The Pike Place Market Holiday Scene
Is not much.
I just finished up my last mileage run of the year with a trip to Seattle to have dinner with friends. I arrived in the afternoon and immediately headed over to visit the Northwest Wine Academy again. They had a new batch of wines for tasting since I’d last been there and it was fun to catch up with the staff and get tips on good restaurants to try.
Then I decided to forgo any additional urban winery stops in favor of checking out Pike Place Market at Christmas time. Visions of beautiful decorations, stalls filled with perfect holiday gifts for everyone on my list, and an overall atmosphere of gaiety and cheer were in my head. My friends had warned me they didn’t think there was anything special, but I thought I knew better.
Rain was gusting sideways as I made it across the bridge from the parking garage to the market, but I made it through the door to see…emptiness. I don’t like crowds, so the lack of people wasn’t an issue. But the lack of vendors kind of was.
It was 3:30PM on a Thursday afternoon and many stalls on the main level had already packed up, others were starting to. There was an organic apple cider tent. And the florists had beautiful bunches of evergreen bouquets.
There were some festive decorations outside the main entrance of the market, but otherwise, everything was pretty much the same as it had been earlier this year, just less. And much windier.
So if you’ve visited the market before and thinking of going in December, save yourself a trip unless you can visit during an event. And if you’ve never been, definitely go in the morning to get more of the full experience.
should have went the sheraton to check out the Star Wars themed gingerbread houses and to the fairmont to see the teddy bear suite instead.
Oh wow, I wish I had known about the Star Wars gingerbread, that sounds like it would have been fun!