At 5:30 p.m. on December 6, 2025, Stanwood Mayor Sid Roberts took the stage on 271st Street NW to light the city's holiday tree. The original plan was for everyone to gather around the tree. According to Stanwood Camano News, the crowd was so large that he asked people to stay where they were and turn to face it. "It seems like there's a couple thousand people here, it seems like Woodstock or something," he joked. Then he led a 10-second countdown, and the big pine tree at the end of the street lit up while "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" played over the speakers.
Eleven months later, the lot at the end of that street is a construction site. The City is building Depot Park there, with a spot set aside for the holiday tree, and the work is scheduled to finish by January 2027. This year's tree lighting on Saturday, December 5 comes before that date. The downtown holiday season now runs across three Saturdays from one end of town to the other, and its main event takes place next to a fence.
The tree was at Depot Park before the park
Depot Park was a name before it was a park. In an earlier year, Stanwood Camano News announced a Saturday, Dec. 7 Light Up Your Holidays celebration with directions to gather near the Stanwood Police Station at 8727 271st St. NW. The same notice invited people to "Gather at Depot Park for the annual tree lighting" just before 5:30 p.m.
The site has a longer history. According to the City's October 7 construction notice, the 0.11-acre property next to the Stanwood Amtrak Station once held a service station and had contaminated soils. The City bought it in late 2021 for $80,000. Working with the Washington State Department of Ecology and the Department of Commerce, it then secured nearly $380,000 in grant funding for the environmental cleanup. That cleanup cost almost five times the purchase price.
The tree lighting was held at the end of a lot that was waiting for its next use, and in 2025 the crowd around it got bigger than ever. Niki Strachila, the City's communications and marketing specialist, told Stanwood Camano News it was the largest turnout she had seen in her two years working the event. She credited more performers, more vendors, more entertainment and "an actual stage." Her summary: "It's almost Hallmark worthy."
What the fence is building
Construction started October 5. The plaza is designed as both a gathering space and the eastern gateway into downtown, and the City lists these features:
- a small, Scandinavian-inspired stage for live music and community events
- public seating
- a designated location for the holiday tree
- accessible connections to the rear parking lot
- public art
- wayfinding signage
The stage and the tree spot match the two things the 2025 crowd centered on. That night, the audience filled 271st Street NW from the vendor tents to the tree, and the mayor had to ask people to stay in place. The new plaza gives both a permanent home.
Depot Park is also part of the City's Twin City Mile effort, which aims to better connect Stanwood's historic east and west downtown districts with public spaces, pedestrian improvements, landscaping and public art. The holiday calendar already runs along that mile.
Three Saturdays, west to east
Each December event is held in a different part of downtown, and together they cover the full length of the Twin City Mile.
| Date | Event | Where | Time | Host |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, Nov. 28 | Ornament Tree Lighting | Brick Road, 270th St NW, West Stanwood | 3 to 6 p.m. | Stanwood Commerce Alliance, presented by The Farmhouse Flower Farm |
| Saturday, Dec. 5 | Light Up Your Holidays Tree Lighting Celebration | 8727 271st Street NW | 3 to 6 p.m. | City of Stanwood |
| Saturday, Dec. 12 | 4th Annual Big Rig Truck Lighted Cruise | Main Street, east end to west end | 5 to 6 p.m. | Stanwood Commerce Alliance |
The first of the three is on the west side. The Ornament Tree Lighting falls on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, on the Brick Road at 270th Street NW. The Farmhouse Flower Farm presents it, and the Stanwood Commerce Alliance lists live music, local vendors and food trucks for the afternoon.
A week later, the City's celebration moves the season east, to the 271st Street NW corridor and the Depot Park end of town. The City calendar lists it for December 5 from 3 to 6 p.m. at 8727 271st Street NW.
The third event covers the whole route. The Big Rig Truck Lighted Cruise is a free, all-ages event that needs no registration. It follows the same route as the annual car show, starting at the east end of Main Street and continuing to the west end. Lit-up big rigs, street-legal side-by-sides, construction and lifted trucks, dump trucks and big rig tractors without trailers all take part. Since the cruise starts in the east, anyone watching near Depot Park sees the trucks first.
December 5, beside the fence
Downtown businesses stay open throughout construction, and the City expects no street closures, but the park property itself stays fenced until the work is done. On December 5, the plaza built for the tree will still be a work site next to the street where the celebration takes place.
Past celebrations give a sense of the event's scale. These details describe earlier years, not this year's program.
The earlier Dec. 7 celebration ran from 3 to 7 p.m. Its schedule included a holiday market with more than 20 local businesses and artisans and a golden ticket passport challenge with a commemorative ornament as one of the prizes. The Stanwood-Camano Arts Advocacy Commission led a holiday craft, and a food drive collected donations for the Stanwood Camano Food Bank. KRKO Radio played holiday music from 3 to 5 p.m., followed by performances from Northwest Dance Project, Stanwood High School Choir, Cedarhome Choir and Band of Friends. Santa posed for photos near the tree after the lighting.
In 2025, the event spread along 271st Street NW. According to Stanwood Camano News, Dasher and Dancer, two reindeer from Rainier Reindeer Ranch, were the first stop. Next came a fire pit with seating and a bubble snow machine for kids, then food trucks, street businesses open late, a row of vendor tents selling items from specialty soaps to macarons, and finally the stage. Cheer teams, dancers and school bands and choirs performed there before the lighting.
That night, Mayor Roberts also thanked the businesses on the street for staying open and for putting up with construction the week before to get ready for the event. He asked the crowd to buy local, noting that many of the shops were open that evening. This year, the businesses at the east end will be open again next to a construction site.
One familiar stop on that street has a new status this season. The owners of Stanwood Grill, on 271st Street NW, announced Friday, October 30 as its last day after 25 years in business, as Stanwood Camano News reported.
The City has posted event details for past celebrations at stanwoodwa.org/holidays, and the Depot Park project page carries construction updates. Last year's crowd was too big to gather around the tree. When the plaza is done, both the stage and the tree will have permanent spots at the east end of 271st Street NW, and the City expects that by January 2027.
Julie Love has followed downtown Stanwood's changes for decades, from the Brick Road to the lot by the depot. If you're thinking about what the Twin City Mile could mean for a home on either side of the bridge, we'd be glad to talk it through over coffee after the lights go on. Book a private consultation and valuation whenever it suits you.
