Video: First-ever Cottage Grove Winter Solstice Parade

| Delridge | Holidays | West Seattle news

In the North Delridge neighborhood of Cottage Grove, a new tradition was born on winter-solstice night – a neighborhood parade. Led by neighbors Tanya and Patrick Baer in illuminated costume, as you can see in our video clip (that’s Tanya you hear explaining the parade just before it began), they brought lights and good cheer to walk the Longfellow Creek trails while celebrating both the longest night of the year and the brighter days ahead. West Seattle has a burgeoning tradition of neighborhood holiday parades – in the summer, there’s the Admiral 4th of July Kids’ Parade, while at year’s end, the Highland Park Not-So-Silent Night Parade (coming up on New Year’s Eve) – and now, there’s this.

kjb December 22, 2012 (5:44 am)

I am wondering how neighbors are kept in the loop regarding these events? This sounds like it would have been fun and it happened where I live.

Jay December 22, 2012 (6:43 am)

Thanks for organizing that, Tanya and Patrick. It was great fun.

Amanda December 22, 2012 (9:16 am)

i love West Seattleites.

LTW December 22, 2012 (9:21 am)

What a great tradition. Patrick and Tanya are the best! We are so lucky to have them in our neighborhood!!

LTW December 22, 2012 (9:28 am)

@ kjb – Please sign up to be on the North Delridge Neighborhood council email list and you will be notified of events like this. Go to ndnc.org or email contact@ndnc.org

WSB December 22, 2012 (9:35 am)

The North Delridge list is excellent – we’ve been on it for years, and you’ll hear directly from your neighbors about issues and events. But also, in case you weren’t aware of this, just about every morning of the year, we publish a daily preview with highlights from our extensive West Seattle-wide calendar, so this was part of the Friday morning preview; it also was in the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide with other solstice, Christmas, New Year’s (and earlier in the month, Hanukkah) events. It originally was announced at the NDNC’s December meeting (2nd Monday of the month) – at least, that’s where I recall first hearing about it – and if you can attend your neighborhood council’s meetings, that’s also a great place to find out in person what’s going on, plus important information about community concerns … TR

Norma December 22, 2012 (9:34 am)

AH! The miracle of computer communication. I love it. It’s a great tool to keep neighborhoods connected.

Heather December 22, 2012 (11:44 am)

OMG how fun are these people!

Erik December 22, 2012 (12:40 pm)

Happy Solstice!

Tanya December 22, 2012 (1:51 pm)

Thanks to everyone that joined us last night. We had a great time lighting up the night with you!
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We plan to do it again next Winter Solstice and we’ll do our best to get the word out early. I hope others are inspired to dress up – what fun!
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Happy Holidays!