Portland Spoke – The Official Blog of Travel Portland

Portland is full of bright ideas to embrace the shorter days of winter: hundreds of thousands of lights in our neighborhoods, our waters, and plenty of spots in between. Here are some of the stars in the city’s constellation of holiday light displays:

The first twinkles come as the Winter Wonderland at the Portland International Raceway (Nov. 22-Dec. 25) kicks off the season with the largest holiday light show west of the Mississippi.

Next, the Oregon Zoo switches on Zoolights (Nov. 23-Dec. 31). This family favorite features carolers, rides on the beloved zoo train, and all sorts of animals (actual and animatronic) — all illuminated with 1.5 million LED lights. (more…)

Photo by Noel Zia Lee via Flickr

The stretch of days from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Eve can be a roller coaster of activity, but the holidays don’t have to be so hectic. Ditch the Thunder Mountain mentality and enjoy a ride on Portland’s Holiday Express (weekends, Nov. 30-Dec. 16), a leisurely way to ease into the season.

Departing from the Oaks Station, adjacent to Oaks Park in Sellwood,  this family-friendly train ride cruises between the Willamette River and Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, with Santa taking the helm and his elves spreading their cheer all along the way. This seasonal adventure comes courtesy of the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation, whose brand-new Oregon Rail Heritage Center in the Eastside Industrial district is now accessible via Portland Streetcar. (more…)

Sure, there’s no place like home for the holidays, but there’s no place quite like Hood River, either. This pretty little burg is an hour’s drive over(-looking) the Columbia River and through the Mt. Hood National Forest woods from Portland — and still holds dear to holiday traditions of years gone by.

Hood River Holidays (Nov. 30 – Dec. 24) gives visitors plenty of reasons to stop, stroll and shop the city’s quaint stores and boutiques, as well as kick back within its restaurants and pubs for a bit of holiday revelry.

Festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 30, with a holiday parade, live music, kids’ activities and the hristmas-tree lighting all heralding the arrival of Santa.

The month-long celebration fills every inch of town with holiday spirit, from boat parades featuring festively lit watercraft, to rides on Mount Hood Railroad’s Polar Express, which transports believers in the Christmas Spirit straight to the North Pole. New events are being added to the festival all the time, so be sure to check the Hood River County Chamber of Commerce website before you pack your sleigh.

Photo by Liv Niland, via Flickr

Just like an Advent calendar loaded with treats, the days leading up to Christmas in Portland hold an abundance of sweet memories — starting with the downtown tree-lighting ceremony (Friday, Nov. 23) in Pioneer Courthouse Square and stretching into the new year.

All ages of sippers and shoppers enjoy the traditional holiday tea service (Nov. 23 – Jan. 6) at The Heathman Hotel’s Tea Court Lounge. Don’t worry — snacking on their devil’s food chocolate cupcakeswon’t land you on Santa’s “naughty” list.

Christmas at Pittock Mansion

Another Portland institution, the Pittock Mansion, dresses up with Celebrating Christmas Carols (Nov. 19 – Jan. 1). The breathtaking mansion is adorned with 15 festive trees, dozens of genuine silver bells, and hundreds of ornaments, which set the scene for holiday performances by local musicians in the estate’s music room.

If your holiday spirit is a little feisty, Portland Center Stage’s annual presentation of The SantaLand Diaries (Nov. 27 – Dec. 30) is just the ticket. Humorist David Sedaris’ beloved account of life as a department store elf is both sweet and sullen, and is sure to deliver the gift of laughter. Traditionalists may prefer to ring in the season with Oregon Ballet Theater’s presentation of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (Dec. 8-23) – it’s the only Balanchine-choreographed production of the holiday classic west of the Mississippi. These are just a pair of the big tickets this holiday season — visit our holiday arts guide for more, and make Portland your source for the best holiday gifts of all: great memories.

For 40 years The Benson Hotel has displayed a “Gingerbread Masterpiece” in the lobby for guests and passersby to admire. Chef Dave Diffendorfer has created the display for the last 17 consecutive years, with fantasy worlds ranging in theme from Santa’s North Pole to an Austrian hillside town to The Benson Hotel itself.  Each year Chef Diffendorfer crafts, molds and carves 100 lbs. of gingerbread and up to 25 lbs. of white chocolate and marzipan into a spectacle to behold.  This year’s display, A Castle in Blue, is one stop to check off your list while shopping or visiting Santa in downtown Portland.  Merry, merry!

How do you get in the holiday spirit? Well, elves help and so do ghosts of Christmases Past.  Somehow Rat Kings and Nutcrackers figure and so do Bing Crosby, a Red Ryder BB gun and maybe an angel or two. We can’t guarantee a white Christmas in Portland, but there’s plenty of holiday cheer, with or without the snow.

"White Christmas" at Lakewood Theatre

“White Christmas”
Nov. 4 through Dec. 18
Lakewood Theatre, 368 S. State St., Lake Oswego

The great Irving Berlin movie musical has been converted to the stage, and though Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney won’t be there, Lakewood musicals have a good reputation, so the title song will be in good hands.

“Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol”
Nov. 15 through Dec. 24
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 S.W. Morrison St.

The Dickens tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim and the ghosts of Christmas has gotten a serious shaking from Seattle playwright John Longenbaugh. Instead of Scrooge, a reclusive Sherlock Holmes is on the scene to deduce the facts of a particular visitation by a peculiar trio of ghosts. The show stars two of Portland’s favorite actors, Michael Mendelson and Todd Van Voris, as Holmes and Watson.

“A Christmas Story”
Nov. 20 through Dec. 24
Portland Center Stage, 128 N.W. 11th Ave.

This is the stage adaptation of Jean Shepherd’s great Christmas reminiscence about growing up in the 1950s, when a bar of soap in the mouth was the antidote to bad language and the Little Orphan Annie radio program was just about the best thing going — except for that Red Ryder BB gun, which Ralphie Parker desperately hopes is under the tree. This popular comedy returns for another season at Portland’s biggest theater.

“Ahhh HA!”
Nov. 26 through Dec. 30
Do Jump!, Echo Theatre, 1515 S.E. 37th Ave.

Do Jump artistic director Robin Lane has explored the intersection of physical comedy, acrobatics and the dream world for more than 30 years, and this holiday show assembles the best of her research into one family-friendly holiday show.

“The Santaland Diaries”
Nov. 29 through Dec. 31
Portland Center Stage, 128 N.W. 11th Ave.

The career of humorist David Sedaris started with an essay he wrote about his experience playing an elf in the Santaland at Macy’s in New York. He read the essay on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and it’s become a holiday tradition. It’s been a hit at Center Stage for the past two seasons, and it returns this year with Jim Lichtscheidl playing Sedaris in the one-man show. (more…)

As usual, the city’s choirs offer a choice of performances of Handel’s famous “Messiah” oratorio (technically an Easter story), and plenty of other holiday-related sounds abound as well. But by mid-December we’ll likely be overloaded with carols and other holiday tunes, so it’s nice to know that Portland’s vibrant classical music scene offers both spiritual and secular music alternatives to standard holiday fare.

Schubert’s “Winterreise”
Nov. 4
Ken Beare and Maria Choban, Community Music Center, 3350 S.E. Francis St.

The dynamic tenor and pianist present a heated new translation (Warning: not for kids!) of what may be the great song cycle ever written, Franz Schubert’s tale of lost love, Winterreise, which the pair are subtitling “Love’s Lost Journey into Frostbite.”

The Von Trapp Children

“A Von Trapp Family Christmas”
Nov. 26
Oregon Symphony, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway

The famous singing family returns with the sound of holidays.

“Winter’s Voice”
Dec. 2
Portland State University choirs, Lincoln Recital Hall, 1620 S.W. Park Ave.

The school’s reinvigorated choral program (including the Chamber Choir, Man Choir and Woman Choir) sings a very affordable program of wintry music from Russia and Estonia, and classical masters from Bach to Debussy.

Tallis Scholars

Tallis Scholars
Dec. 4
Chamber Music Northwest, St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1739 N.W. Couch St.

The choir has been at the forefront of early music choral groups since its founding in 1973, and they’ll bring a mostly holiday-themed program of both Renaissance and more recent music to Portland.

“A Holiday Gift of Music”
Dec. 4
Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Mt. Hood Community College Theater, 26000 S.E. Stark St., Gresham

This reasonably priced concert features Prokofiev’s famous kids’ classic “Peter and the Wolf,” with puppets by Tears of Joy theater.

“Winter Bells”
Dec. 4
Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway

The Cleveland High School chorus and handbell choir join the young players for holiday sounds.

See more holiday music recommendations >>

As the holidays draw nearer, Portland offers even more musical celebrations!

“Gospel Christmas”
Dec. 9-11
Oregon Symphony, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway

Charles Floyd and the Northwest Community Gospel Choir return for the season’s most exuberant sounds.

“Glory of Christmas”
Dec. 11,16-18
Oregon Repertory Singers, St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1716 N.W. Davis St.

Under new director Ethan Sperry, the venerable chorus sings favorite carols, plus modern and traditional Hannukah songs, sacred music by Benjamin Britten, Anton Bruckner, Henryk Gorecki, Portland’s Joan Szymko and more.

The Canadian Tenors

“The Canadian Tenors Christmas”
Dec. 16
Oregon Symphony, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway

The Oprah-approved quartet sings holiday tunes.

Handel’s “Messiah”
Dec. 16-18
Portland Baroque Orchestra, First Baptist Church, Southwest Taylor at 12th Ave.

If you can catch only one Messiah, PBO’s is the truest, because it uses the instruments, tunings and performance styles closest to the composer’s intentions — and it sounds magnificent, especially abetted by the sublime voices of one of the West’s finest choruses, Cappella Romana, and soloists from New York, Boston and Toronto. A young people’s concert on Dec. 19 features excerpts for shorter attention spans. (more…)

Here it is, November already! And that sets me to thinking about holiday gatherings, about homemade cranberry sauce and Hood River’s own Tofurky … and about finding a few special gifts for a few special people.

Thankfully, it’s also time for our pop-up shops to sprout downtown. Alongside Portland Saturday Market, these collectives of local artists, artisans and fashion designers help holiday shoppers find carefully crafted gifts for everyone on our list. Here’s a look at this year’s crop, which opened on Tuesday:

• A favorite indie emporium, Crafty Wonderland, showcases the work of more than 80 local artists in jewelry, clothing, art and housewares. Have some fun with their wacky holiday photo booth! (802 S.W. 10th) (more…)

Okay, I know it’s starting to look like I’m never in Portland.  I love our special city, but what can I say? I’m restless, and I love to travel.  I’m a small-town girl at heart, so I I try to get out of the daily grind whenever I can.  Plus, I’m a foodie, so if I hear about an amazing pastry place miles outside of the city, you can bet I’ll go and try it for myself.

Which is kind of how I ended up in Sherwood.  It all started because of a pastry.  A scone, to be exact.  The Lavender Tea House in this Washington County town is famous for them. (more…)