West Seattle, Washington
15 Saturday
Earlier this month, West Seattle realtor and preparedness coach Alice Kuder sponsored the Winter Wander multi-day scavenger hunt as a fun way to boost local independent businesses, among other things – and we have word of the winner! From Alice:
Congratulations to Terri C. of West Seattle! She, her husband and daughter did a great job of solving 13 Winter Wander clues and won the drawing for $200 in gift cards from local merchants. The businesses they chose are Northwest Art and Frame, Paper Boat Booksellers, Coastal Surf Boutique.
We had 12 groups submit a total of 193 selfies for the contest, and countless other groups who played just for fun! Many thanks to the 15 neighborhood businesses and institutions who agreed to participate as solutions to our clues. We hope you will pay each of them a visit and express your gratitude as well. They are:
Wildwood Market
The Birdhouse
Seattle Fish Company
Cherry Consignment
A la Mode Pies
Curious Kidstuff
Capers
Wing Stop
Indu!ge
Vatsana’s Thai
Leaps and Bounds
Paper Boat Books
Peel and Press
Bed Head Coffee
Seattle Fire Station #11
Highland Park Improvement Club
Desmond Hansen ArtworkMark your calendar now for the SECOND annual Winter Wander, which will take place Dec. 4-12, 2021.
One week until Christmas Eve, and it’s time to finalize your holiday-food plans. Some options:
MARINATION MA KAI (1660 Harbor SW): The Seacrest eatery is offering a Christmas brunch box for pickup 1-4 pm Christmas Eve, $45 to serve two:
-Monkey Bread
-Choice of Quiche Slices
-Ellenos Yogurt W/ Guava Jam
-House-made Tropical Granola
-Fruit Salad W/ Li Hing Mui
Potential add-ons, too, including beverages. Go here to order.
SALTY’S ON ALKI (1936 Harbor SW; WSB sponsor): Tomorrow (Friday, December 18th) is the deadline to order a Christmas meal kit (featuring ham AND turkey), serving 2 for $70. You can order online or by phone. See the menu here.
PHOENECIA (4717 42nd SW): The Junction bistro is offering a reheatable Christmas dinner for two, $100. The menu:
-Fig and walnut salad
-Trio of spreads
-Roasted fingerling potatoes
-Balsamic-braised lamb shank
-Chocolate panna cotta
Text “reserve” to 206-250-5482.
WEST SEATTLE THRIFTWAY (4201 SW Morgan; WSB sponsor): Turkey or ham dinners – see the menu here. Sunday (December 20th) by 7 pm is the deadline to order, and the pickup deadline is 7 pm Christmas Eve.
HUSKY DELI (4721 California SW); Monday is the deadline for ordering Christmas dinners – ham or turkey, serving 6 to 8 people. See the menu here. Order by phone at 206-937-2810.
PECOS PIT (4400 35th SW; WSB sponsor): Meals available with smoked turkey, ham, or prime rib. Monday (December 21st) is the ordering deadline. The menu, and ordering info, is here.
METROPOLITAN MARKET (2320 42nd SW; WSB sponsor): Full holiday dinners still available as of a short time ago include ham, turkey, and lamb; ordering deadline is Saturday night. See what’s available here.
WHOLE FOODS (4755 Fauntleroy Way SW): Holiday meals serving from 4 to 12 people are available; the online ordering site says they need qt least 48 hours’ notice (and keep in mind, the store will be closed on Christmas Day).
Others to add? Comment, or email us – westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
Two West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays updates:
ONLINE GIFT-GUIDE SHOPPING TONIGHT: In place of Shop Late Thursdays, West Seattle Junction merchants are online again tonight with the season’s second and final live “gift guide” – a chance to spend local, from home, 5-8 pm tonight:
Gather your friends (online) for a fun shopping experience with your favorite merchants. The Junction video crew will be visiting local boutiques and shops to showcase some of the best gift ideas brought to you by the owners of the stores. It can’t get more personal or hometown West Seattle than that! You’ll be able to purchase the items that evening too. Your purchases will be wrapped and ready for either curbside-pick up or free delivery to your local West Seattle door. You’ll also have a chance to win gift cards to each of the businesses! Tune in to see how on Instagram LIVE and Facebook LIVE.
5 PM to 5:30 PM bin41
5:30 PM to 6 PM Wild Rose’s
Pop-in at Carmilia’s
6 PM to 6:30 PM Darby Winery
6:30 PM to 7 PM Fleurt
Pop-in at Carmilia’s
7 PM to 7:30 PM Mystery Made
7:30 PM to 8 PM CAPERS
If you miss this, remember that we have a list of dozens of local independent businesses offering online shopping in our West Seattle Holiday Guide.
‘SPIRIT OF WEST SEATTLE’ LUMINARIAS SATURDAY: As promised, the Junction Association has a list of businesses where you can pick up a free luminaria on Saturday to light at 7 pm that night (as explained here):
City Mouse – 10 AM – 4 PM
CAPERS – 10 AM – 6 PM
Fleurt – 10 AM – 5 PM
Carmilia’s – 11 AM – 6 PM
Curious Kidstuff 10 AM – 6 PM
Light your luminaria at 7 pm Saturday and share photos with the #spiritofwestseattle hashtag.
Eight days until Christmas Eve, but Santa Claus made an early appearance today at Providence Mount St. Vincent, which sent the photo and report:
Nucor’s Walter Reese and Melody Sarkies were greeted with gratitude today by Santa and team members at Providence Mount St. Vincent, when dropping off gifts to fulfill resident wishes this Christmas.
The team at Nucor has been fulfilling wishes from The Mount’s Giving Tree for the last ten years. The Mount sent a special request for Santa to help thank all of the Nucor team members for their generosity, compassion, and for being wonderful neighbors to so many here in West Seattle. They in turn received a special proclamation from Santa himself, who was determined just Monday by the World Health Organization to be immune to COVID-19 and approved for travel worldwide!
“By the Power Vested in me as Santa Claus, I hereby grant the Nucor Team all of their Christmas wishes for…. Health & Prosperity, Joy & Peace, and a year of blessings and beyond! From our hearts to yours, we wish you the Merriest Christmas!”
(Sidewalk-side Christmas tree in Gatewood)
Two reminders, in case you haven’t already seen these in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide:
EMPLOYER GIFTS FOR EMPLOYEES: Dream Dinners-West Seattle (WSB sponsor) has an offer for employers, in this year where company parties aren’t happening – give them the gift of pre-made meals! Today is the deadline for ordering. See this flyer.
HOLIDAY RAINBOW TRIVIA: Today’s your registration deadline for this fun free online party presented by the Senior Center of West Seattle, 7 pm Friday (December 18th). Sylvia O’Stayformore will host. Go here to register!
Got something for the Holiday Guide? westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
Again this year, The Christmas People are offering a free holiday meal – portable this time – while seeking cookies and volunteers to help make it happen. Here’s the announcement:
In our 22nd year, The Christmas People need 3,000 homemade cookies for homeless people. Drop off Wednesday, Dec.23 through Saturday, Dec. 27 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Alki Masonic Center, 4736 40th Ave SW. Use Dining Room entrance that faces the parking lot.
We need a driver from Thursday, Dec. 24 through Sunday, Dec. 27 at 10:30 a.m. to pick up 80 meals and 80 snacks at Alki Masonic Center and drive immediately to Catholic Community Services on Dexter Ave in Seattle
We need two drivers from Thursday the 24th through Sunday the 27th at 4:30 p.m.to help deliver individual boxed meals to four shelters in Seattle.
On December 25, we are offering complimentary holiday meals to shut-ins, veterans, homeless from noon to 4 p.m., until food runs out. Call Rev. Fred Hutchinson to reserve at 206-719-4979.
We are limiting the number of essential volunteer workers in the building at any one time. Visit SeattleWorks.org to volunteer or call 206-719-4979.
Thanks to Jon for the photos and report:
A bunch of folks on the 4800 block of 46th Ave SW signed up for Parks & Recreation’s Pathway of Lights activity. Tonight would have been the night of the Green Lake event.
As noted here last night, you are invited to light a luminaria – or more than one! – next Saturday (December 19th) to show the “Spirit of West Seattle.”
(Photo provided by WSJA)
West Seattle will celebrate another form of holiday lighting next weekend. As part of West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays, you are invited to be part of the “Spirit of West Seattle” illumination on Saturday, December 19th, at 7 pm:
“The Spirit of West Seattle” is a celebration and reminder that while we may not be together in-person, we are together as a community.
On Saturday, December 19th at 7 PM light a candle, get a flashlight or light a luminaria as you take an opportunity for a moment to share your own holiday light.
The Junction is offering free luminarias at select stores that Saturday. The list will be revealed soon!
You can share your picture of your light using our #spiritofwestseattle hashtag or tagging the Junction (@westseattlejunction).
“The Spirit of West Seattle” can grow into an annual event, evoking the spirit of our community.
To surprise and delight, play the Accidental Island Christmas 2020 playlist too, curated by West Seattle neighbors on Spotify.
One day we’ll be together again – until then shine a light upon December 19th (7 PM).
Luminarias are what line the path around Green Lake during the “Pathway of Lights” most years (not this year, though). They’re also traditions in Southwest neighborhoods, like the one where we lived in San Diego before coming here 30 years ago. You can make your own, with paper lunch bags, sand, and tealight candles (or battery-powered versions).
If you’ll be shopping for a Christmas tree this weekend – it’s your last chance to check out the Holy Rosary lot. Here’s the update we received:
Holy Rosary School’s tree lot will close Sunday evening for the season. A fresh load of trees was delivered for the weekend.
Wreaths, garland, and Seattle Lutheran High School’s poinsettias are also available for sale. Come to the lot, located behind the school, Saturday and Sunday from 9 AM-9 PM. This tree lot benefits Holy Rosary School, as well as three local nonprofits: Hickman House (a domestic violence shelter), Seattle Lutheran High School, and West Seattle Food Bank.
The lot is off 42nd between Genesee and Dakota. It’s also open until 9 tonight. Your options include shopping from your car (or stroll the lot, masked and distanced) as well as getting a tree delivered – details here.
P.S. If you can’t get to this lot, the full list of West Seattle sellers is in our Holiday Guide.
In case you haven’t seen these in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide – two holiday movies-turned-radio-plays will be presented live online by local groups in the next week and a half!
‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’: Tomorrow (Friday) night at 7:30 pm, Seattle Lutheran High School presents the radio-play version of this classic:
Seattle Lutheran Drama is proud to present a rare holiday-themed performance! It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play by Joe Landry is an adaptation of the classic film interpreted as a 1940’s-style radio drama. Clarence, an Angel 2nd Class, is given the daunting task of teaching George Bailey about all the good he has put into the world in order to prevent George from taking his own life. George sees his hometown and the changes that would have occurred if he had never been born. Our talented actors will each perform from their homes, assisted by live practical sound effects. Filled with all your favorite characters and lines, this heart-felt Christmas classic is sure to please! Streaming ONE NIGHT ONLY! Friday, December 11th = Tickets: $15 per device: Purchase tickets here.
‘MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET’: Twelfth Night Productions will perform this radio-play “version of the classic 1947 film ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ … based on the holiday movie favorite of the same name and presented as a live 1940s radio broadcast. ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ tells the timeless story of an old man who calls himself Kris Kringle and is hired as the Macy’s department store Santa. His claim to be the real Santa Claus becomes a court case and a young child’s belief could make all the difference.” It’ll be live online at 7:30 pm Saturday, December 19th, and 3 pm Sunday, December 20th; your pay-what-you-can ticket (donate here) will allow you to watch either or both, and/or to view it later.
They’re back! West Seattle’s most famous handmade wreaths have returned in the heart of the holiday season. The announcement and photo are from the Pathfinder K-8 Wreath Team:
For the past fifteen years, Pathfinder PTSA has sold homemade holiday wreaths at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market. In recent years we have been in front of Key Bank with our smiling kids, and we know that some community members and parent alumni return each year to purchase one.
Due to the pandemic, we are not at the Farmers’ Market this season, but we are carrying on with the tradition and are wreaths in a socially-distanced way. Each wreath is 100% unique and made from foraged materials from our yards and tree lots. This year’s wreaths are some of our finest!
We’ve set up a Wreath Store online where you can choose your own beautiful wreath. Once purchased, we are asking folks to do a contactless pickup at one of our five mini-workshops in West Seattle.
We thank you for your support! All proceeds will benefit the students at Pathfinder K-8 school.
Adding to the trees/wreaths section in our West Seattle Holiday Guide! westseattleblog@gmail.com if you have holiday info to add.
Two West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays updates:
(Photo courtesy West Seattle Junction Association)
HOLIDAY PLAYLIST: The Junction welcomes your suggestions for the “Accidental Island” holiday playlist on Spotify:
Join in the easily accessible music playlist you can use as a backdrop for all your winter holiday celebrations. The Junction would love to know what your favorite holiday song is, and songs by local artists are definitely encouraged. Drop your song/artist suggestions in email. The Junction can’t wait to hear your suggestions! Four lucky winners will receive a Hometown Holidays box too!
Email song suggestions to admin@wsjunction.org.
SHOP ‘LIVE’ ONLINE: Instead of Shop Late Thursdays this season, The Junction is spotlighting local retailers in a live Holiday Gift Guide event the next two Thursday nights. Here’s what you’ll see tomorrow night:
Personal gift guides straight from your favorite Junction business owners to you – on your couch! It’s the holiday shopping event of the season – the virtual Junction gift guide. Get your favorite beverage, then sit back and enjoy the absolute best of the best gifts brought to you by the people who hand-curated them – the business owners!
Tune in to hear all about gifts from:
5 PM to 5:30 PM Lika Love Boutique
5:30 PM to 6 PM Carmilia’s
6 PM to 6:30 PM CAPERS
6:30 PM to 7 PM Fleurt
7 PM to 7:30 PM Mystery Made
7:30 PM to 8 PM bin41
Watch live via the Junction Facebook page or each business’s Instagram TV feed. During the event, you’ll be able to shop via comments, direct messages, and/or email.
P.S. If Thursday night doesn’t work, dozens of local independent businesses offer online shopping 24/7 – see the list in our West Seattle Holiday Guidel
Spend local! Not only can you support local independent businesses that way, you can also support local students, families, and PTAs with your holiday-shopping dollars:
HOLIDAY EMPORIUM: The Alki Elementary PTA is offering online opportunities to support area businesses AND local students – plus drive-thru Santa photos:
Alki Elementary PTA is dedicated to partnering with local businesses during these unprecedented times, while offering community members the option to shop from the safety and comfort of their own homes, with no-contact pick-up and delivery available. Priority Mail Shipping available for the “Best of Seattle” curated gift pack. Order here. (That’s where you will see what’s offered – candy, coffee, candles, more.)
In addition to no-contact pick-up offered in West Seattle (Genesee & 54th), we are offering photos with Santa Claus! Santa will be taking holiday photos with families at the North Pole Express FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18th! (Kids/families in car windows, Santa outside.) Santa’s bright red mailbox will also be available for drive-thru letter dropoff for all. Please do not hesitate to reach out to info@alkipta.com with any questions.
Our Holiday Shop is currently open and runs through December 13th! Shop at >alkipta.square.site.
Quantities are limited, so make sure to shop early while supporting locally!Alki Elementary is also offering a way for individuals to sponsor local families in need this holiday season through purchasing a gift card with our Giving Garland at alkipta.square.site/giving-garland. Gift cards will be provided to families in need to help supply groceries, household items and toys.
VIRTUAL BOOK FAIR: Lafayette Elementary‘s PTA just launched this opportunity to buy books online. Through December 21st, you can shop here and support the PTA. As with all online shopping/shipping, the sooner you do it, the better the chance your order will arrive in time for holiday gift-giving.
(Photos courtesy WSFB)
More generosity to report on – this time, the results of Sunday’s West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays Coat Drive. Above, many of the 100+ bags holding the 500+ coats that were donated!
That’s Denis Sapiro from the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle, partnering in the drive, which brought in hundreds of other clothing items, along with a few sleeping bags and blankets. They all go to the Clothesline, part of the merged West Seattle Food Bank/West Seattle Helpline operation; after a seven-day “quarantine,” they’ll be available to Clothesline clients. The message for all donors and helpers: “We are very grateful for your support and dedication to helping our neighbors.”
(WSB photos by Patrick Sand unless otherwise credited)
It’s a special delivery that the West Seattle Food Bank welcomes every holiday season, and it happened today despite the pandemic. Employees at West Seattle’s Nucor steel mill donate food and cash. Today was delivery day.
This year’s food donations totaled 4,380 pounds – more than two tons!
US Army National Guard members Nicholas Delvaux and Shelina Lal helped food bank and Nucor staffers with the unloading.
Nucor employees also donated more than $22,000 in cash this year.
P.S. Nucor thanks Tacoma Hydraulics for its help transporting the donations every year:
(Photo courtesy Nucor)
WSFB has more need than ever this season, not just because of the pandemic, but because it merged earlier this year with the West Seattle Helpline, which means it’s helping prevent homelessness as well as hunger. You can help too – here’s how. (If you have nonperishable food to donate, a local student is sponsoring a drive-thru food drive this Saturday – details in our calendar listing.)
If you can give this holiday season, here are three ways to do that for people served by Navos, which sent this announcement:
During this unprecedented time, Navos Behavioral Health services are more critical than ever. Help make the holidays brighter for some of the most vulnerable children, youth, and adults in our community with a gift of gift cards (grocery stores, VISA or Target preferred), or new hats and gloves (for all ages). Financial donations (tax-deductible) also make a big difference!
-To make a secure donation to our holiday gift card drive, click here.
-Donations may be dropped off at Navos’ West Seattle campus at 2600 SW Holden Street through Friday, December 18th at noon. To arrange a dropoff, please email development@navos.org
-Donations may be mailed to Navos’ West Seattle campus:
2600 SW Holden Street
Attn: Alice Braverman
Seattle, WA 98126Together we can help hundreds of vulnerable children, youth, adults and families living in poverty have a happy holiday! For questions regarding Navos’ holiday drive, please call 206-933-7196, or email development@navos.org.
The Navos West Seattle campus has inpatient and outpatient behavioral-health care as well as housing.
We continue spotlighting holiday-helping opportunities all season long – you can also check the list any time in our West Seattle Holiday Guide.
(WSB photos)
The West Seattle Junction Christmas tree is officially aglow. This year, instead of gathering the community for a ceremony, caroling, and Night Market, the lighting event was streamed tonight on video, but with familiar guests – Santa Claus, longtime Junction entrepreneur and Christmas decorator Jack Menashe, the Endolyne Children’s Choir, and County Councilmember Joe McDermott. If you missed it, you can watch the 20-minute tree-lighting event here, on YouTube. Afterward, families were invited to switch over to social-media channels to see Santa reading children’s stories. We caught up with him as he settled in to get ready to read “Katy and the Big Snow” by Virginia Lee Burton:
West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays (with community co-sponsors including WSB) continues tomorrow with a coat drive near the Farmers’ Market entrance – look for the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle tent, 10 am-2 pm, by Easy Street. Bring coats, gloves, and hats to help your neighbors stay warm.
Thanks to Al for the photo – as featured in our daily preview, Santa is outside Circa (2605 California SW) until 7 pm to wave at families in passing cars (southbound side of the street). “Snow” too.
P.S. Another chance to see Santa tonight is coming up online at 7 pm – the West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays tree lighting, with Santa participating and then reading stories live, here.
Another holiday tradition has had to evolve because of the pandemic. Local realtor and preparedness coach Alice Kuder usually sponsors a free holiday movie. Can’t do that this year – so she’s come up with a scavenger hunt! “Winter Wander” is happening now through December 13th, open to all, free to participate. There’s a prize drawing for $200 in local-business gift certificates if you send qualifying selfies to WinterWander2020@gmail.com. The clues to more than 30 local businesses and homes, and map, are on her website – and if you have a question, you can email her at that same address.
Tomorrow night (Saturday, December 5th), the biggest West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays event of the year happens online, starting at 7 pm. The community Christmas tree lighting is part of it – but there’s more! First of all, Santa Claus will welcome you. You’ll hear a few words from King County Councilmember Joe McDermott, recorded today at Easy Street Records in a chat with Junction Association executive director Lora Radford:
Wouldn’t be a tree lighting without the Endolyne Children’s Choir, who will seasonally serenade you. Then West Seattle’s Mr. Christmas, Jack Menashe, has something to say about the season, before Santa joins him for the countdown to light the tree. You can watch it all here. Right after that, Santa reads children’s stories live (watch here or here) – with elves helping out by reading your Christmas wishes and answering questions.
P.S. Hometown Holidays continues Sunday with a way for you to give gifts to neighbors in need – donate coats, gloves, and/or scarves at the Kiwanis booth at the south end of the Farmers’ Market, 10 am-2 pm.
Austin Street Lights is back. Mark Bader sent the video, photo, and an invitation to come enjoy the music-synched show:
Our Christmas light display on Austin Street is up and running! This will be our 5th year with our lights set to music. We enjoy putting this together each year, and hopefully this helps put a smile on your face during these difficult times.
The best way for you to experience the lights is from your car – tune your radio to 99.5 and listen to a number of songs synchronized to the lights. Please be respectful of the neighbors and of course, if you feel the need to dance in the street, make sure you social-distance.
The songs will play from 4 pm to 10 pm through New Year’s Day. We are easy to find, on SW Austin Street and 37th Ave SW [map], at the top of Gatewood hill.
This might be West Seattle’s only music-synched light show this year, since West Seattle Lights is no more and West Seattle Yuletide is taking a pandemic break. We’re adding it to the list in our West Seattle Holiday Guide and welcome suggested additions, with or without photos/video – westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
Quick reminder of two major West Seattle events happening online tonight:
SOUTHWEST SEATTLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY GALA/AUCTION: 7 pm tonight is the official virtual champagne gala and auction, but you can bid even sooner – go here to register. You can go here for a look at the auction items – which include an autographed Pearl Jam poster, a chance to create your own Husky Deli ice-cream flavor, even a chance to have Desmond Hansen paint a signal box for you! (Added: If you’re not bidding, you can watch here.)
OLG’S VIRTUAL ‘LIGHT UP THE NIGHT’: The first Friday of December is always the night Our Lady of Guadalupe lights West Seattle’s highest-elevation Christmas tree, in front of the church at 35th/Myrtle, and tonight it’s still happening – music and all – but don’t go in person; this time, it’s livestreamed! 7 pm is when to watch, here.
Two more West Seattle holiday notes today, in case you haven’t already seen these in our Holiday Guide:
DRIVE-BY SANTA: Gretchen at Circa (2605 California SW) says, “Santa will be in front of Circa from 5-7 pm this Saturday [December 5] for people to drive by and wave and let kids toss their wish lists into his big red wish box. There will be music and fake snow. The most socially distant Santa!! Heading south on California past Circa will be the best way to enjoy seeing him.” (Gretchen says they’ve been doing the fake snow many evenings, weather permitting, minus Santa, between 5:30 and 6 pm.)
FREE HOLIDAY PHOTOS: Gail Ann Photography will be offering free holiday photo sessions – in exchange for food (or pet-food) donations.- at Fauntleroy Schoolhouse (9131 California SW), 9 am-3 pm December 12-13. No Santa, but lots of holiday cheer. You need to make an appointment – all the info is in our calendar listing.
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