Before the holiday rush, Sandpoint's late-November and December calendar is already taking shape — and it's full of the small-town traditions that make the season here special.
The Festival of Trees returns on Saturday, November 28, with its Charity and Cheer Window Walk — a community fundraiser whose decorated windows light up downtown. Friends and Family Day at The Hive on November 28 brings photos with Santa, cookies and cocoa, Christmas crafts, a fourth-grade gingerbread competition, and the first public viewing of this year's festival trees.
Panhandle Special Needs, Inc. opens its greenhouse at 1424 N. Boyer Ave. as a Christmas market each December, with gifts and crafts from local artisans in a greenhouse turned winter wonderland — a chance to shop small and support a beloved local nonprofit.
And on Friday, December 18, the season gets its soundtrack: the Handel's Messiah Christmas Concert at 7 p.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sandpoint, a free evening of the season's most beloved choral music.
Coming up for the holidays? A slopeside stay at The Village Overlook keeps Sandpoint's lights and the mountain's winter within easy reach — town events below, quiet slopeside nights above. Check the calendar, settle in, and enjoy the whole season from above the village, where the Selkirk nights run quiet and clear.
The Festival of Trees tradition began with Kinderhaven and is now run by the Community Resource EnVision Center — a fundraiser built on the idea that the season's spirit is generosity, from decorated trees to the gingerbread competition that gets local fourth graders creating and the Giving Tree ornaments that fund gifts for Bonner County foster families. Also on the calendar: the Christmas Jubilee Concert on November 29 at The Hive, and The Nutcracker with Ballet Victoria on December 9 at the Panida Theater.