{"id":15344,"date":"2025-12-05T08:22:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-police-invite-families-to-decorate-community-christmas-tree\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:46:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:46:40","slug":"cortez-police-invite-families-to-decorate-community-christmas-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-police-invite-families-to-decorate-community-christmas-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez Police invite families to decorate community Christmas tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blue
Blue lights strung around the trunk of the community Christmas tree at the Cortez Police Department. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Cortez Police Department is inviting families to stop by and hang ornaments on its giant Christmas tree outside the station, continuing what staff describe as a growing holiday tradition.<\/p>\n

This is the second year the department has displayed its blue-lighted tree, located on the south side of the police building. Lead 911 dispatcher Valerie Rendon first came up with the idea, and Empire Electric has helped illuminate it, bringing out a bucket lift to reach the treetop.<\/p>\n

\"(Anna
(Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Valerie
Valerie Rendon, a Cortez Police Department dispatcher, who first suggested the ornament tree idea, decorates the last year\u2019s Christmas tree. (Photo Courtesy of the CPD)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Police spokesperson Kelly Codner said the department hopes the tree encourages people to create memories together and offers tradition similar to other spirited events and Cortez holiday favorites.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike with the Parade of Lights and other events around the community, its just another layer of tradition to encourage families getting together and families creating memories,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Any one may visit and bring weather-safe ornaments at their convenience from now until Christmas. Particularly, ornaments that will hold up in the elements, such as ones made from wood, ribbons, wreath materials or even laminated pictures turned into ornaments. Codner said creativity is greatly encouraged.<\/p>\n

There is no organized event to decorate it, and visitors can park in front of the building and walk to the tree. Because of its height, only the lower branches are within reach and the department does not encourage people to bring ladders or climb the tree to hang ornaments.<\/p>\n

The lights are already on for the season, and Codner said it will remain lit for families who want to stop by to add touches of personal or sentimental decorations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

came from a lead dispatcher and returns for a second year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19609,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15344\/revisions\/19609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15344"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}