Every October, Santa Fe performs a small trick. You won't catch it happening. Nobody ever does. By late afternoon the high-desert gold has gone thin and silver. Lanterns come out on the ranches, and a train rattles off into the dark with something unaccounted for aboard. By the time the candles are lit for the dead, the whole city has quietly changed costume. Santa Fe doesn't do Halloween as a single night. That would be far too obvious. It works the way a good magician does:

Santa Fe is a small city that behaves like a much larger one. It has more than 250 galleries, about 20 museums, a world-class opera and a four-hundred-year head start on most of the country. You could spend a week here and still leave things undone. So here is a list. Twenty-five things, sorted by what kind of day you're having, with a few notes from people who live here. Start anywhere. Around the Plaza 1. Sit in the Plaza. It has been the center of town since the early 1600