If you aren’t feeling holiday-ish enough yet – tomorrow could cure that. You have three places to find unique gift possibilities, and two chances to give.

Saturday starts with the second day of the Native Holiday Gift Fair at the Duwamish Longhouse (4705 West Marginal Way SW), 10 am-5 pm; we heard a rave review today about the variety of native art available. Then at 11 am, the Highland Park Holiday Bazaar takes over the HP Improvement Club (11th/Holden) – here’s the latest update on the amazing array of handmade offerings you’ll find there, 11 am-4 pm. From there, you can move on over to Sustainable West Seattle‘s annual Money-Free Spending Spree – bring a handmade item or service to trade, and bring home a special gift – 4 to 8 pm at Camp Long Lodge (5200 35th SW).

Tomorrow also brings Santa’s debut at Westwood Village, noon-4 pm – photos are free with a food bank donation; bring diapers too, since they’re collecting for WestSide Baby (particularly sizes 3-6), and get ready to grab a card off the Giving Tree. Santa’s House is in the heart of WV, across from 24 Hour Fitness and Eats Market Café.

Then tomorrow night is the rescheduled benefit for Sofia Goff and family, 7 pm-midnight at Kenyon Hall – food, entertainment, silent auction, and a raffle – the latest details are at caferevo.com. Newly added: Your chance to pre-order a copy of the forthcoming Café Revo cookbook.

Tomorrow night at 7, the gala lighting ceremony is still on for the Christmas-lights display dubbed the Helmstetler Family Spectacular (if that doesn’t jog a memory, check this story from last year) – but family friend and display mastermind Jim Winder says what you see in the photo above is the reason why it won’t be as spectacular as they’d planned:

Last night we did our first show for family and neighbors…

but then, sometime last night/early this morning my Big Tree broke. There is no way I can have it fixed for the scheduled Lighting Ceremony on Saturday (or probably even this year), but as of right now we are still planning on doing the lighting ceremony … there will just be a LOT fewer lights than originally planned.

After receiving that note, we asked Jim if there’s anything anyone can do to help (since we knew someone would ask):

Right now I am trying to figure out what to do, but it more than likely won’t include putting that tree back up…even though it was going to be the “highlight” of the display.

Don’t think there is much anyone can do, as that tree pretty much took me all summer to build…just don’t have the time or resources to rebuild it. And even if I did, nothing is assured it would not happen again. So…back to the drawing board!!

Given the splendor of last year’s synchronized-to-music display, you’re still likely to be delighted by whatever results – Jim’s been working on it all year. Here are the details of Saturday night’s ceremony; here’s where to find it (3908 SW Charlestown); and here’s the season’s schedule.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Taking a post-Thanksgiving look around the West Seattle Christmas-tree-sales landscape – we start with the Holy Rosary School Christmas Tree Sale‘s big move.

Its most recent home behind Admiral Safeway is now a busy construction zone (seen the webcam lately?), so they’re selling trees on their own campus this year – and since it’s a tiny bit off the beaten track, they’re going all out to get the word out, with the lot opening tomorrow.

One recent windblown, pre-snow afternoon, we stopped by the campus for a tree-site-to-be tour with Holy Rosary’s Sarah Dahleen and principal Dr. Randal Peters.

The parking lot shown above is the intended site for the trees – between the north side of the school building and the south side of the school playground. Might be a bit of a distraction for the students, they acknowledge, but “it’ll smell great.” Also, the lot won’t be open during school hours – it’ll be open 3:30-9 pm weekdays, 9 am-9 pm weekends (with candy canes and cocoa for tree-shoppers on Sundays), through December 22nd.

The entrance will be from the alley off SW Dakota, between 42nd and 41st SW (map), and there’s parking in a lot west of where you’ll find the trees.

One thing hasn’t changed: 15% of the Holy Rosary lot’s proceeds will benefit three local charities: The Salvation Army’s Hickman House, which provides shelter to women and children getting away from domestic abuse; West Seattle Helpline; and the West Seattle Food Bank.

Not only has this long been the only tree lot with its own website, it’ll also have extra marketing this year to spread the word – signs are out around West Seattle (we saw them by Walking on Logs this morning), billboard space was donated in The Triangle, and someone in a Christmas tree costume is likely to be found waving at you nearby when the lot’s open.

If you can’t wait till tomorrow, you can buy a tree at several other spots around the peninsula, including West Seattle Nursery (California/Brandon), Tony’s Produce (35th/Barton; the photo above is from Thanksgiving afternoon), Junction TrueValue (44th/Edmunds), West Seattle Produce (4721 Fauntleroy Way), The Home Depot (Delridge/Webster), both Rite-Aid stores, and Westwood Village QFC. And tree info will be available throughout the season on the WSB West Seattle Holidays page.