Santa Fe is a four-season destination, with special events throughout the year to create a story hook.

In summer, the annual markets, Spanish Market (www.spanishmarket.org) in July and Indian Market (www.swaiai.org) in August, attract visitors from around the world to view and purchase unique art, jewelry, furnishings and clothing crafted by Hispanic and Native American artists.

In the area of fine art, the annual ART Santa Fe, a boutique invitational art show, displays the finest in contemporary art from select galleries from around the country and across the world each July (www.artsantafe.com). SITE Santa Fe’s International Biennial takes place in even-numbered years; this year’s offering, “Lucky Number Seven,” curated by renowned gallerist and curator Lance Fung, begins June 22, 2008 and runs through October 26, 2008 (www.sitesantafe.org).

The renowned Santa Fe Opera, one of the world’s most distinctive because of its open-air theater surrounded by stunning mountain vistas, launches its season each summer with its wildly popular tailgate party: You’ll see fashions ranging from jeans and cowboy boots to formal gowns and tuxedos, all enjoying a pre-opera alfresco dinner in a scenic setting.

Fall is one of our loveliest seasons, with wonderful weather and just enough crispness to the evening air to let guests enjoy their kiva fireplaces. The season is launched in late August/early September with the Santa Fe Fiesta, a traditional gathering that honors the town’s Hispanic heritage with entertainment, food and craft booths on the Plaza, parades, mariachi concerts and the annual burning of Zozobra, Old Man Gloom (www.santafefiesta.org).

In late September comes the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta (www.santafewineandchile.org), which pairs fine wines with gourmet food in a festive gathering at the Santa Fe Opera.

While other locales celebrate only Halloween, Santa Fe adds the Day of the Dead on November 1 to its roster of fun, with themed gallery openings and plenty of folk art to honor the eerily festive date.

Winter is ski season, and snowbirds can enjoy the slopes at the nearby Santa Fe Ski Area, or head up to Taos for some expert runs.

The Christmas holidays are an especially magical time in Santa Fe. A reenactment of Los Pastores, a Spanish Christmas pageant, is held on the Plaza. Other activities include holiday concerts and the Farolito Walk, the Christmas Eve event in which visitors and locals stroll the streets of the historic east side to view the decorative farolitos, or “little lanterns,” that line adobe walls and roof lines to bring a reverent glow of candlelight to these traditional neighborhoods.

February brings the annual Art Feast (www.artfeast.com), a weekend of festivities celebrating local chefs, fine wines, designer fashions and unique homes, capped off with a gallery-hopping spree that showcases hors d’oeuvres from a different restaurant at each participating gallery.

Spring is a time of renewal, and also the time when Santa Fe’s old neighborhoods and the surrounding villages activate their centuries-old acequia system, the irrigation method brought by the Arabs to Spain in 700 A.D. and brought to New Mexico by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Every spring the traditional communities clean out their acequias and hold a picnic in preparation for the release of the precious mountain runoff that irrigates gardens and orchards throughout northern New Mexico.