby offshoots, while others span the country. Sharing the joy just seems to be a natural part of Yuletide.
“It’s just one of those traditions that makes us all so thankful and so grateful to have the beautiful areas we live in and everybody being able to share and smile and put on these funky capes,” Patricia adds. “Once we get to the ceremony, it’s just very moving, and people go away with warm hearts.”
The Palmer Lake Yule Log Hunt 2025
This year’s celebration happens Dec. 14, 1-8:30 p.m. at the Palmer Lake Town Hall. Find more details at palmerdividehistory.org
