The weekend after Thanksgiving will be filled with holiday events on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Port Angeles
The Winter Ice Village will be a main attraction in Port Angeles during the upcoming weekend.
The rink — the only ice skating rink on the Peninsula — is open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with breaks for ice resurfacing through Jan. 3. at 121 E. Front St.
The community tree is in place at the Conrad Dyar Memorial Fountain at West First Street and North Laurel Street and will be lit up after Thanksgiving, but no ceremony is planned.
However, local merchants will celebrate Small Business Weekend on Friday through Sunday.
Each of those who buy a #supportangeles bag for $10 can use the coupons inside for savings at some 30 businesses.
The bags can be purchased at the Port Angeles Visitor Center, 121 E. Railroad Ave., or at the Winter Ice Village, from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily until Sunday.
Small Business Weekend is sponsored by the Red Lion Hotel and the City of Port Angeles. Proceeds benefit the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce Winter Ice Village.
For information, see www.portangeles.org/events/details/small-business-weekend-12752.
Sequim
Neighboring Sequim will celebrate Home Town Holidays on Saturday with an afternoon and evening of activities.
Festivities tentatively kick off at 1 p.m. with the Sequim Community Orchestra playing by the community tree at Centennial Plaza, which, at 40 feet tall, is the town’s biggest yet.
Hot cocoa and apple cider will be available, and local Cub Scouts will offer wreaths for sale.
Santa Claus and the Sequim Irrigation Festival royalty will ride from the Sequim Village Shopping Center via a fire engine to downtown at 1:30 p.m. They will be available for photos with the public from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
At 4 p.m., Santa will arrive, and from 4 p.m. to 4:45 p.m., locals can guess how many lights are on the tree for a chance at prizes. At 4:45 p.m., volunteers Captain-Crystal Stout and Emily Westcott will light the tree and announce the contest winner.
Sequim Museum and Arts will host its Tractor Cruise starting at 5 p.m., with staging at the Sequim High School parking lot, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
From there, tractors (with required safety triangles) will ride south to Washington Street and head west to Mariner Cafe, 609 W. Washington St.
This year’s tree was purchased from Bacon Christmas Tree Farm in Bremerton with help from the Sequim Merchant Group. On the Choose Local Sequim Facebook page, donors raised a little more than $1,500 to help make the purchase.
Susan Baritelle, owner of Dungeness Kids Co., said she and fellow business owners and community members “felt there was a need” so they stepped up.
“It’s 100 percent funded by the community,” she said.
New downtown lights are partially paid each year for by the City of Sequim, local banks and some proceeds from annual flower baskets. Accurate Angle Crane helped transport and place the tree, while The Home Depot donated a lift, and Rainshadow Coffee donated coffee and hot cocoa for volunteers.
For more information about the overall event, contact the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce at 360-683-6197, or visit sequimchamber.com.
Port Townsend
Port Townsend is decorated for the holidays and merchants are preparing for Small Business Saturday on the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving traditionally opens the holiday weekend, and Saturday will be the big day for shoppers.
On Small Business Saturday, merchants invite shoppers to tour the stores for Christmas gifts while looking over the Port Townsend Main Street Program’s decorations in Uptown and downtown.
Sparkling white lights will decorate the trees in the historic districts, and illuminated snowflakes will be in Uptown, according to the Main Street Program. The winter lights program, funded by city lodging tax, will run through February.
From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, people can make decorative swags in a heated tent at Tyler Street Plaza. The tent will be available though the holiday season, offering a social distancing space as a place to rest or eat a hot meal to go.
The Kiwanis Choo Choo will roll through town, making several appearances on Saturdays beginning this weekend and continuing on Dec. 4 and Dec. 11.
During the Winter Window Wander, shoppers can look for the hidden Choo Choo in participating store windows, filling in cards for chance at a prize drawing.
Saturday is the beginning of several promotions in Port Townsend.
Port Townsend Main Street’s campaign for Giving Tuesday on Nov. 30 is to add string lights over Tyler Plaza.
The annual tree-lighting ceremony offering photo opportunities with Santa and the Kiwanis Choo Choo will be at about twilight on Dec. 4.
On that day, Wild Rose Chorale will perform from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. under the tent at Tyler Street Plaza, and people can make ornaments at 2 p.m. there.
That Saturday also marks the beginning of PT Eats Restaurant Week, which will run through Dec. 12.
For more information, see ptmainstreet.org.
Forks
Forks will celebrate the beginning of the holiday season on Dec. 4 with a Twinkle Light Parade and a tree lighting.
Nothing is planned this weekend.
Danny Milholland, right, and Production Alliance crew members Larry Lawrence, on ladder, and Victor Paz raise their 30-foot by 40-foot tent over Port Townsend’s Tyler Street Plaza on Monday morning. The $13,000 tent is rated for 90 mph winds, Milholland said. It will stay tied to 2-ton concrete anchors for five weeks; then the tent will be moved to Pope Marine Park in time for New Year’s Eve festivities downtown. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)
