Alki Holiday Lights Moves With the Christmas Ship, and This Year That Means Opening Night

Last December the wind was the main story at the west end of the beach. On the night of Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, the West Seattle Blog described the Alki Bathhouse as busy with people drinking free hot beverages and getting out of the wind. Kids made ornaments at the Log House Museum. Santa posed for photos at the Bathhouse until about 8:15. The Christmas Ship was due offshore at 8:35.

This year the 8:35 slot is the same, but the date isn't. The Alki Community Council's Alki Holiday Lights is set for Friday, Nov. 27, 2026, from 6 to 9 p.m. on Alki Avenue between 57th and 63rd. The council's listing names the Argosy performance at Alki Beach, 8:35 to 8:55 p.m., as the highlight. The event's date comes from the ship's schedule. In 2026, that schedule puts the ship here on the first night of the season, and it passes Alki twice.

Three years, three different nights

The council's event is young. It started in 2024, and every year so far has landed on whatever night Argosy routed the Christmas Ship to West Seattle.

In 2024, Westside Seattle reported that the ship came early because Thanksgiving fell so late that year. Argosy also changed its routing that season because of work at the Ballard Locks. In 2025 the visit fell a week before Christmas. In 2026 it falls on the day after Thanksgiving. Argosy's 2026 festival schedule runs Nov. 27 through Dec. 23, and opening night is the Alki night.

The bigger change this year is how long the evening runs.

Two sailings, one evening

Opening night has two separate sailings, and both leave from Pier 55 on the downtown waterfront with the Dickens Carolers aboard. One stops at Salty's at Alki Beach. The other stops at Alki Beach.

Here is the evening, using times from Argosy and the Alki Community Council:

1. 5:00 p.m. The first sailing leaves Pier 55.
2. 5:35 to 5:55 p.m. Shoreline performance at Salty's at Alki Beach, 1936 Harbor Ave SW.
3. 6:00 p.m. Alki Holiday Lights begins on Alki Avenue between 57th and 63rd.
4. 8:00 p.m. The second sailing leaves Pier 55.
5. 8:35 to 8:55 p.m. Shoreline performance at Alki Beach, during the last half hour of Holiday Lights.
6. 9:00 p.m. Holiday Lights ends.

That puts three hours between the first song on Harbor Avenue and the last one near 60th. In 2024 the two stops were also split between the Seacrest end and the Bathhouse end, and they fell on a Saturday. This year the first stop comes 25 minutes before Holiday Lights opens. That means the Harbor Avenue stop and the beach event don't overlap at all.

The 5:35 stop is the quieter one

Argosy's schedule marks some shoreline stops with an asterisk. Per the schedule, an asterisk means a public bonfire, lighting or onshore event is planned. A stop without one is still a place to gather and hear the choir, but nothing organized happens on land. The 8:35 Alki Beach stop has the asterisk. The 5:35 stop at Salty's doesn't.

So the early stop is just the choir on the water, at dinnertime, outside a restaurant that describes the Water Taxi dock as a short stroll away. As of mid-October, Salty's says fall and winter promotions are back and holiday events are coming, but its site doesn't list anything for Nov. 27. If you want a dinner table with a view of the ship, call ahead and confirm the restaurant's hours that night.

Both stops have drawn crowds in earlier years. The ship has stopped near Seacrest before, and in 2023 the West Seattle Blog covered a stop that drew an audience at Don Armeni, just along Harbor Avenue. This year's 5:35 visit also comes before the beach program has started.

What the beach looked like the last two times

The Alki Community Council has posted the 2026 outline: treats, games and the Argosy performance, along with a call for volunteers to set up lights, help with treats and clean up afterward. It hasn't posted more than that yet. The two earlier events show what the council built around the ship each year.

In 2024 the council planned the celebration around the Bathhouse and nearby Alki businesses. A West Seattle Blog preview listed a Seattle Parks bonfire, treats, a glow and ugly-sweater dress theme, and donations for the West Seattle Food Bank. At the council's November meeting that year, as reported by the West Seattle Blog, the plans included three fire pits by the accessible ramp, about 50 luminarias along the beach, and cider, crafts and a bake sale at the Log House Museum. On the night, Westside Seattle described the Pacific Sound Chorus singing from the ship and free hot chocolate, clam chowder and other food from Alki restaurants, sponsored by the council.

In 2025 the program grew. The West Seattle Blog reported treats at many Alki locations, ornament-making at the Log House Museum, Santa at the Bathhouse, singers from the West Seattle High School choir and holiday music from DJ Teck Savvy. The same report noted that some business-district treat stops ran out early that night. With 2026 on a holiday Friday, one practical takeaway from 2025 is to start the treat walk closer to 6 than to 8.

The Log House Museum has something new this year. Its "Beyond Alki: Stories of West Seattle and the Duwamish Peninsula" exhibit opened in August after a two-month closure for installation. It includes an interactive listening station for local music, and the museum sits at 61st SW and SW Stevens, a block up from the beach. The museum's plans for Nov. 27 haven't been posted.

Getting home after the 8:35 stop

The ship finishes singing at 8:55 and the event ends at 9. The Water Taxi probably won't be running by then. King County's West Seattle Water Taxi moved to its fall and winter schedule on Oct. 10, 2026, and that schedule runs through April 9, 2027. The county's schedule announcement said the late-night Friday and Saturday summer sailings ended with the change. The weekday timetable has the last West Seattle departure at 7:05 p.m. Because Nov. 27 is the day after Thanksgiving, use the county's travel-date selector to check that day's sailings before counting on even an early boat.

The park itself stays open long after the event. Alki Beach Park went back to its 11:30 p.m. closing time on Oct. 1, according to the West Seattle Blog.

The morning before, on the same stretch of beach

Thanksgiving morning has its own Alki gathering, a day ahead of the ship. West Seattle Runner's free 17th annual Thanksgiving Gobble Gobble Group Run is on Nov. 26 at 8 a.m. Runners meet at the first covered shelter across from Alki Coffee Co., across from 2742 Alki SW. The route is a flexible three-mile out-and-back.

The water will be high that morning. Washington Sea Grant's king tides calendar predicts a 12.67-foot high tide at the Seattle station at 6:48 a.m. on Nov. 26. That's less than two hours before the run starts. The next big one on the calendar is 13.01 feet at 7:22 a.m. on Dec. 26. These are predictions for the Seattle station, not Alki specifically. Even so, a runner on the beach path at 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving will be passing the same water the Dickens Carolers sing over 36 hours later.

Alki Holiday Lights has been on a Saturday in late November and a Thursday in late December. This year it's on a Friday, with the choir singing from 5:35 at Salty's to 8:55 at the beach. If you'd like to volunteer, the council's sign-up form is linked from the event page.

Thinking about how Alki's year-round calendar fits your plans? Mara Haveson can help. If you're weighing a move that would put the Christmas Ship within walking distance, or getting ready to sell a home where it already is, schedule a consultation and we'll talk through what that means for your timing and your plans.