Christmas Eve in Santa Fe was a comparatively silent night.
Whatâs usually an evening of caroling, with thousands of people and thousands of farolitos lining the historic Canyon Road, was instead a line of cars driving past shuttered art galleries and numerous other closed shops without candlelight.
Long stretches of the road were not lined by farolitos despite the best efforts of the city and the Canyon Road Merchants Association to spread holiday spirit in an otherwise dispiriting year.
Despite that, a long line of cars waited along Paseo de Peralta to get onto Canyon Road after the city blocked side streets to funnel everyone along the larger thoroughfare.
By Susan Montoya Bryan and Cedar Attanasio, Associated Press
Around 15,000 residents previously ineligible for pandemic stimulus checks have started receiving payments from the state. The group includes immigrants in the country without work authorization.
Officials with the New Mexico Human Services Department said the $465 relief payments began arriving this week via direct deposit or checks.
The Legislature allocated $5 million to the fund for those who hadn t received federal payments in April. Agency officials say they were able to identify an additional $2 million on top of that.
Drawing from unspent federal relief funds, New Mexico s relief package was part of a $330 million appropriation that included additional money for New Mexicans already on unemployment or whose benefits had run out. Funding also was earmarked for more COVID-19 testing and support for food banks.
In a year unlike any other, a Santa Fe Christmas tradition continues.
And by all accounts, preparations for the celebration of candlelight appeared this week to be just as busy as in years past.
Although the decades-old tradition of an evening stroll along a farolito-lined Canyon Road â complete with thousands of people, carolers, bonfires and open shops â has morphed into a drive-by event, art galleries said they were preparing to lay out hundreds of farolitos.
But just how many shops along the vehicle-only route would take part in the festivities remained an open question Wednesday, said Carlos Acosta, a gallery owner on Canyon Road and co-president of the Canyon Road Merchants Association.