A rainy gray day didn’t stop locals and visitors from attending Sequim’s usually annual Home Town Holidays at Centennial Place.
Coinciding with Small Business Saturday, the event — sponsored by the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce and Sequim Merchant Group — saw crowd size fluctuate through the day but steadily increase into a large showing for the tree lighting and tractor parade.
Emceed by staffers from KSQM 91.5 FM, Home Town Holidays featured a series of performers: the Sequim Community Orchestra played (at times accompanied by young members of the Strings Program), Sequim Sequim Community Church choir, and the Olympic Peninsula Men’s Chorus, who sang a special round of “Happy Birthday” with their audience in honor of Heidi Hansen, who was spotted enjoying the event.
Santa Claus, bearing a striking resemblance to community volunteer Stephen Rosales, was joined by the Sequim Irrigation Festival royalty. Queen Hannah Hampton and princesses Allie Gale, Sydney VanProyen, and Zoee Kuperus greeted families, dogs and other folks throughout the day and offered candy canes to people after they met with Santa.
After a successful tree-lighting organized by Captain-Crystal Stout and Emily Westcott, participants in the tractor parade assembled in the Sequim High School parking lot and rolled slowly down Sequim Avenue to cap the day’s events.
Santa and the Hamilton family spot a tractor on its way to Sequim High School’s parking lot. The Hamiltons were lucky because they were headed south on Sequim Avenue just as Santa headed north after a few hours of greeting people at Centennial Place during Home Town Holidays. Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen
Member of the Olympic Peninsula Men’s Chorus belt out a holiday favorite to locals and visitors participating in the Home Town Holidays celebration at Centennial Place on the corner of Washington Street and Sequim Avenue. Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen
Teresa Herman leads young members of the Sequim City Orchestra’s Strings Program in a performance of classic holiday music as Santa meets members of the crowd at Home Town Holidays. Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen
Author Heidi Hansen beams after receiving a round of “Happy Birthday” from the crowd led my members of the Olympic Peninsula Men’s Chorus at Home Town Holidays in downtown Sequim. Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen
Hudson Larrymore, age 7, enjoys a hot drink while manning the cub scout wreath booth at Home Town holidays with his sister Alyssa. By the end of the event few wreaths remained. Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen
Noel Berra, age 4, waves from Sequim Santa’s lap at the Hometown Holidays, an usually annual event in Sequim. Although the day was gray and rainy, a spirit of good cheer was pervasive in the crowd who gathered at the Centennial Square on the corner of Washington Street and Sequim Avenue to listen to the Sequim City Orchestra play, buy hot drinks from the cub scouts and meet Santa and the Irrigation Festival Royalty. Peninsula Daily News photograph by Emily Matthiessen.
Members of Sequim Community Orchestra plays holiday favorites at Home Town Holidays in Centennial Place with youth from their Strings Program. Strings instructor Teresa Herman teaches violin, viola, cello and base to local children under the auspices of the Orchestra. Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen
Karla Morgan, who says she loves “historical re-enacting” smiles in front of holiday lights in downtown Sequim during the Home Town Holidays event. She said the clothes resemble those worn by women in early to late Civil War times. “No hoops,” though, she said — too hard to drive in. Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen
The Jaymar Hay and Cattle Company had a large float behind their tractor in the Hometown Holidays tractor parade — large enough to hold at least seven people and four dogs, straw, wood and a fire for warmth in the drizzle that greeted those who participated in this usually annual Sequim event. Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen
