Community, cookies, and caroling: The Brassaholics filled the Very Nice taproom with the sounds of Christmas, playing classic carols as well as contemporary favorites like “Please Christmas Don’t Be Late” by Alvin and the Chipmunks.[/caption]

One of the most important things a person can do over the holidays to preserve their own mental health is to take a moment from all the hustle and let themselves experience a moment of true holiday spirit. A moment among family, whether they be birth family or chosen, in a warm, friendly place that may be your home, or your home away from home, where the air becomes full of actual mirth and merriment, as if reality were to become perfect, like a Hallmark movie, for just one evening.

Such moments can rejuvenate the soul and give us the energy to carry forward with the commerce and other exhausting obligations of the season; they remind us why we love the holidays, and why we love the communities in which we choose to live.

Jeffrey and Susan Green, the owners of Very Nice Brewing Company (VNBC), work hard to ensure that their establishment is more than just a local brewery, but a communal hub for the people of Nederland and the Peak to Peak region. The Greens do more than brew and serve beer at VNBC, but they cultivate a special atmosphere; a place where us mountain folk can celebrate each other, together.

VNBC’s annual Cookie Exchange is the perfect event for the final half of December. As the holidays loom and we start to fool ourselves by planning New Year’s resolutions, a night out with the community, enjoying classic Christmas music and indulging in all the things we promise we’ll swear off in 2024, is as cathartic as it is reaffirming.

Filling up a plate with delectable peanut butter and chocolate Buckeyes, cherry Bon-Bons, gingersnaps, and Pfeffernusse (German spice cookies), while enjoying a refreshing Ale, or a creamy and nutty Stout, may be cathartic, but it soothes the soul.

And enjoying these “sinful” delights while surrounded by friends and neighbors in the community, singing along as The Brassaholics, a five-piece horn orchestra, belts out Christmas classics, including “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” is one of those moments that reaffirms, in our hearts and minds, that we chose the right people, we chose the right place to live.

Very Nice Brewing Company is located in the Caribou Village Shopping Center at 20 Lakeview Drive, suite 112, and is open from 2 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 2 to 9 p.m. on Fridays, from noon to 9 p.m. on Saturdays, and from noon to 7 p.m. on Sundays.

For more information call 303-258-3770 or go to: https://www.verynicebrewing.com.