Top photo: courtesy of Kendall Yards. Last verified: October 28, 2026. Every date below was checked against the organizer or a current listing, and anything not yet posted for 2026 says so. We recheck through December. Spokane’s holiday light map changed more in one year than in the ten before it. In 2025 Manito Holiday…
Top photo courtesy Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce. Last verified: October 28, 2026. Every date below was checked against the organizer or a current listing, and anything not yet posted for 2026 says so. We recheck through December. Leavenworth turns into a Bavarian Christmas village every winter, with over half a million lights on the buildings…
Top photo courtesy Katie G. Cotterill, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Last verified: October 28, 2026. Every date below was checked against the organizer or a current listing, and anything not yet posted for 2026 says so. We recheck through December. Tacoma’s holiday lights season has one big name, Zoolights, and a lot of good…
Top photo courtesy Christmas Carol Lane. Last verified: October 28, 2026. Every date below was checked against the organizer or a current listing, and anything not yet posted for 2026 says so. We recheck through December. For years the answer to “where are the Christmas lights in the Tri-Cities” was easy: Senske’s drive through on…
Top photo courtesy Woodland Park Zoo. Last verified: October 28, 2026. Every date below was checked against the organizer or a current listing, and anything not yet posted for 2026 says so. We recheck through December. Seattle doesn’t have one big lights show. It has a dozen good ones spread across the city, the Eastside…
Top photo courtesy Christmas Ships Parade. Last verified: October 28, 2026. Every date below was checked against the organizer or a current listing, and anything not yet posted for 2026 says so. We recheck through December. Clark County doesn’t have a big ticketed light park. What it has is better spread out: the Christmas Ships…
Top photo courtesy Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce. Last verified: October 30, 2026. No. The Leavenworth Christkindlmarkt is not running in 2026, and it didn’t run in 2025 either. Leavenworth’s official festival pages no longer list it, and the market’s old website no longer loads properly. If it comes back, we’ll update this page the same…
Top photo by Hsin Shao, courtesy Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Last verified: October 30, 2026. Every date below was checked against the organizer’s own site or event listing. We recheck weekly through December and log every change at the bottom. Washington has exactly one full German style Christmas market, and it’s in Seattle. Go…
Scott Griffith has worked for Washington State Parks since 1981. He explains how the old Milwaukee Road became the Palouse to Cascades Trail, what each section is really like, and why you should not get on your bike in North Bend expecting to ride to Idaho.
Amanda Valdez plans Auburn’s biggest events, from a Veterans Parade with 4,000 participants to a scavenger hunt for laminated paper bunnies. She walks through a full year in Auburn, plans a Saturday for a first time visitor, and explains the giant crow holding a box of fries.
Some Washington tree farms open before Thanksgiving and some sell out by early December. Here are the farms by region, with 2026 dates, prices and what to bring.
Brian Alley did not set out to run a music festival. He offered to help with one. He spent years on the road with Never Come Down, a Portland band that played bluegrass instruments and pretty much anything else, from Gillian Welch to Ween. When the band was booked for Cidergrass, a small festival in…
