Port Angeles and Sequim both will mark the Saturday after Thanksgiving with tree-lighting ceremonies to coincide with Small Business Saturday, while the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center offers an alternative to Black Friday shopping today.
Port Townsend and Forks tree-lighting ceremonies will be the first weekend in December.
Port Angeles
Santa Claus will arrive at the Conrad Dyar Memorial Fountain at Laurel and First streets at 4:45 p.m. Saturday after a full afternoon of local performances and music beginning at noon and continuing to 8 p.m. to correspond with Small Business Saturday.
The 30-foot-tall Douglas fir donated by the Port of Port Angeles will be lit up for the holidays at 5 p.m. Children will be able to visit with Santa until 8 p.m.
Scheduled performances are noon, IBC Student Ministry Band; 1 p.m., Cherrywood; 2 p.m., Parking Lot Pipers; 2:30 p.m., Robbin Eaves; 3 p.m., PA Panto; and 4 p.m., Studio 360.
Slices of wood-fired pizza will be offered at Porter’s Pies while Great Northern Coffee Bar’s booth will offer hot coffee or cocoa.
For more information, see www.portangeles.org.
Sequim
Sequim’s Hometown Holidays returns Saturday with musical and seasonal appearances by local musicians and alleged North Pole residents along with continuing traditions of the downtown tree lighting and tractor cruise.
Events are slated from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Centennial Place on the northeast corner of Sequim Avenue and Washington Street to coincide with Small Business Saturday.
Santa Claus will ride into Sequim for photos from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. with the Sequim Irrigation Festival royalty.
The tree-lighting ceremony is set for 4:45 p.m. The tree was donated by Gail Sumpter and installed and decorated by City of Sequim staff.
The Sequim City Band, Juan de Fuca Harmony and Peninsula Singers will perform.
The Sequim Museum’s ninth annual Tractor Cruise will begin at 5 p.m. and go from Sequim High School south on Sequim Avenue and turn west on Washington Street to Mariner Cafe.
A portion of the Sequim Avenue/Washington Street intersection will be closed during the tractor cruise but not all of it, so visitors are encouraged to avoid driving at this intersection at 5 p.m.
For more about Hometown Holidays, call the Chamber of Commerce at 360-683-6197 or visit sequim chamber.com.
For more about the tractor cruise, call 360-681-2257 or visit sequimmuseum.com.
Port Townsend
The Port Townsend Main Street Program is lighting up the city with sparkling white lights decorating the trees in the historic districts for the holiday season, including on Small Business Saturday.
A festival tent on Tyler Street Plaza will provide a heated outdoor space for shoppers to enjoy a meal to go or a hot drink.
On Small Business Saturday, free swag-making is planned from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the tent.
Caroling in the streets is planned with the Wild Rose Chorale.
Selfies can be taken with holiday cartoon cutouts.
For more information, see ptmainstreet.org or enjoypt.com.
Makers Market
The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd., will kick off its Wintertide programming with the opening of the Makers Market and Light Art Experience today.
The Makers Market, open from today through Dec. 17, in the Esther Webster Gallery, and the Light Art installations will be spread throughout the 5 acres of Webster’s Woods through Dec. 28.
Makers Market is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays, with extended hours until 8 p.m. every Friday night.
The Light Art Experience artworks “Nature After Dark” will be lit up nightly from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Makers Market highlights the work of 31 Clallam County artists.
During opening night, visitors can shop into the evening and stroll through the forested park to see 16 new or returning Light Art installations as part of the biannual installation of outdoor exhibitions into Webster’s Woods Sculpture Park.
From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., visitors will find warm beverages and heated seating in the courtyard with live music from Port Townsend alternative-folk singer-songwriter Jack Tierney.
For more information, see pafac.org.
