Free public tours of the Governor’s Residence, decorated for the holidays by the American Society of Interior Designers Colorado Chapter (ASID,) will be offered Thursday through Sunday, December 8 through December 11 and December 15 through December 18 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. so that all may enjoy the history and beauty of Colorado’s Home.

For the fourth year in a row, interior design members of ASID professionally decorated six rooms of the former Boettcher mansion, this year highlighting the spirit of the holidays in a global context for the more than 5,000 guests who visit each season. The Governor’s Residence Preservation Fund invites the public to take a holiday trip around the world without leaving the state. Plan now to visit the home of Governor and First Lady Hickenlooper during the public tours and enjoy holiday designs that celebrate the spirit of international exchange and cultural awareness.

Colorado’s Home is celebrating the state’s Sister Cities and global holiday traditions with a décor theme of ‘Colorado’s Kith and Kin.’ Twin towns or sister cities are a form of legal and social agreement between towns, cities, counties, provinces, regions, states, and even countries in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties. The modern concept of town twinning, conceived after World War II in 1947, was intended to foster friendship and understanding between different cultures and between former foes as an act of peace and reconciliation and to encourage trade and tourism. In recent times, town twinning has increasingly been used to form strategic international business links between member cities.