2023 Holiday Events Around Seattle

Christian: [0:03] Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. This is your host Christian Awesome of the Awesome Nossum Group at Wilson Realty Exchange, Inc. And today I'm joined by my awesome co-host, the fantastic awesome agent here at the Awesome Nossum Group, Joanna Beecher.

Joanna: [0:20] Hello.

Christian: [0:21] Thank you for joining me.

Joanna: [0:22] Oh, my pleasure.

Christian: [0:24] We get to talk about a very fun t- topic today, and that is all of the holiday season events that are going on in the Seattle area. So if you are looking for something to do this holiday season, we have got a rundown of, I don't know if it's completely everything, but it definitely seems like everything, 'cause there is a lot of things on this list. So let's get into it. I'm gonna first start with some of the classics, and I'm not really gonna talk a ton about these, 'cause they've been around for a long time. People kind of know about them. So I'm just gonna list them off. The first five are Snowflake Lane in Bellevue, they are celebrating their 19th year. That is going on from now until Christmas Eve. The parade starts every evening at 7:00 PM. Next is the gingerbread display at the Sheraton Hotel. This is awesome. I've brought my kids to this, and you just go walk around and you look at these amazing gingerbread houses that, that these professionals have built, and they are insane. It's totally free to enter, and it's open until New Year's. Another hotel downtown, the Fairmont Olympic, they have their annual teddy bear suite available. Essentially, it's a spacious room located within the hotel decked out in a festive manner with various teddy bears all over the room. It's super cute and very fun, and it's not far from the Sheraton, so you could kind of hit those two things up at the same time. Next is going to watch The Nutcracker at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Dates vary, so just look it up. You'll find all the dates that work for you. And last of the very common, classic Seattle area events is visiting Swanson's Nursery. This is in kind of Northwest Seattle, like Blue Ridge, uh, North Beach, that area, kind of near Crown Hill. You get to meet Santa, watch all these cool model trains. There's music, and you get to visit Santa's yurt, which is always fun. So-

Joanna: [2:25] Santa's yurt.

Christian: [2:26] Yeah, yeah.

Joanna: [2:27] Fun.

Christian: [2:28] Never, never thought I'd say that sentence.

Joanna: [2:30] No.

Christian: [2:31] Um, but I did. Yeah. Joanna, I know that you have a good rundown of some 21 plus bar scene fun. Oh, yeah. So why don't you run down some of that?

Joanna: [2:42] All right. So Miracle on 2nd at Rob Roy in Belltown. Mm-hmm. This is a beloved Seattle holiday pop-up bar at Rob Roy, the bar in Belltown. You can visit this from November 10th through Christmas, December 25th, and you can experience bright lights, themed cocktails, and an overall festive vibe. And you can make reservations for large groups, and you can check them out at their website at robroysseattle.com. We also have Sippin' Santa at Navy Strength in Belltown. So Sippin' Santa's Surf Shack is another holiday pop-up bar in Seattle that is located at the tropical Belltown bar, Navy Strength. It is only a block away from Rob Roy's Miracle on 2nd pop-up, so you might as well try them both. We could do a little bar hop in there.

Christian: [3:33] Mm-hmm.

Joanna: [3:34] Um-

Christian: [3:34] That sounds fun … it

Joanna: [3:35] does. They're open from November 10th through December 30th, and they also accept reservations for large groups. They have holiday-themed tiki cocktails and their outdoor patio is dog friendly in case your fur baby wants to join you in the festive fun.

Christian: [3:51] Fun.

Joanna: [3:52] Yeah. You can also check them out at their website, navystrengthseattle.com. Then we have, this sounds really fun, Seattle SantaCon 2023 takes place on December 9th, 2023, and December 16th. Now, these are both Saturdays, so there are thousands of people that will be parading through the downtown Seattle area on those Saturdays, so also for traffic reasons. Remember that. "Join us as we paint the town red and white," they say. SantaCon is an annual mass gathering of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes parading publicly on the streets and inside locations in cities around the world. So it's not only taking place in Seattle, I guess. That is super cool. If you check it out online, there's some really great pictures. I have seen that. The focus is on spontaneity and creativity while having a good time and spreading cheer and goodwill, I hope. This is much more than just a pub crawl, and every time people call it that, a sugar plum fairy dies. So remember that.

Christian: [4:59] Don't

Joanna: [4:59] call

Christian: [4:59] it a Santa pub crawl.

Joanna: [5:01] Don't do that. So much more than that. Expect, you know, live entertainment all day, free admission to the venues, drink specials, a costume contest, professional photographers, and the most wonderful time of year. And you can go to seattlesantacon.org for that one.

Christian: [5:20] That sounds fun. I- It does sound

Joanna: [5:22] fun … Speaker: I feel like I've heard about it, but I've never seen it or looked it up, so I think that's something that's definitely worth checking out. Um- I think we should both go and dress as Santa. Our versions

Christian: [5:34] That would be, that would be really funny, yes. It would be fun. Yes. All right, let's talk about places you can go look at lights. Woo-hoo. So first up we got Wild Lanterns at the Woodland Park Zoo. This used to be called ZooLights, now it's Wild Lanterns. It's a little bit different than that, than what ZooLights used to be, and it's an immersive experience featuring big old large scale animals and naturescape lanterns throughout the zoo. It's pretty fun. Kids love it. It's fun for adults as well. It's cool. Uh, you do have to buy tickets ahead of time, so make sure you go to zoo.org/wildlights in order to get those tickets. I always think it's so cool that the Woodland Park Zoo owns zoo.org. That's just- Cool that they have that website. Next up is Candy Cane Lane. This is a very famous, especially in the Seattle area, stretch of houses that go all out in decorating with their lights for the holiday. So it's located in Ravenna, i- on Northeast Ravenna Boulevard and Park Road Northeast at 21st Avenue Northeast. And that starts December 2nd and will go through New Year's Day. The lights start at, you know, dark, so pretty soon here. It's gonna be, like, 4:00, I'm sure. Mm-hmm. Um, until 9:30 at night, and then on the weekends it goes even later. I do know that they do a food drive, so if you want to bring some non-perishable foods, you can always drop those off as well. But it's just a cool, like, fun little stretch. Doesn't take long. You can park your car at the park actually next door and walk through, which is a little bit more fun, especially if you have kids, 'cause there's so many details that you miss when you're driving that are, if it's not pouring down or snowing, it's- it's really fun to do. So- Of course … definitely recommend that. Another fun thing you can do is go for a cruise on the Seattle Christmas Ship. So whether you book a ride on one of the boats or simply enjoy the festivities from shore, Seattle's Christmas Ship Festival is an annual highlight that's not to be missed. You can learn a lot more about this on, at argosycruises.com. It's pretty cool. They have three different ways that you can join. You can either go on the Christmas ship, which is a one and a half hour cruise to a waterfront community. There's a choir on board. They read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and don't worry, they do have a full service bar. Another thing you can do is the 21 and over follow boat, which is the boat that follows the Christmas ship, and this is pretty fun. This is also one and a half hours, and they have a broadcast choir performance, so I don't think they're on board. They just pipe in the music. There is a photo booth, and the fun part, an ugly sweater contest. So- Nice … uh, if you think that your ugly sweater skills are impeccable, you could potentially win something. And of course, there is a full bar on board as well. Lastly, you can watch from the shore, and they have specific spots where they actually stop the boats and have a 20-minute choir performance so that you can watch from shore. It's really cool. Definitely look them up at argosycruises.com. Moving on. Another one, the Luminous Light Sculptures at Westlake Park. So you can stroll through brilliant light installations in Westlake Park built from thousands of sparkling lights. Snap a memorable selfie before the lights turn off on January 9th. They're on every day, rain or shine, and it's completely free for everyone to join. Again, that's at Westlake Park downtown And then we got T-Mobile's New Year's at the Needle. So this is more New Year's, not Christmasy holiday themed, but this is fun and it's great that T-Mobile is sponsoring it similar to how sponsors were kind of hard to find for the 4th of July fireworks. They also were at one point hard to find for New Year's. So I'm glad that T-Mobile, who is- has a large local presence, stepped up to pay for that. That is obviously on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day when the clock strikes midnight. If you want to learn more about that and what they kind of have in store and some of the best places to watch, you can go to spaceneedle.com/newyears. Obviously, watching from the shores on Gas Works Park is great, an awesome location, but you can even go Queen Anne, you can go Capitol Hill, East Lake, you can go South Lake Union. Like, there's numerous spots all around where you can really get a good view of this. And then lastly, a cool light display that is a little different, it's not necessarily Christmas lights. This is the Pathway of Lights around Green Lake. So Connor Car- or yeah, Connor Cason of Find Me in Seattle fame, he talked about this and how much he loves this event when he was a guest back on the podcast on episode 96. And this is basically they put, um, those candle lights or candles in paper bags, white paper bags, and it lines the entire, I think, it's 2.9-mile circle around Green Lake.

Joanna: [11:07] Wow.

Christian: [11:07] They have… This year apparently they're gonna have hot air balloons. I don't know if it's more than one or what. I don't understand how that's gonna work, but that sounds awesome. Yeah. They have three, three different stages for musicians that are gonna be playing Christmas music, and this is another event where you can, uh, donate some non-perishable food for the food drive as well.

Joanna: [11:28] That's very cool.

Christian: [11:29] Yeah. And that's gonna be on December 9th, starting at 4:30, ends at 7:30. You don't have to be there the whole time, obviously. But people do dress up. You should definitely look up Pathway of Lights, Green Lake. I don't have a website for you, but there's been numerous articles written about it, so you can just find that online. People wear, you know, funny costumes. They dress up as Santa or Buddy the Elf or the Grinch or whatever. Like, you can, you can have fun with it. So it's, it's pretty cool, and you get some exercise at the same time.

Joanna: [12:00] Nice. All right. Speaking of music, we have more of that coming up when I'm gonna talk about some of the holiday markets, concerts, and things like that.

Christian: [12:10] Fun.

Joanna: [12:10] So one thing that I'm looking forward to doing is the Seattle Christmas Market. This runs from November 24th to December 24th, and this is the f- at the Fisher Pavilion and South Fountain Lawn at Seattle Center And that will be transformed into a European-inspired outdoor Christmas village and community marketplace. Very much looking forward to doing this. You definitely wanna go to their website, seattlechristmasmarket.com. You can pre-purchase tickets, and you can also do a, a season pass, which means you can, you know, pay a little bit more but go in as much as you like within the month that it is there, so.

Christian: [12:52] That sounds cool. It does. Yeah, I've seen pictures of it and the… And I read an article about the person, the guy that's, like, putting this together, and he just loved, like, the German- Mm-hmm … Christmas market and is just basically trying to bring it here, which is awesome.

Joanna: [13:07] Yeah. And I'm real- I can't wait to go. Yeah. I think it'll be fun.

Christian: [13:10] It's gonna be fun. I agree.

Joanna: [13:11] Then we've got Festive Friday Concerts. All right. And this is the s- 'tis the season for music and lights. Head to Westlake Park on Fridays in December between 4:00 and 5:30 PM for free concerts from local artists. That's pretty great.

Christian: [13:27] Mm-hmm.

Joanna: [13:27] Concerts will be held rain or shine. It is Seattle.

Christian: [13:30] And while you're at Westlake Park, you can go view the luminous light sculptures that I spoke about earlier. So get some selfie action going on there while you're listening to some rocking music from local artists.

Joanna: [13:43] Yeah. Okay. Next one up is Occidental Square events. Mm. So if you love snow but can't make it to the mountains, come to Pioneer Square for your fill of the flurries. While the flakes drift down, enjoy live music, costume characters, and s- free sweet treats.

Christian: [14:03] Yum.

Joanna: [14:03] Stop by Saturdays, Saturdays specifically from November 25th until December 16th between noon and 2:00 PM to join in on the wintry fun. Plus, wintry weekend ice skating rink in Occidental Square. So this is from December 8th through the 10th. It's a pop-up outdoor rink that welcomes skaters of all ages and skill levels to take their merry turn on the ice. Skates are provided for free. Wow. Wow. That's pretty cool. It is. Uh, the rink will be open 1:00 to 7:00 PM on Friday and noon to 6:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday. For extra festive fun, stop by the holiday market hosted by the Alliance for Pioneer Square on Friday and Saturday, and this features over 40 local makers. It's the perfect spot to pick up your last holiday gifts.

Christian: [14:56] Fun. Yeah.

Joanna: [14:56] That's pretty fun down there in Pioneer

Christian: [14:58] Square. So yeah, that December 8th through the 10th weekend, there are so many cool things going on. So if you are around, you should not have any excuse to be lazy. There's so many fun things to do- Yeah, get out like Pioneer lights and- Right … ice skating and seeing snow and all that fun stuff.

Joanna: [15:12] Free skates.

Christian: [15:14] Yeah. That's

Joanna: [15:14] huge.

Christian: [15:15] That is cool.

Joanna: [15:15] Um, Next one is Holiday Pops by the Seattle Symphony. This is another thing going December 8th- … through December 10th. There's no place like Benaroya Hall for the holidays. I mean, I've never been, so this would be great. Join conductor Stuart Chafetz, I hope I'm saying that correctly, and vocalist trombonist Aubrey Logan for a dazzling program full of holiday favorites, traditional carols, and plenty of yuletide cheer. All of the heartwarming sounds of the season await you at this lighthearted and joyful concert. It sounds beautiful. It sounds really fun. Yeah. Um, it does. So this next one I'm gonna talk about I actually went to last year. I think it was their first year they did it. It's called the Kringle Filling Station. So-

Christian: [16:04] I've heard about this. It sounds so fun. I never actually went, but I, I kinda wanna bring the family this year, 'cause it just sounds and looks so cool.

Joanna: [16:11] It's goofy. It's fun. It is definitely fun. Mm-hmm. I liked Skee-Ball. Um, I didn't do- Yeah … the karaoke shockingly, but yeah. Yeah, what the? So there's-

Christian: [16:18] That's, like, your jam right there.

Joanna: [16:20] I know. There just wasn't enough people. Um, no. At the time I went, I need a big audience. No. It's got, but it does, it has Skee-Ball, karaoke, hot cocoa pumped from an old gas pump. It's, it's fun. It's definitely a place that, you were talking about selfies earlier- Mm-hmm … that's the place to do it. So, um, and you do need to buy your tickets online, so you're gonna go to www.kringlesfillingstation.com to get that information. Yeah, that's great for the whole family too.

Christian: [16:53] Yeah. Yeah, I heard that they added slot car races, and you can take, like, selfies in this cool hoopty sleigh thing.

Joanna: [17:02] Yeah. That was there last year, but yeah, you, that is definitely something you have to pay for. I just felt like I didn't wanna do that.

Christian: [17:10] Yeah, yeah. But the, I think the- But I saw

Joanna: [17:12] it. It's really cool.

Christian: [17:12] Yeah, and I think the cool thing too is, like, they pump the, I think you probably said this, but they pump the cocoa out of, like, an old-looking gas

Joanna: [17:20] pump. Yeah, gas pump.

Christian: [17:21] Mm-hmm. That's so crazy.

Joanna: [17:22] Yeah.

Christian: [17:23] But I assume it's clean. It's

Joanna: [17:24] tasty. I hope so. I drank it, so, and I didn't get sick, so I think we're good.

Christian: [17:28] Okay, okay.

Joanna: [17:29] Yeah.

Christian: [17:29] No gasoline included.

Joanna: [17:31] They do it for you, you know? Mm-hmm. So it's like, it's just the, uh, there are elves there. They do that and- Got it … yeah, it's great.

Christian: [17:37] That sounds fun.

Joanna: [17:39] It is fun.

Christian: [17:39] Cool. Well, I hope that you all had a fantastic time listening to this, and that you have a great holiday season. If you have any questions about these events, you can feel free to reach out to us. We'd be happy to pass along more info. You can also Google pretty much anything, but also feel free to reach out. We might have some tips that we didn't really share on this about each event. If you want to chat real estate, since we are local Seattle area real estate agents, you can always chat with us as well. You can schedule an appointment right online, AwesomeNossumGroup.com/schedule. Or if you're new to the home buying process and you just wanna learn how this actually works in a extremely laid back, free way- You can join one of our numerous home buyer classes. It's called Beers and Home Buying. They are totally free. It's an hour-long class that we hold at bars, breweries, restaurants all around the Greater Seattle area. And when I say that, I mean, like, up north, on the east side, down south. We're kinda all over the place. We have two classes happening in January, so check out beersandhomebuying.com (opens in a new tab) for the dates. You can save your beer. We give you free beer. Some of the venues have food. It's just a very easy, low-pressure, no-pressure way to learn about the home buying process. So, uh, we've been doing it for over eight years. We've helped or taught this to thousands and thousands of people at this point, and we've helped hundreds of the people that first came to that class successfully buy a house. So it definitely works, and it's really fun. So that's it for this episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. I hope you have a great holiday season, and we'll chat with you two weeks.

Joanna: [19:26] Thanks for listening, guys. Bye.

Christian: [19:27] Bye.