Cowboy Christmas place to be during NFR

Need a new belt or buckle? They’ve got it.

How about a blanket for mom? Done. Quality entertainment, some food and even a new horse trailer? Yep, that’s all there, too.

It’s all available in Las Vegas during the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, and in one place: the Cowboy Christmas Gift Show. If the Thomas &Mack Center is the place to be every night during the Finals — and it is — then the Las Vegas Convention Center’s North Hall is where it’s at during the day.

Hundreds of vendor booths fill the 300,000-square-foot space inside the Convention Center, and rodeo fans can find virtually everything under the sun there on a daily basis. If it’s a Western product, Cowboy Christmas has it, and the hundreds of thousands of folks who come to Las Vegas for the Wrangler NFR use the endless choices to get their holiday shopping done in one swoop.

Walking through the maze of booths is a treat for the senses, with nearly more sights, sounds and smells to process than a person’s brain can handle. It’s a fun exercise to see how many different types of products and goods you can find while meandering through the expanse of humanity and merchandise, and fans can visit multiple days without seeing everything.

“We go sign autographs at those shows all the time, and it’s a great place for people to do some Christmas shopping,” said Round 5 and Round 7 steer wrestling winner Curtis Cassidy, who has competed at the Wrangler NFR since 2002. “If you’re into cowboy and horse stuff, there’s no better place to go. (The Finals is) bar-none the best rodeo out there, so if anyone ever wants to experience rodeo, this is the place to come.”

Two years ago, Las Vegas Events and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority added Cowboy FanFest, a 100,000-square-foot Wild West-style “town” that features everything from country music concerts and food to a full-sized arena and booths from some of professional rodeo’s biggest and best rodeos. Throw in a bar, Flint Rasmussen’s “Outside the Barrel” stage show and a wedding chapel, and Cowboy FanFest is quite the destination.

Yes, rodeo fans can get hitched at the Rope ’Em In Wedding Chapel powered by Zappos.com at Cowboy FanFest after buying a hitch at Cowboy Christmas, and more than 20 couples are expected to get married or renew their vows there during this year’s Wrangler NFR.

The Wrangler Rodeo Arena presented by Priefert is set up to look like the Finals’ arena inside the Thomas &Mack Center, and the Wrangler NFR Exceptional Rodeo and Miss Rodeo America horsemanship competition have been some of the featured events held there so far during the rodeo this year.

Cowboy Christmas’ evolution has mirrored the city’s transformation since the Wrangler NFR moved to Las Vegas from Oklahoma City in 1985, and people have responded in a big way. Last year, a record 196,856 people filed through the doors, and the attendance is on a record pace through seven rounds in 2014.

It’s an illustration of just how far the rodeo has come in the last three decades and the way the city and its casinos and hotel properties have embraced the Wrangler NFR and how Las Vegas rolls out the red carpet and becomes a true cowboy town every December. The first year had 32 vendors and 31,433 visitors at Tropicana’s tennis pavilion in 1985, a far cry from where it is today.

Another great thing about the spectacle that is Cowboy Christmas is the Wrangler NFR contestants and rodeo legends you might run into on any given day. I’ve been there three times so far this year on three different days, and I’ve seen ProRodeo Hall of Famer Billy Etbauer, four-time World Champion Steer Wrestler Luke Branquinho, Wrangler NFR bulldogger K.C. Jones, Wrangler NFR bull rider Joe Frost and world champions Tuf Cooper, J.W. Harris and Jade Corkill.

Dozens of rodeo stars go there to sign autographs and meet with fans as part of their sponsorship agreements, and it’s a great chance for some face time with the best and brightest in ProRodeo. Where else in sports can fans literally bump into their favorite professional athletes?

The Sands, South Point and Mandalay Bay have had gift shows for many years as well, and MGM Grand added the NRS Shopping Experience a few years ago. But the Cowboy Christmas Gift Show is the leader of the pack in this realm, and it just keeps getting bigger every year.

There are also plenty of interactive activities for rodeo fans of all ages, and Cowboy Christmas is a great place to take the family. Considering how much the world of rodeo is a family, that should come as no surprise.

If there’s something rodeo- or Western-related that can’t be found in Las Vegas the two weeks of the Wrangler NFR’s run here, it simply doesn’t exist.

Neal Reid is a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based freelance writer who spent five years as editor of the ProRodeo Sports News. He has written for Western Horseman, American Cowboy, The Ketchpen, Persimmon Hill, USA Today, Newsday, MLB.com, ESPN.com, ESPNW.com, the Colorado Springs Gazette and Denver Post, among others. Reid, a member of the Rodeo Historical Society, covered the 2014 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, for the Olympic and Paralympic News Service and is a veteran of 10 Wrangler NFRs. Follow him on Twitter @NealReid21.