Downtown Seattle's Holiday Season Moves Into Pacific Place and Westlake Center

Last winter Westlake Park was behind construction fencing, so downtown's holidays had to move. The Tree Lighting Celebration was held inside Westlake Center because the park was still under construction, and Friends of Waterfront Park canceled the holiday market it had announced for Pier 62.

This year the season is centered on two blocks of Pine Street. On Friday, Nov. 27, the renovated Westlake Park hosts the tree lighting again. The park's holiday carousel returns that same day for the first time since 2019. Two new holiday attractions also open that day, one inside Westlake Center at 400 Pine and one inside Pacific Place at 600 Pine. For anyone who lives downtown, that puts most of the season within one short walk, and much of it indoors.

Westlake Park comes back as the front lawn

The park that reopened on May 28, 2026, looks different from the one that closed. Seattle Parks and Recreation and Seattle Parks Foundation led the renovation of a plaza that first opened in 1988. The old fountain and arch are gone. The park now has a Game Area, ping-pong courts at the south end, new seating, landscaping, lighting, Wi-Fi, children's furnishings and a food concession, according to the Downtown Seattle Association. Bonito Café y Mercadito took over the SnackBox, and granite reliefs saved from the old fountain are now set into the new concrete planter beds, the Daily Journal of Commerce reported.

On Nov. 27 that redesigned plaza hosts its first holiday season. The Tree Lighting Celebration, presented by Amazon, is free and runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Craft making, costumed characters and sweet treats start at 11. The tree and its star light up at 5 p.m., and fireworks follow right after.

The Westlake Park Holiday Carousel, presented by Nordstrom, starts turning the same day and keeps going through Jan. 3. It first came downtown for the holidays in 1987. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a suggested $4 donation per ride. It closes early on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve and stays closed on Christmas Day.

Two malls, two different bets on the same weeks

Christmas Towne and Snow Globe are the new pieces this year, and they sit two blocks apart. One is free and the other is ticketed.

Snow Globe calls itself a city-center holiday experience built around local makers. It has booths, indoor skating and snowfall, and you reserve free tickets in advance. Christmas Towne takes up more than 20,000 square feet. LIT Immersive previously staged Kringle's Inventionasium, a holiday adventure for families. The community partners it lists are Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, Evergreen Pug Rescue and Vet Tix.

There's a reason Pacific Place has room for four floors of holiday programming. The Puget Sound Business Journal reported in April 2026 that the mall still had more than a dozen vacancies. As of 2025, about 40% of the 335,000-square-foot mall was leased to Din Tai Fung, the AMC cineplex and short-term tenants. Since BH Properties bought the mall in 2024, the paper reported, its reactivation plan has leaned mostly on pop-ups. That included a partnership with Seattle Restored and suites on the second and third levels that were set aside for temporary World Cup retail during the June and July 2026 matches. Snow Globe fits that same pattern of short-term use.

Westlake Center has seen turnover too. KIRO 7 reported in February 2026 that Asean Streat Food Hall had left the center and that Nordstrom Rack planned to move out of its lower-level space to a new location. At the time, no one had said what would go into the Rack's space.

When the DSA announced the season, Owen Harrang, its Director of Public Realm Operations, described the goal this way:

"The holidays are when downtown really feels like a shared space, and we want everyone to feel welcome."

Snow Globe's calendar favors weekends until Dec. 11

For the first two weeks Snow Globe opens only Friday through Sunday, and then it runs every day until Christmas Eve.

1. Nov. 27 to 29, Friday to Sunday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
2. Dec. 4 to 6, Friday to Sunday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
3. Dec. 11 to 23, daily: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
4. Dec. 24: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

That means the first Monday-through-Thursday visit you can make is Dec. 14. The daily stretch also overlaps almost entirely with the free Occidental Square rink, so downtown will have two free skating options at once for about a week. Christmas Towne also says it runs on select dates but hasn't posted its daily schedule or prices yet. Check its site before you plan around it.

How the rest of the season spreads out from Pine

Everything else downtown follows a calendar that starts at Westlake and works outward. Here is how it lines up, in date order.

Nov. 27 to Dec. 18, First & Pike. The DSA's Pines on Pike tree lot, run with Seattle Christmas Tree, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. It's one of the few places downtown to buy a tree without driving.

Saturday, Nov. 28, Pike Place Market. The 31st Annual Magic in the Market runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with choirs, cookie decorating, a scavenger hunt and an evening lighting ceremony. Santa photos run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and you need to be in line by 3.

Dec. 4 into early January, around the city center. About a dozen 25-foot gnomes go up in downtown parks and public spaces as part of the DSA's free Gnome for the Holidays. The DSA hasn't posted where each one will stand.

Saturday, Dec. 5, Pike Place Market. The 41st Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition runs from noon to 3 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 10, Pike Place Market. The Market's Holiday Night Market with Santa runs from 5 to 9 p.m. It's the one weeknight evening event on the Market's signature events calendar.

Dec. 12 to 20, Occidental Square. The free holiday ice rink, presented by Alaska Airlines, is open from noon to 6 p.m. daily. That's one day earlier at each end than last year's Dec. 13 to 21 run. On opening day, Saturday, Dec. 12, the Holiday Bazaar brings more than 30 local makers to the square from noon to 5 p.m., in partnership with Northwest Marketplaces.

Dec. 19 and 20, Pier 66. Last year's holiday market at Pier 62 was canceled. This year the waterfront's free Waterfront Winter Solstice Market, presented by the Port of Seattle, is at Pier 66. It runs Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the detailed schedule is still being confirmed. Pier 62 still has its free Firepit Socials on weekends through December, from 3 to 6 p.m.

These events reach as far as Pioneer Square and the waterfront, but the busiest dates fall at the start and the end. Nov. 27 and 28 bring the tree lighting, the carousel, both mall attractions, the tree lot and Magic in the Market within about 24 hours of each other. Then Dec. 19 and 20 bring the Solstice Market at Pier 66 while the Occidental rink finishes its last two days and Snow Globe runs daily hours.

A few pieces still have no dates. Along with the gnome locations and Christmas Towne's prices, the DSA has mentioned an interactive train window display at Pacific Place and Sips & S'mores on Bell Street, but hasn't posted times for either.

What downtown's storefronts and plazas are used for affects how buyers see the condo towers around them. If you're wondering how this season along Pine Street might figure into the timing or pricing of a downtown sale in the new year, I'm glad to go over it with you. Seattle Premier Properties can start with a Complimentary Home Valuation.