The past becomes a Holiday Tradition
Christmas at the Cody's

Stepping back more than a century in time, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody's home near North Platte provides the setting each December for a modern-day Christmas tradition.

For four days, brightly colored Christmas lights and strains of holiday music beckon visitors inside the Victorian home. Tantalizing smells of roasting chestnuts, steaming hot cider and popped popcorn swirl up visions of an earlier and simpler era.

"Many people attend every year just to feel the warmth and the good feeling that surrounds this event," said Eric Seacrest, executive director of Mid-Nebraska Community Foundation, one of the organizations that benefits from the holiday fund-raiser.

Other sponsors are Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park, Great Plains Health Care Foundation, Miss Nebraska Scholarship Pageant and North Platte Community Playhouse.

Seacrest described Buffalo Bill as probably the best-known character of the frontier west:

"He was a wagon train master, Pony Express rider, buffalo hunter and Army scout. He became famous worldwide through his Wild West Show."

In the mid-1870s, Buffalo Bill purchased the land north and west of North Platte and built an elaborate three-story, 18-room home.

From the last quarter of the 19th century to 1911, Buffalo Bill and his wife Louisa often entertained guests, from royalty to buffalo skinners, at the elegant home.

Today, the house has been restored to appear much as it did when the larger-than-life frontiersman lived there.

Artifacts are casually displayed about the rooms, creating an atmosphere where visitors can see in their imaginations Buffalo Bill stepping out of the bedroom, perhaps dressed for a performance of his world-famous Wild West Show.

The Codys sold the property in 1911 and in 1965 it was purchased for a state historical park. During the summer months, the house and grounds come alive with the chatter and laughter of visitors.

During the winter, though, the Cody home is dark and empty.

Dark and empty, that is, except for four nights in December, when the home is warmed with holiday lights and the laughter of well-wishers.

A true showman in every sense of the word, Buffalo Bill would most likely approve of the festivities enjoyed by the more than 1,600 visitors to his home during the annual holiday gala.
After all, the holiday spirit is the one thing that hasn't changed in the past century.