Camp Christmas transforms The Stanley Marketplace into a whimsical wonderland, complete with immersive bars, a scavenger hunt and a refreshed walk-through experience.

Camp Christmas is back where it all began in 2019 — inside Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace — but this year’s edition feels a whole hell of a lot different than any previous iteration.

Instead of anchoring the experience inside one meticulously decorated area as in years past, creator Lonnie Hanzon and DCPA Off-Center have exploded Camp Christmas across all three floors of the building. This creates a more diffuse adventure that combines Hanzon’s signature kitschy designs with a clever push to encourage attendees to find and support the small businesses hidden throughout The Stanley Marketplace.

If you’ve been a Camp Christmas regular since its debut in 2019, you might brace for the worst when hearing that the experience has been “spread out.” I certainly did. But opening day on November 21 proved that while this year’s Camp Christmas is undeniably slimmer in scale, it still delivers plenty of that signature Hanzon sparkle.

A fresh take on the walk-through experience

The one piece that will feel instantly familiar to longtime fans is the Camp Christmas Express, a $10, six-station walk-through tucked near the east entrance. The experience takes guests through a holiday “wash cycle” that consists of six stages: Pre-Soak, Soap, Scrub, Rinse, Seal, and Buff & Fluff —  each depicted in playful vignettes replete with puns, props and unabashed gaudiness.

Visitors begin their journey in a greeting area, which sets the tone for the entire Camp Christmas Express. You will find your first Pun Tree next to the Emotional Baggage Wall, a grid of slips labelled with everything from “perfectionism” to “obsession with matching pajamas,” or a blank card where you can confess your own seasonal hang-up. You choose one, shred it and symbolically let it go before continuing.

After this ritual, you pass the first sign from Camp Director Lonnie welcoming you to the “rose-tinted reset.” Once inside the Pre-Soak room, the familiar Hanzon weirdness kicks into gear. A flamingo-pink pun tree anchors the space, surrounded by a cheeky room with dispensers like “Santa-tizer,” a tucked-away aromatherapy nook where visitors can breathe in forest scents before they “exhale the frenzy,” and a room where you “roar” to “let it all out.”

From there, the Express moves into the Soap room, a bubbly transition space urging visitors not to overthink inside the “bubble zone,” before unfolding into the more elaborately decorated Scrub room. Here, layered window-dressing displays and dense visual puns create the most traditionally Camp Christmas moment of the walkthrough.

The Rinse room shifts gears into disco sparkle, bathing guests in mirrored surfaces and glittering lights. The final stretch takes you through the Seal and Buff & Fluff rooms, which play on the carwash theme with warm lighting, glossy surfaces and a final burst of optimism along mirrored walls filled with inspiring messages before spilling out into the Camp Christmas Gift Shop.

It’s a brisk journey, but one packed with enough sensory detail, humor and invention to make the Express feel like a compact greatest-hits reel of Hanzon’s signature style.

Is it as polished as the massive immersive worlds Hanzon has created in the past? No. You can see seams: printed-out signs, a half-hidden space heater and walls that are clearly partitioned off from the rest of the building. And yet, these imperfections never kill the mood.

The Express won’t take more than 10 to 20 minutes depending on your photo-taking stamina, but it remains a lively, concentrated burst of holiday absurdity.

Camp Christmas will be at Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace through Dec. 28. | Photos: Toni Tresca

A more social Camp Christmas

What truly sets Camp Christmas 2025 apart is that the experience doesn’t end when you exit the Express. In fact, that’s just the warm-up. This year’s takeover encourages lingering in ways that previous editions did not, thanks in large part to the extensive Merry Badge hunt, elaborately designed bars and immersive installations placed throughout the marketplace.

Pick up a booklet from the Camp Christmas Gift Shop to participate in the Merry Badge Scavenger Hunt, a free, all-ages challenge that will take you through every wing of The Stanley Marketplace. Each Merry Badge is a mounted sign with a short holiday mantra and one word underlined and written in green. Collect all 20 of those terms to complete the scavenger hunt and earn a prize from one of the small businesses inside Stanley.

I chose a beautifully carved wooden ornament featuring the 2025 Camp Christmas design created by MindCraft Makerspace, a personal touch that ties the experience directly to the community hosting it.

The Merry Badge hunt is not particularly difficult, but it is quite fun. The clues are cleverly tied to their surroundings, and the hunt naturally leads you through shops you might otherwise breeze past. I completed the full set in about an hour, and that included stopping for drinks along the way at three of the Marketplace’s fully transformed holiday bars.

Local Drive has become the Camp Christmas Bar, where neon “Love, Joy and Peace” signs and playful cocktails set the mood. Denver Biscuit Company has been reborn as the Santa Bar, a maximalist fever dream of Santa figurines. Traveling Mercies, perched on the upper level, has become the Winter Pearl Bar, a shimmering space built around a pearlescent theme.

Meanwhile, Stanley’s retailers become natural extensions of the experience. Kids and adults dart through aisles searching for badges; families pose in front of free photo ops; shoppers sip hot toddies while browsing for stocking stuffers. It’s all reminiscent of the old department store window displays that transformed commercial spaces into public art, and it is effective.

A slimmer Camp Christmas that’s still full of charm

If you’re expecting a sprawling, actor-filled, immersive world, temper your expectations. This is a thriftier, scrappier Camp Christmas. But what it lacks in scale, it makes up for in spirit.

The Merry Badge hunt alone brings new life to the experience by transforming the entire Marketplace into a treasure map. The bars and photo ops are festive and free to enjoy. And, as a result of this shift towards exploration, I spent more time at Camp Christmas this year than I ever have. By scattering the magic throughout the building, the event nudges you to slow down, wander intentionally and embrace the joy of discovery.

Camp Christmas 2025 may look different, but it’s still unmistakably Hanzon: eccentric, welcoming, self-aware and bursting with holiday whimsy. And for a mostly free experience designed to get you browsing, sipping and soaking in seasonal cheer, it absolutely delivers.

If this is the future of Camp Christmas — immersive, interactive and integrated into real community spaces — I’m happily along for the sleigh ride.