Journal 83: More Than a Countdown: The Story Behind Cuchara’s Pine Cone Drop

In a village with no stoplights, no sidewalks, and more pine trees than people, Cuchara found its own way to welcome the New Year. They lower a glowing pine cone over Cuchara Avenue at exactly ten o’clock. Some towns drop a crystal ball at midnight; Cuchara drops a pine cone at ten. That somehow tells you almost everything you need to know about this place.

The Accidental Birth of a New Year’s Eve Tradition

The Pine Cone Drop was born around 2010 from a moment of good-natured humor. At that time, Village business owners gathered monthly in the upstairs conference room at the Cuchara Inn. At one meeting, the conversation turned toward a familiar seasonal question: what could Cuchara do to make Christmas and New Year’s feel special this year? Lisa Dasenbrock and Lenora Brooks casually tossed out what sounded like a joke at the time: “Maybe we should drop a pine cone instead of a ball? This is the country after all!” (1) The idea stuck. A small group of friends decided to see if it could actually be done and once they did, a new Cuchara tradition was set in motion. (2)

While back in Kansas, Larry and Lisa Dasenbrock tackled the problem of how to build it by wrapping chicken wire around a tomato cage and adding a hook at the top to serve as the frame. They returned to Cuchara the next week to show others the Pinecone skeleton. The group loved it and headed out into the several feet of snow hoping to gather pine cones from the forest. When that plan failed, as plans often do in deep snow, the community stepped in, donating pine cones they already had at home. Using the Green Room at the neighboring inn as their makeshift workshop, this determined crew spent two days constructing a five-foot-tall pine cone destined for its New Year’s Eve debut. Once it was wrapped in Christmas lights and dusted with glitter to make it visible after dark, the cone was ready. The Timbers and Dog Bar restaurants agreed to run a wire between their roofs to support the weight of the now-legendary “super cone” as it made its descent. (3) What began as a practical workaround soon took on a life of its own.

Faced with the prospect of staying up until midnight, Cuchara did what it has always done best. It thought it through. The solution was both practical and perfectly on brand: drop the pine cone at 10:00 p.m. Mountain Time, in sync with New York’s midnight ball drop, and call it a night. After all, the New Year arrives whether you’re awake for it or not. 

When the pine cone finally drops, the crowd doesn’t just cheer, they sing. Voices rise together in “The Pine Cone Ball Slide,” a homegrown anthem cheerfully set to the tune of Jingle Bell Rock. For those curious, the customized lyrics are preserved in the footnotes. (4) A short highlight video of the Pine Cone Drop is also included at the end of this article with pictures and the custom lyrics for those who’d like to see the tradition in action. (5) 

Dropping the cone earlier in the evening also had its advantages. No one was forced to choose between welcoming the New Year and keeping all ten fingers intact. The timing left ample opportunity to duck indoors to the Timbers or the Dog Bar, where the heaters were humming and the liquor willingly finished the job of warming spirits.

Over the years, the Pine Cone Drop has steadily evolved and adapted to high winds, shifting weight, bitter cold, and the occasional visibility challenge. And through it all, with the lone exception of the COVID-disrupted year of 2020, the Dog Bar and the Timbers have faithfully supported the Pine Cone Drop each New Year’s Eve.

More Than a Countdown

For over fifteen years, neighbors, vacation homeowners, and visitors have gathered to ring in the New Year together. Each year the event has its own share of environmental challenges, but at the end of the night no one seems to be bothered by the necessary but imperfect adaptations. Olan Adams summed up the evening with a philosophy that has aged remarkably well, saying “They all worked perfectly. However, we have a very loose definition of perfect.”(6)  

One 2015 participant raved, “I can’t remember enjoying a New Year’s Eve this much. In truth, I’m not so sure that this was primarily a New Year’s Eve celebration. Rather, I believe it was a celebration of the community by the community using New Year’s Eve as an excuse.” (7)  

Former Timbers Restaurant owners Don and Andi Ayers were part of the original group that dreamed up the idea. And if you like the concept of starting the countdown and dropping the pine cone early, you can thank Don. “Don is not a late-night guy,” Andi Ayers said with a laugh. “He goes to bed early and wakes up at some absurdly ridiculous hour in the morning. So he was the one who suggested we celebrate New Year’s Eve on New York time at 10:00 p.m. instead of midnight. That way, anyone who still had the energy to keep going could wander across the street to the Dog Bar and carry on without him.” (8)  

This Is the Cuchara Way

In the end, the Pine Cone Drop reveals something simple and lasting about Cuchara. This is a place that chooses people over spectacle, where celebration isn’t dictated by clocks, crowds, or neon lights, but by who you can stand beside, laughing in the street, and still make it home safely. It is a town at ease with things that are handmade and a little imperfect. Cucharans are confident enough to define sophistication on its own terms.

The pine cone belongs here. Drawn from the surrounding forest, it serves as a quiet reminder that this land and the people who live on it have been shaping one another for generations.

And if you haven’t noticed, an independent streak runs deep in Cuchara. While other cities raise glittering symbols to a ten-second countdown, Cuchara drops theirs. In fact, in 2026, they liked it so much they did it twice. Here, the New Year arrives on East Coast time, not Mountain Time. After all, early to bed, early to rise. It’s not rebellion so much as preference, a small, unspoken nod to Sinatra’s I Did It My Way.

Perhaps most of all, the Pine Cone Drop endures because it never asked permission to exist. It began the way real traditions always do—when neighbors showed up, tried something together, and decided it was worth doing again. (9)  

Cuchara's Pine Cone Drop Customized Lyrics

“Jingle Bell Rock” was written by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe, and was first recorded by Bobby Helms in 1957. Using the original instrumental recording, Cabin in the Pines commissioned a rockabilly-style vocalist to sing and record Cuchara’s customized version that was sung at the first Pine Cone drop. It has also been used as background music for the slideshow below with historical photographs from past drops to help convey the atmosphere and festive character of the event. In addition to the link below, it is available on the blog’s YouTube channel at this link. 

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Footnotes

Parenthetical numbers in the text (e.g., 5) correspond to the sequentially numbered citations listed below.

1.  Lynette Jensen, “New Years Eve Pine Cone Drop,” Bring in the Sheaves (blog), December 16, 2020 (updated December 29, 2020), detailing the origin of the annual Pine Cone Drop tradition in Cuchara, Colorado, https://bringinthesheaves.com/2020/12/16/new-years-eve-pine-cone-drop/ and January 10, 2026 Facebook message from Lisa Dasenbrock.

2.  To the best of our current knowledge, the original group involved in creating the first Pine Cone Drop, listed in alphabetical order, included: Lois and Olin Adams, Don and Andi Ayers (former Timbers Restaurant owners), Diane Broce, Lenora Brooks, Larry and Lisa Dasenbrock (owners of Pieces of My Heart gift shop), Barb and Eddie Hall (former owners of the Cuchara Inn who made the “Green room” available for the Pine Cone assembly), Jim and Peggy Littlefield, Marshall and Kay Moore, Cal and Karen Sandbeck (former Dog Bar and Grill owners), and Mary Stasser. Olan Adams and Jim Berg strung up the cable from the Inn to the Country Store.

3.  Lynette Jensen, “New Years Eve Pine Cone Drop,” Bring in the Sheaves (blog), December 16, 2020 (updated December 29, 2020), detailing the origin of the annual Pine Cone Drop tradition in Cuchara, Colorado, https://bringinthesheaves.com/2020/12/16/new-years-eve-pine-cone-drop/

4.  The lyrics to Cuchara’s customized song sung to the tune of “Jingle Bell Rock” by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe, were retrieved from Lynette Jensen’s blogsite, “New Years Eve Pine Cone Drop,” Bring in the Sheaves (blog), December 16, 2020 (updated December 29, 2020), detailing the origin of the annual Pine Cone Drop tradition in Cuchara, Colorado, https://bringinthesheaves.com/2020/12/16/new-years-eve-pine-cone-drop/

Pinecone ball, pinecone ball, pinecone ball swing. 

Pinecone ball rides and pinecone ball slides 

Lighting and shining on all of our fun 

Now the pinecone ball hop has begun 

Pinecone ball, pinecone ball, pine cone ball swing 

Pinecone ball sways in pinecone ball ways 

Glowing and blowing over all of the street 

That’s the pinecone ball beat

What a bright time, it’s the right time

To slide the pinecone down

Pinecone ball time is the right time

To be singing in our favorite town. 

Slide on down pinecone ball, swing over us all 

Sway, as we watch the clock. 

Swing and a-swayin’ in your own pine cone way. 

That’s our pinecone ball rock. 

That’s our pinecone ball, 

That’s our pinecone ball rock.

5.  “Jingle Bell Rock” was written by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe, and was first recorded by Bobby Helms in 1957. Using the original instrumental recording, Cabin in the Pines commissioned a rockabilly-style vocalist to record a custom version with Pinehaven-specific lyrics, which was used as background music for a slideshow of historical photographs to help convey the atmosphere and festive character of the event. It can be viewed on the blog’s YouTube channel at this link. 

6.  Ruth Admin, “Silly and Fun – New Year’s Pine Cone Drop,” The World Journal (Cuchara, CO), January 15, 2015, accessed January 7, 2026, https://worldjournalnewspaper.com/silly-and-fun-new-years-pine-cone-drop/?utm_source=chatgpt.com#:~:text=Olan%20Adams%20responded%2C%20“They%20all%20worked%20perfectly.%20However%2C%20we%20have%20a%20very%20loose%20definition%20of%20perfect.”%20 

7.  Ruth Admin, “Silly and Fun – New Year’s Pine Cone Drop,” The World Journal (Cuchara, CO), January 15, 2015, accessed January 7, 2026, The World Journal, https://worldjournalnewspaper.com/silly-and-fun-new-years-pine-cone-drop/.

8.  Andi Ayers, former co-owner of the Timbers Restaurant (with Don Ayers), telephone conversation with the author regarding the restaurant’s ownership and operation, January 8, 2026.

9. Author’s note: In preparing this article, the author used AI-assisted tools for research support, proofreading, fact-checking, and stylistic refinement. All narrative choices, analysis, and historical interpretations are the author’s own, and responsibility for accuracy rests solely with the author. The blog’s research methodology statement is available at: https://cabininthepinescuchara.blogspot.com/2019/03/methodology-sources-and-use-of-research.html