One might call it a Christmas miracle.

While operators of Ice Castles always hope for an opening by the holiday, it’s not always the case that Mother Nature provides the necessary conditions for construction.

In the fantastical attraction’s first winter in Cripple Creek, she offered many gifts.

The Technicolor, LED-embedded complex of walls, arches, tunnels and slides will open Tuesday for its debut season in the old mining town west of Colorado Springs.

The Ice Castles company announced the move Friday after a freezing streak of days and nights ideal for builders to stack icicles and spray water to achieve the wonderland that captured hearts in Summit County in recent years. Operators previously eyed an opening in January.

“Our goal was New Year’s,” said Jeff Mosher, Cripple Creek’s special projects director who courted Ice Castles in the town’s attempts to boost a struggling winter economy.

“To open on the 19th of December, that’s two or three weeks extra for people to come up here and support our small businesses. It’s great. It’s fantastic.”

The attraction will be closed Christmas Eve and Christmas, according to Friday’s announcement, but extended hours are expected over the next two weeks.

Tickets are on sale at icecastles.com/colorado. Starting at $16 for children (ages 4-11) and $21 for general admission, tickets are known to sell fast. The website Friday showed timed slots from noon to 10 p.m. through December.

Cripple Creek has joined a short list of other Ice Castles locations in Utah, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and New York. Cripple Creek will be the first to open “by far,” said Brent Christensen, Ice Castles’ Utah-based owner and founder.

The new location “has exceeded our expectations as far as the weather and our ability to grow the castle,” Christensen said. “It’s one of the driest places we’ve ever been, which allows us to freeze water at higher temperatures than we would at other places.

“We were cautiously optimistic going in, and I think we’ve been very, very happy with how it’s turned out so far.”

Christensen and his leadership team sought a Colorado location the past two winters, after Dillon turned away Ice Castles. That was as the host park became occupied by renovations and some locals expressed opposition to the attraction causing traffic congestion and taking up water and power.

The historic gold camp-turned-casino town, mostly quiet in the winter, posed a change from bustling Dillon, where Ice Castles benefited from skiers and families on vacation. Business was helped, too, by the proximity to Interstate 70.

No such major highway runs through the hills to remote Cripple Creek. But Christensen and company felt encouraged by the proximity to Colorado Springs’ population.

Beyond that, they were encouraged by what they heard from Cripple Creek’s tourism and commerce representatives.

“We were wining and dining them to get them to come here,” Mosher said.

The town returned Ice Festival, a two week-long event of sculptures and fanfare, last February after a three-year pause due to the pandemic.

“That’s really how our small businesses make it through the winter, that two-week event,” Mosher said. “Being able to expand that (with Ice Castles) from Christmas through the end of February is gonna be gigantic for our local businesses, and also for attracting businesses that may want to come to town knowing that their winter is gonna stay pretty strong.”

The hope, Christensen said, is for more than 50,000 to flock to Ice Castles over an anticipated seven or eight weeks. That could be shorter or longer based on the weather.

As far as Mosher is concerned, the longer the better.

He sees Ice Castles as potentially turning the tide on another pessimistic budget outlook for Cripple Creek. For 2024, revenues were previously projected to be down 22% from pre-pandemic numbers, Mosher said — another reminder that casinos are still struggling to rebound from COVID-19.

“We need to make sure we have something besides casinos for folks to come and see,” Mosher said.

But excitement over Ice Castles has been tempered by worry around Teller County.

At a commissioners meeting this fall, some wondered about the potential impacts of runoff from the ice melting, about unprepared drivers on the winding road to Cripple Creek and about unpreparedness, too, for the elevation near 9,500 feet.

Sheriff Jason Mikesell said first responders were already stretched before the popular troll installation came to Cripple Creek’s neighboring Victor and Ice Castles, which could coincide with the Ice Festival in February.

“I just want to bring this to your attention,” Mikesell told commissioners. “Don’t want to push these things out, but they are going to have an impact on citizens and first responders throughout the community.”

Prior to announcing Ice Castles, Mosher said emergency personnel were consulted, along with Colorado Department of Transportation and county and city public works. He said people living close to the attraction were contacted as well.

From Cripple Creek’s main street, the glowing walls have been seen rising on a hilltop.

“The higher it grows, the brighter the colors are getting, I think the excitement keeps coming and coming,” Mosher said.