Christmas Charm: Salado Rolls Out the Red Carpet for the Holidays

Charlotte's of Salado is just one of the shops in Salado open during the annual Christmas Stroll.

I arrived in Salado stressed out. I was in the midst of a flurry of travel, having driven 700 miles in the few days before I arrived, shuttling every which way across Texas for a mix of business and pleasure.

But after a restful night of sleep and a day of meandering about the shops and galleries of this two-exit Central Texas town off Interstate 35 north of Austin, my frazzled state of mind seemed a lifetime away.

I’m certainly not the first to notice that Salado, founded in 1859, has something special. “Ninety percent of people choose to move here — we could’ve gone anywhere, but we chose to come here,” says Charlotte Douglass, the former — and first — mayor of Salado, which was incorporated in 2000. And although it’s lovely year-round, unarguably the best time to visit for a real taste of what the village has to offer is Christmastime.

Get recommendations on where to go and what to do, and find out what makes this small city so special during the holidays in my story for Texas Co-op Power magazine.