Few events this holiday season will be more baffling – or more fun – than Saturday’s second annual Winter Solstice Festival on East Second Avenue.

On that shortest day of the year, part of East Second Avenue will look like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting. St. Nick, and his reindeer, will be surrounded by children as families sip hot cocoa and sing Christmas carols.

Less than a block away, the scene will look more like something from the book of Exodus than the Gospels – pagans and gypsies, maybe even a golden calf and not a manger in sight.

To be fair, the solstice was here first, and what used to be one of the highlights on the pagan social calendar has become an afterthought to the yuletidal wave of Christmas.

This local celebration, however, offers the best of each. It will start with a parade from the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Depot, where families fresh from a ride on The Polar Express will join Santa and an unknown number of reindeer (seriously – D&SNGR owner Al Harper is assembling a herd of real reindeer) for a procession up to the Durango Arts Center and cider, cocoa, treats, etc.

Outside, Second Avenue will be lined with bonfires and the sounds of gypsy music will fill the air. Carute Roma, Durango’s resident gypsy band, will wander from the Rochester Hotel to ENO to Artesano’s, with each venue hosting its own party. Adding to the pagan charm and mystique will be ongoing performances by the ASA Fire Tribe fire dancers and Tarot card readings.

Other Second Avenue venues hosting festive events for the Winter Solstice will include Steamworks, Yarn and Mutu’s Italian Kitchen.

ted@durangoherald.com

If you go

The second annual East Second Avenue Winter Solstice Festival will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. on East Second Avenue (traffic will be closed from Seventh to Ninth Streets). The reindeer procession will leave the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Depot at 3:30 p.m. and go up Fifth Street to East Second Avenue.

Carute Roma will play at Cyprus/Eno from 4:15 to 5 p.m., Artesanos from 5:15 to 6 p.m. and at the Rochester Hotel from 6:15 to 7 p.m. The Asa Fire Tribe will perform from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. at the Rochester.

For more information, visit www.durangoarts.org.