Your wish for an old-fashioned Christmas is your dream come true in Dayton, the “town that still believes.” Visit Dayton on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27 and 28, for the free two-day Christmas Kickoff festival.
Experience a mule-drawn carriage ride, carolers wishing you a merry Christmas in front of the storefronts, and shops and businesses serving holiday cookies and cheer. A community is brought together to share a warm smile with friends, family members and visitors. These are all part of Dayton’s Christmas Kickoff celebration.
Traditions become memories when children’s eyes twinkle as they line up to visit Santa and his reindeer, while adults shop the town’s retail stores and a busy Christmas Market in the state’s oldest train depot. Rizzy the camel is led up and down Main Street before settling into his role in a live Nativity scene. Diners turn toward the darkened windows to see a street lit up by a lighted Christmas parade, then everyone gathers around to cheer as the town Christmas tree comes to life and to celebrate as fireworks light up the sky over the state’s oldest working courthouse.
This is how Dayton, Wash., kicks off the Christmas season every year, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving.
History
Dayton’s location was a camp site on the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1806, and has been the county seat of Columbia County since 1875. Rail service arrived in 1881, and its train depot is the oldest surviving railroad station in the state. Built around dryland wheat and barley farming, logging in the Blue Mountains, wool production and a major Green Giant cannery, Dayton preserves its 19th-century character through heritage tourism, restored landmarks, regional wineries and proximity to recreation in the Blue Mountains.
Prosperous area farmers and businessmen built grand Queen Anne, Italianate, Gothic, and Craftsman homes and commercial buildings. Today, 117 of Dayton’s buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Celebrations of the town’s history are everywhere ¬— at the historic depot and courthouse, the Victorian Boldman House built in 1880, the Palus Museum, the landmark Liberty Theater and the town’s original schoolhouse built in 1900.
In 2010, the Smith Hollow country schoolhouse was moved to Dayton, where it underwent a three-year restoration. Looking again as it did in its heyday, it now showcases the history of education and rural community centers in Columbia County. A log cabin built in 1898 for a soldier returning from the Spanish-American War was moved to the schoolhouse site in 2017.
Kickoff activities
On Nov. 27 and 28, kick off your holiday season with a hayride, cookies and cocoa, music, live reindeer and the Festival of Trees. The trees are decorated by local businesses and organizations and then raffled off with proceeds donated to a local charitable organization.
Join in the fun of the Ugly Christmas Sweater 5k Dash or shop at the Holiday Market and Artisan Faire. For the children there’ll be kids’ crafts, letters to Santa, and selfies with Santa himself. Come for the fun but stay for the parade, the lighting of the Christmas tree and, of course, the sky blazing with fireworks! Those are just some of the activities this historic small town boasts for its enchanting holiday event.
For more information about Dayton’s Christmas Kickoff, including lodging suggestions, visit historicdayton.com, call the Dayton Chamber of Commerce at (509) 382-4825, or send email to [email protected].