West Seattle, Washington
13 Saturday
This year, we are particularly susceptible to charming outdoor trees and stars in light displays … and this house in Gatewood has both. It’s one of several nice displays you’ll see on SW Portland; this one is on the south side of the street, west of 41st SW. Still a few nights until Christmas, so we appreciate suggestions – westseattleblog@gmail.com – and you can see what we’ve featured so far by scrolling through this WSB archive category.
Photos can’t adequately capture the brightness of Wyatt‘s display on the northwest corner of 40th and Charlestown – two sides, with the Seahawks tribute (and some moving lights) on the south-facing side, and traditional Christmas symbols (including trees and Santas) out front:
Wyatt is just a few doors west of West Seattle Lights (the music-synched show at 3908 SW Charlestown), and some neighbors on 40th are well-lit too, so if you’re out to see a lot of lights without going to multiple streets, this is a good spot. Thanks to Wyatt for emailing us! See the lights we’ve already featured by scrolling through this WSB archive.
We haven’t shown this yard in a couple years, but it was suggested for a spotlight as we continue showing West Seattle Christmas lights: This tree is in what you might know as the “Skeleton Theatre” yard, site of an amazing animatronic show every Halloween, on the southwest corner of 36th and Hanford. It’s decked with illuminated holiday characters. Thanks for the suggestions; more lights tomorrow, and you can browse the ones we’ve featured before by going here!
We have featured this display at 36th/Roxbury a few times in the past, but the photo and note from Megan were a reminder that it’s the season to see everything through fresh eyes – she and her family are new arrivals and this caught their attention while they were out looking at lights the other night. So thanks for the suggestions (with or without photos) – westseattleblog@gmail.com – one week until Christmas Eve! (See what we’ve shown previously by scrolling through this WSB archive section.)
Continuing to spotlight local lights of note: We noticed this house, on the west side of 44th SW between Lander and Stevens, when visiting the nearby Lafayette Elementary display last night. The green-lit greenery is especially eye-catching. Several other houses on the block, including one right next door, are worth a look too.
Got lights to suggest? westseattleblog@gmail.com – thanks! See what we’ve shown already by scrolling through this WSB archive section.
Despite some damage from Friday night’s windstorm, Lafayette Elementary‘s first-ever Winter Festival of Lights was a success. We stopped by last night and parent volunteer Sarah Whitehead, who came up with the idea, gave us a tour.
The rainbow walkway, built by SODO Makerspace, was a highlight – we recorded some video of the moving lights:
Sarah said her family was outside the area checking out displays like the Bellevue Botanical Garden d’Lites when she thought it would be great for West Seattleites to have more to see closer to home. So over the past year, they planned, got donations from community businesses, sponsorships, and the show was a go! “Definitely a community effort,” she told us. The displays Friday and Saturday nights included some inflatable characters, too – we stopped to admire this one:
The wind took out some planned outdoor features such as an “alley of light” leading north to Wiseman’s Appliance, but it was splendid just the same, with a few indoor features including lanterns made by Lafayette classes:
Watch for Year 2 next year!
Just about every night of the season, the Menashe Family Lights (5605 Beach Drive SW) draw a crowd. Tonight, an extra reason to visit – it’s the one night of the year that you’ll find Santa there for photos.
Until 10 pm, bring nonperishable food for the West Seattle Food Bank, and get your Santa photo with a bedazzling backdrop – one that impresses all ages:
With Christmas less than a week and a half away, your Santa photo ops are dwindling – he has to get back to the North Pole sometime, after all – but we can tell you he’ll be on the Santa Bus in The Junction 10 am-2 pm tomorrow, too.
Continuing our almost-nightly showcasing of holiday lights – the photo and video are from Mark Bader in Gatewood:
“SW Austin Lights” Christmas lights are up again this year. I have a number of songs, and the lights are synced to the music. Tune your radio to 99.5 to hear the music! 3711 SW Austin St.
The lights we’ve shown so far this year – and previously! – are archived, newest to oldest, here. Got a suggestion, with or without photo? Let us know – thank you!
Many Christmas-light displays use fences. Few are as creative as this one. So tonight we feature the lights on this fence along SW Admiral Way in Alki, east of 63rd SW. (Got a suggestion for other lights to showcase? Send us the location! Photos welcome but not mandatory – if you don’t have one, we’ll take one. Scroll through our archives here to see what we’ve shown already.)
Out scouting Christmas lights, we noticed these decorations in North Admiral. Not the biggest and brightest, but, well, the “Star Wars”-iest, with R2D2 on the left and BB8 on the right, and another droid on the ornament in front of R2:
If these ARE the droids you’re looking for, you can see them on 44th SW, south of SW Atlantic.
Got a Christmas lights/decorations sighting? Let us know – westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
As the holiday season continues, we’re showcasing bright lights around West Seattle, and appreciate your sighting reports! This photo was sent by Susan, who says these lights are at 5106 SW Stevens. We’ll be adding them to the list in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide. Got a suggestion, with or without photo? westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
With Christmas now three weeks away, it’s time to start our nightly look at Christmas lights around West Seattle. We want to hear from you about bright and beautiful holiday displays! Tonight, the folks at Quail Park Memory Care Residences (WSB sponsor), which opened this year in The Junction, invited us to take a look at their first display.
Photos seldom do justice to light displays, so you’ll just have to go see for yourself – 4515 41st SW. Two other Quail Park holiday notes – as noted in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide, they’re offering gift-wrapping to Junction shoppers, 10 am-4 pm the next three Saturdays (December 8th, 15th, 22nd), free (but they’re accepting donations for the Alzheimer’s Association if you are so moved). Quail Park is also sponsoring the Hometown Holidays Santa Bus in The Junction the next two Sundays, 10 am-2 pm, leaving from California/Alaska.
Suggestions for lights to spotlight? E-mail us at westseattleblog@gmail.com – photos welcome too!
Jack Menashe – known for his family’s Christmas-lights-laden home – got to throw the switch on another set of lights tonight: The ones decking the West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays tree.
Joined onstage by wife Linda Menashe and four of their 12 grandchildren, he praised West Seattleites for loyalty to their community, and Junction Association executive director Lora Radford for her hard work to strengthen the business district. The lighting event’s format was different this year – instead of packing entertainment and speeches into a half-hour or so preceding the lighting, this year the entertainment was spread across the two hours before the ceremony, which itself lasted just a few minutes, starting with Lora introducing Santa and the Menashes:
Junction Plaza Park was shoulder-to-shoulder for the countdown:
The West Seattle Junction @wsja tree is on! pic.twitter.com/WIDJMvipzS
— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) December 2, 2018
In case you missed the performances, we recorded some highlights – here’s the School of Rock-West Seattle performers:
Endolyne Children’s Choir (whose annual holiday concert is next Saturday):
We featured The Not-Its in our earlier Night Market report; the entertainment slate opened with Mode Music Studios (WSB sponsor). After the lighting, it was back to browsing the Night Market, maybe even saying hi to Santa. Lots more Hometown Holidays festivities to come – including Shop Late Thursdays – one of which includes the holiday-season West Seattle Art Walk on December 13th – and the Santa Bus on two Sundays, December 9th and 16th. It’s all in our WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide, too.
While the wide view of the Menashe Family‘s brightly lit home at 5605 Beach Drive SW is iconic, we stopped on this year’s first official night Friday to notice some of the details:
There are reindeer … but there are also mice!
And a train:
As noted here earlier, the Menashe Family Lights were featured in an episode of ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight” on national TV this past Monday. If you missed it, the episode is available online right now to “verified” viewers, and should be available next week to all.
P.S. One more reminder that Jack and Linda Menashe are scheduled to join Santa in The Junction at 6 tonight, lighting the Hometown Holidays Christmas Tree.
The last 2 stories we covered Friday night before the power outage both involved Christmas lights. Now that the power has stabilized – on with the reports … and the lights:
Click the “play” button in the Instagram window and you’ll see the lighting of Our Lady of Guadalupe‘s big tree outside the church for the first time in five years. Here’s another view:
The parish and school have continued to host a “Light Up the Night” celebration each year, throwing the switch on lights around the grounds and singing Christmas carols, but it wasn’t quite the same. Emcee Brian Callanan thanked the OLG CYO for bringing back the tree lights, which are brighter than we ever remember. The celebration included caroling as always:
And food donations were collected in the sleigh in the lobby of the Walmesley Center:
The tree is on the southeast corner of 35th/Myrtle, near the highest elevation in Seattle city limits, so it’s considered to be Seattle’s highest-elevation Christmas tree.
Platters by Husky Deli were among the attractions as Menashe and Sons Jewelers (WSB sponsor) hosted its open-house Holiday Party tonight in The Junction. We stopped in to talk with proprietor Jack Menashe about his family’s other famous enterprise – their Christmas lights on Beach Drive.
The ABC show “The Great Christmas Light Fight“ came to the Menashes’ home on opening night last season to film for this fall. Jack Menashe says they’ll be featured on the show’s first 2018 night Monday, November 26th (the second hour, 9 pm, as confirmed by the online schedule). As for this year’s display – work will start after Thanksgiving, and the Menashes expect to illuminate West Seattle’s brightest display starting on Friday, November 30th. Meantime, other family sightings at tonight’s party in the shop included Josh Menashe and wife Michele, and Linda Menashe:
Other Junction businesses are also having open houses as the season continues – tomorrow and beyond; see the list in our West Seattle Holiday Guide, and please let us know if you’re planning one and haven’t sent info yet!
If you’re missing some Christmas-lights-viewing time because of the snow and its aftermath – don’t worry, our area’s major displays go through New Year’s! The photos above and below are from Ken and Cora at West Seattle Yuletide, the music-synched lights on 38th SW between Dakota and Genesee; their snowman is Olaf, and that’s who this young visitor waved at:
Find the West Seattle Yuletide schedule here. Meantime … another reader photo, a star over west Admiral, shining from the 5000 block of SW Grayson:
Before the snow, we were thinking of featuring several star displays last night, for Christmas Eve. Maybe next year! But this star comes with its own story – the anonymous reader who sent the photo explains that “(an) arborist installed a hand-built, homemade, lit star on wood frame, high in a birch tree.” Other stars to see around West Seattle include the ones at Providence Mount St. Vincent (35th/Edmunds) and Nucor (Avalon/Andover). Thanks again for all the Christmas-lights tips this season – the ones we’ve showcased are archived, newest to oldest, here.
Another Christmas lights double feature tonight – first, West Seattle’s own Charlie Brown Christmas:
Don Rice sent the photo of his long-running display in North Admiral (last featured here in 2013), and notes:
For over 40 years, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang have come to this location in West Seattle, to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
You’ll find them in the 2100 block of 47th SW.
Meantime, another display we showcased a while back – 2011, to be precise – is still shining bright, we found out tonight:
The classic Santa with his sleigh and reindeer are in that yard on 39th SW between SW Andover and SW Bradford.
Still welcoming suggestions, with or without photos, as Christmas Eve and Day approach! editor@westseattleblog.com – thank you! Lights already featured are archived here, newest-to-oldest.
On this Christmas Eve-Eve-Eve, two more stops on our ongoing Christmas-lights tour of the area – above, the photo is from a reader who points out that their neighbors in the 10700 block of 22nd SW have yard decorations including the Nativity, six wise men, and Santa pulling a sled with Woodstock from “Peanuts.” The decorations, they add, come from 10 years of yard-sale shopping. Meantime, we checked out Fauntlee Hills, which usually has a multitude of brightly lit homes, and found this one on 39th SW just north of SW Barton:
Looking right across the street, these happy little faces were twinkling along a railing:
More lights nightly at least through Christmas! Suggestions welcome, with or without photos, at editor@westseattleblog.com. Our previous spotlights are archived here, newest to oldest.
With Christmas so close, we’re stepping up the featured lights to at least two per night. Above, the 3400 block of 41st SW includes lights and sound designed by 10-year-old Sawyer – thanks to Lisa for the photo and tip! – below, we happened to be driving southbound in the 3700 block of Beach Drive and spotted two very brightly decked decks on the side of the Harbor West over-the-water complex facing Cormorant Cove Park:
Christmas lights to suggest, with or without a photo? editor@westseattleblog.com – thank you! Our archive so far (including previous years, if you keep scrolling) is here; we also have a list of the annual biggies in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide, including West Seattle Lights (3908 SW Charlestown), where, as we mentioned last night, you’ll find local Brownies with hot cocoa for West Seattle Food Bank donors, 6:30-8 pm tonight.
With the clear, dry weather tonight, it’s a perfect time to look at lights – even just a walk around your neighborhood. This one is an eye-catcher on the north end of Arbor Heights, on the north side of SW Roxbury at 36th SW. We’ve featured it before – in 2007 and 2011 – but hadn’t seen it in a few years, until an AH resident sent the photo (thank you!). To see the other lights we’ve featured this season, scroll through our newest-to-oldest archive. We also have a list of lights-and-music shows in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide. Speaking of which, something special tomorrow night:
Brownie Troop 41169 will be at West Seattle Lights handing out hot cocoa to anyone who stops by with a non-perishable food donation (or small cash donations) for the West Seattle Food Bank. They are hoping to spread a little cheer and help boost food donations during the holidays. If you haven’t stopped by this house yet, there is no better time! Our Brownies would love to give you a cocoa to warm yourself while you watch the light show. We hope to see you there!
What: Cocoa for a Cause
When: Thursday 12/21 from 6:30-8 pm
Where: 3908 SW Charlestown
Thanks to Don Brubeck for tonight’s Christmas-lights photo, which is from Alki Avenue SW and illustrates an observation we wanted to share – houses aren’t the only places you’ll find festive lights – apartments and condos can put on a show too. Besides Alki/Harbor Avenues, we also recommend the buildings on the east side of California SW south of SW Holly in south Morgan Junction.
Got lights to suggest, with or without a photo? editor@westseattleblog.com – thank you!
(WSB photo)
Tonight’s featured Christmas lights are in Westwood, on the east side of 30th SW, south of Barton – one recent night we noted multiple festive displays on 30th between there and SW Roxbury, and made a note to go back for a photo when we could. This particular house is notable for multiple trees of lights in the yard – hard for the photo to do justice; we had to angle the camera a bit to get everything in. Thanks again to everyone who’s been suggesting displays (editor@westseattleblog.com); more tomorrow, and if you haven’t seen the big displays yet, you can find them any time in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide.
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