All Day

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas at Lakewood Theatre

Lakewood Center for the Arts 368 S State St, Lake Oswego

Lakewood Theatre Company, now in its 74th season, stages the Irving Berlin musical about two song-and-dance men, a sister act and a Vermont inn that needs rescuing. Expect the title […]

Bellevue Downtown Ice Rink

Bellevue Downtown Park

For a little over nine weeks, a seasonal rink sets up on the plaza at Bellevue Downtown Park, with the waterfall and the downtown towers as a backdrop. Skate rental […]

$12 – $24

Little Shop of Horrors at Portland Center Stage

The Armory (Portland Center Stage) 128 NW Eleventh Ave, Portland

Portland Center Stage counter-programs the season of goodwill with a brand-new production of the cult musical about a shy florist and the bloodthirsty plant that makes him famous. Chip Miller […]

Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton Grand Seattle

Sheraton Grand Seattle 1400 6th Ave, Seattle

For 32 years, architects have teamed with the Sheraton's chefs to build a village of six-foot gingerbread structures in the downtown hotel, each season built around a new theme you […]

A Very Die Hard Christmas

Everett Performing Arts Center 2710 Wetmore Ave, Everett

Seattle sketch troupe The Habit settles the eternal argument about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie by turning it into a holiday stage parody. Expect 1980s jokes, soft-rock songs, […]

$27

A Christmas Carol at Portland Playhouse

Portland Playhouse 602 NE Prescott St, Portland

Portland Playhouse's musical take on Dickens has become a King neighborhood holiday ritual, staged in the company's converted church on NE Prescott. This year director Cassie Greer brings a fresh […]

$5 – $71.95

The Lights of Christmas at Warm Beach Camp

Warm Beach Camp & Conference Center 20800 Marine Dr, Stanwood

For its 30th season, the Northwest's big Christmas light festival at Warm Beach Camp, north of Marysville near Stanwood, becomes mainly a walking event. Guests stroll at their own pace […]

$16 – $35

Holiday Express at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center

Oregon Rail Heritage Center 2250 SE Water Ave, Portland

Heritage rail cars leave the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in the Central Eastside for a short holiday excursion, with Santa and his elves working the heated cars. Morning departures are […]

$25 – $35

Argosy Cruises Christmas Ship Festival

Pier 55, Seattle Waterfront (plus Lake Union, Kirkland, Lake Washington, Edmonds, Everett and Des Moines departures) 1101 Alaskan Way, Seattle

Since 1949, a decorated Christmas Ship has sailed around Puget Sound and Lake Washington with a live choir on board, stopping off waterfront parks for 20-minute concerts piped to shore. […]

Santa Trains at the Northwest Railway Museum

Snoqualmie Depot and North Bend Depot 38625 SE King St, Snoqualmie

The Northwest Railway Museum has run Santa trains through the Snoqualmie Valley every year since 1969. Families pick between two rides. The 40-minute Yuletide Express leaves the Snoqualmie Depot, climbs […]

Seattle Marathon and Half Marathon

Seattle Center (start) to Pier 66 (finish) 305 Harrison St, Seattle

The Sunday after Thanksgiving belongs to Seattle's hometown marathon, now the UW Medicine Seattle Marathon and Half Marathon. Thousands of runners and walkers work off the holiday meal on a […]

Ongoing

WildLanterns at Woodland Park Zoo

Woodland Park Zoo 5500 Phinney Ave N, Seattle

Woodland Park Zoo's winter light festival swaps strings of bulbs for large illuminated lanterns shaped like animals and habitats, set along the zoo's paths after dark. It runs from mid-November […]

Seattle Christmas Market

Seattle Center (South Fountain Lawn & Fisher Pavilion) 305 Harrison St, Seattle

Seattle Center's South Fountain Lawn turns into a European-style Christmas village for five weeks, with wooden stalls from local and European vendors, a carousel, a walk-through tree, daily snow showers […]

$6.99 – $21.99

ZooLights at the Oregon Zoo

Oregon Zoo 4001 SW Canyon Rd, Portland

The Oregon Zoo trades daytime animal-watching for a nighttime walk through grounds wrapped in light displays, from the main paths to the hillside trees. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. each […]

$13 – $35

Holiday Weekends at Portland Japanese Garden

Portland Japanese Garden 611 SW Kingston Ave, Portland

For three weekends starting the day after Thanksgiving, the Japanese Garden in Washington Park dresses for the season with traditional winter decorations. Visitors can shop Japanese and Japanese-inspired gifts, have […]

$22.50

Seattle Center Winterfest

Seattle Center (Armory Food & Event Hall and campus) 305 Harrison St, Seattle

Seattle Center's five-week holiday program is mostly free and easy to drop into. The heart of it is the Winter Train & Village in the Armory, a late-19th-century-style model railway […]

Free

Westlake Park Holiday Carousel

Westlake Park 401 Pine St, Seattle

After a six-year break, the downtown holiday carousel is back in Westlake Park, presented by Nordstrom. It turns daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Jan. 3, a nice […]

$4

Vancouver Holiday Market

Hilton Vancouver Washington 301 W 6th St, Vancouver

The Vancouver Farmers Market moves indoors for Thanksgiving weekend, bringing 126 local makers, growers and small businesses under one roof at the Hilton downtown. It opens Friday afternoon, a few […]

Free

Zoolights at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium 5400 N Pearl St, Tacoma

Tacoma's long-running holiday light show takes over Point Defiance Zoo after dark, with light displays strung along the zoo's paths above Commencement Bay. It's a walking show rather than an […]

Christmas Festival of Lights at The Grotto

The Grotto (National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother) 8840 NE Skidmore St, Portland

The Grotto's wooded sanctuary in Northeast Portland turns into a quarter-mile walk of lights each evening from November 27 to December 30. The music is the draw: school, church and […]

$8.95 – $19.95

Winter Wonderland at Portland International Raceway

Portland International Raceway 1940 N Victory Blvd, Portland

A drive-through light show on the racetrack at Portland International Raceway, and the single largest fundraiser for the Sunshine Division's hunger-relief work. Tickets are priced per carload, so pile in […]

$38 – $55

Snowflake Lane at The Bellevue Collection

Bellevue Way between Bellevue Square and Lincoln Square Bellevue Way NE from NE 4th St to NE 8th St, Bellevue

Every night at 7 p.m. from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve, Bellevue Way between NE 4th and NE 8th turns into a short holiday parade: toy drummers, dancers, […]

Free

Garden d’Lights

Bellevue Botanical Garden 12001 Main St, Bellevue

Bellevue Botanical Garden's holiday display shapes its lights into the garden itself: glowing flowers, plants and small critters tucked into the beds along the paths, with a scavenger-hunt map for […]

$5 – $10

Ballard Farmers Market

Ballard Avenue NW (22nd Ave NW to 20th Ave NW) Ballard Ave NW & 22nd Ave NW, Seattle

Seattle's first year-round neighborhood farmers market has filled the cobblestone stretch of Ballard Avenue NW every Sunday since 2000, and the produce comes only from Washington farms. In winter the stalls lean toward storage crops, meat, eggs and baked goods, with makers' tables mixed in, and the market runs from NW Market Street down to […]

Free

West Seattle Farmers Market

West Seattle Junction California Ave SW & SW Alaska St, Seattle

In the heart of the Junction at California and Alaska, West Seattle's market runs every Sunday morning through the winter, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Think of it as a neighborhood shop more than a destination: farm produce, meat, eggs and bread, with the Junction's coffee shops and bookstores a few steps away. Nov. 8 […]

Free

Fremont Sunday Market

Fremont Sunday Market (Fremont Bridge location) 3401 Evanston Ave N, Seattle

Fremont's European-style street market has run for more than 35 years, and it doesn't take the winter off. From November on it moves under cover at the Fremont Bridge location, which is heated, with a second covered spot on 34th next to the market's own Sundays Coffee. Expect a mix of vintage and flea finds, […]

Free

Capitol Hill Farmers Market

E Barbara Bailey Way E Denny Way between Broadway & 10th Ave E, Seattle

The Denny Way entrance to Capitol Hill Station opens straight onto this market, which sets up on E Barbara Bailey Way between Broadway and 10th every Sunday of the year. […]

Free

Garden Tea Tastings at Lan Su Chinese Garden

Lan Su Chinese Garden 239 NW Everett St, Portland

A tea master from Lan Su's Yun Shui Teahouse pours three seasonal Chinese and Taiwanese teas for a group of no more than eight, in one of the garden's pavilions. […]

$37 – $56