In Boulder, Santa's Sleigh Is a Tesla

BOULDER, Colo. -- Switch On The Holidays, Boulder's family-friendly holiday season kick-off, always features music of the season and the arrival of Santa. The Jolly Old Elf flips a switch to turn on the lights on the Pearl Street pedestrian mall, the Art Deco Boulder County Courthouse and the landmark star high up on Flagstaff Mountain overlooking the city.

This year, Santa arrived quietly in a Tesla.

The sexy electric roadster, which carries a price tag of over $100,000, is a far cry from that clunker of a sleigh Santa has been using forever. And plugging the car in is a lot easier than feeding all those reindeer. But why in Boulder? Right down the street from the Courthouse Plaza where the Nov. 20 festivities took place is one of only 14 Tesla showrooms, called "stores," in the United States and fewer than 30 in the entire world.

While the electric car still elicits wows every time it hits the road, it took some old-fashioned electrical work to get the Flagstaff star ready to be lit. The five-point star was initially illuminated in 1947 and has become a beloved annual tradition from late November into January.

The frame and even the bulbs are left up year-round, and once again, vandals broke some of the bulbs and loosened a concrete anchor, and once again, the star was repaired just in the nick of time. Craig Reynolds, a local electrical contractor who has been maintaining the star since 1989, and 20 volunteers were busy until Switch On the Holidays minus one getting the star working again.