Photos courtesy of Washington State Tourism Division
Christmas-season activities for all ages are abundant in Leavenworth, a town that's transformed itself into a prime tourist destination.

Located in the middle of the Wenatchee Valley, Leavenworth offers a wide variety of holiday-themed activities.

Before snow returns to Leavenworth, nature puts on a display of autumn colors.

A little bit of Germany

Leavenworth lights itself up for the Christmas holidays

MYKE FOLGER, FOR THE OLYMPIAN

Somewhere a child shakes a snow globe and watches the glittering flakes flutter over a make-believe town, onto still-life residents hidden in heavy coats standing in front of a department store window where Santa Claus sits and listens to children's dreams.

In one of the buildings, candles glow in second-story windows. In the town square, musicians sporting lederhosen play festively, and in the foreground a Christmas tree twinkles.

This make-believe scene is actually a lot like Leavenworth in winter, a town torn from the pages of a German fairy tale and placed in the middle of the Wenatchee Valley.

Inns such as Lorraine's Edel Haus (featured in "Best Places to Kiss in the Northwest") or the Abendblume Pension, with their distinctive Bavarian architecture, recall a Munich of yore -- even Starbucks and McDonald's are done up with a ski-lodge sensibility. And like Munich's Danube, Leavenworth's Wenatchee River trips and falls over rocks along the town's edge completing the area's happily-ever-after image.

Without question, tourism, restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts are Leavenworth's bread and butter. The town knows it and plays it up.

But because the chamber of commerce, business owners and residents give tourism such high priority, there is nary a dull moment for the young or the old in Leavenworth, or in any of the other nearby towns.

"The fact that they transformed it, where there was never anything happening, to a city where you can't even find a parking place, is just amazing to me," said Siri Woods, who lives with her husband, Dick, in the neighboring city of Wenatchee, where she is also the clerk of Chelan County. "It's a beautiful area."

Business and pleasure

The Woodses visit Leavenworth often for business and pleasure. Many of the hotels and inns provide space for business gatherings, conferences and for fun. Dick Woods remembered a summer visit to the Red Tail Canyon Farm, where cook-out dinners are held for large groups.

"It was more than a barbecue," Dick Woods remembered fondly.

During the summer, The Red Tail provides horse-drawn carriage hayrides around the town. Come winter, the carriages become sleighs.

"Leavenworth is one of those towns where every season is neat," he said. "The Christmas season there is an exceptional time because of the lights."

Festival of lights

The Village Lighting Festival is one of the more anticipated events the townspeople have put together since converting the former log and rail town into the Bavarian village it is today.

The festival takes place on the first three Saturdays of December. Food booths are abundant along Front Street, where kettle corn and chestnuts are roasted. Musicians play holiday music in the gazebo, Santa Claus smiles for pictures and carolers sing familiar songs. At dusk, everyone gathers to sing "Silent Night," and white Christmas lights illuminate the buildings, trees and gazebo.

There are lots of Christmastime things to do in Leavenworth. Kids and adults can visit the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory or the Gingerbread Factory, where fresh gingerbread men are made and free samples are abundant.

There's also the Train Store, where railroad fans can buy railroad hats, whistles shirts and, of course, trains.

Nutcracker collectors should take note of the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum. There are more than 4,000 nutcrackers on display that date back 500 years. A video history of the nutcracker can also be seen.

If quilting is your thing, then bring your Featherweight to Mrs. Anderson's Lodging House. There are plenty of rooms decorated with quilts and antiques. Built into the lodging house is Dee's Country Accents, a quilter's oasis owned by proprietors Dee and Al Howie. You can find yards of unusual fabric and sewing accessories. The lodging house is ideal for quilter conventions, and classes are often held there.

One room, the Crazy Quilt room, has one queen-size sofa bed, four single beds, a private bath and a sitting area or quilting classroom area for 20 people. There's also a shared deck.

For most, simply staying in Leavenworth in winter is an occasion to itself.

The mornings can be quiet and relaxing, with coffee or tea. The evenings can be brash with bratwurst and oompah music. And after a festive night, there's nothing quite like the cozy feeling of waking up warm in your bed and breakfast room, then getting up and brushing back the window curtains and finding that it snowed overnight.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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