When Seattle wanted more light on streets in other parts of the city, the city and its downtown partners installed overhead lighting in 2024 and extended it in 2025. Those projects were meant to make sidewalks more inviting and help people feel more comfortable walking and waiting for transit after dark.
The light on 34th Avenue in Madrona has a different source. The winter tree lights along the business district come back each winter because neighbors pitch in, and proceeds from two tables set up in front of Madrona Arms help pay for them: a Thanksgiving pie sale and a December raffle. The Madrona Neighborhood Association describes the lights as an annual neighborhood project, there to add "a warm glow for an evening walk, a little window-shopping or dinner along 34th Avenue." Baked goods and gift bags help keep that glow going, so the upkeep depends in part on how many people show up to bake and buy.
A project with a new lead and a new set of rules
This year the lights have a new coordinator. Cindy Krebs, the association's new vice president, is running the work, and the October 2026 Madrona News lays out three changes in how it will be done:
- An arborist will be consulted so the strings aren't wrapped too tight around the trunks.
- Existing lights will be repaired as needed.
- Timers may be added on sections where the lights could shine into nearby homes.
The third change shows that this display now has to work for everyone around it. On 34th, the trees stand beside apartments and the new live/work spaces as well as storefronts, so a string of lights that looks festive from the sidewalk may be shining straight into someone's bedroom at midnight. The newsletter's stated goal is "an enjoyable display while being considerate of our neighbors." The arborist covers the trees and the timers cover the neighbors. Maintenance and repair are exactly what the pie sale proceeds go toward.
The project goes back further than most current residents have been tracking it. A December 2009 Madrona newsletter describes volunteers hanging wintergreens and lights on a Saturday in November, and thanks an anonymous donor who paid for that year's greenery. Seventeen years later the job has the same shape: volunteers, a fall installation, and a neighborhood finding the money itself.
Where the money comes from
The association's own materials list two fundraisers for the lights between now and mid-December:
| Thanksgiving Pie & Bake Sale | Winter Market & Raffle | |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Wednesday, November 25, 2026, the day before Thanksgiving | Thursday, December 10, 2026 |
| Location | In front of Madrona Arms, near 34th and Union | In front of Madrona Arms |
| Time | Sale hours to be posted on madrona.us | 5 PM in the October newsletter; still "TBD" on the event page |
| How to take part | Bake and pledge, or buy | Shop local businesses, buy raffle tickets |
| Where proceeds go | Winter tree lights | Winter tree lights |
The two events sell different things. Volunteer bakers stock the pie sale, and the association says proceeds help pay for "maintaining, powering, and repairing the lights so the neighborhood can keep enjoying them year after year." Bakers are asked to drop off on Wednesday morning, November 25, and the pledge form has an earlier drop-off option for anyone who can't make that window. If you'd rather buy than bake, the association says ordering details will be posted in mid-November.
The Winter Market is the bigger draw, mainly because of the raffle. The association says last year's raffle offered more than $6,500 in prizes, and they are grouped into multiple gift bags so more ticket holders have a chance to win. The 2025 list gives a sense of what's in those bags:
- Arts Aloft: a $150 gift certificate toward a class, camp or workshop
- Nido: a cashmere printed bandana valued at $165
- Red Cow/ESR: a $150 gift certificate
- Wilridge Vineyard, Winery & Distillery: a bottle of white and a bottle of red, valued at $80
- Juniper: a navy cashmere scarf by Organic by John Patrick, valued at $325
The association says the 2026 prizes will be posted closer to the event. The lights pay for themselves in a pleasingly circular way. Local businesses put up prizes, neighbors buy tickets under the lights the tickets help fund, and the market brings people to the same storefronts whose names are on the prize list.
The block the lights will shine on
The trees will light a stretch of 34th that has changed more in 2026 than in most recent years.
Molly Moon's closed its Madrona shop on Sunday, September 13, after 15 years. Its farewell post said the shop had been "scooping in this little corner of the neighborhood (since 2011!)" and added, "Thank you, Madrona. It's been a privilege!" The ice cream company still has eleven other locations around Seattle.
Umami Kushi is taking over the space. Owner Harold Fields makes okazu pan, which the newsletter describes as savory filled buns. Neighbors may know his food from the walk-up window pop-up he ran there before. Seattle Met wrote about Fields back in 2016, describing his Japanese-style curry pan as fried bread filled with curry and coated in panko, and noting that he was already supplying it to Seattle coffee shops. The October newsletter said the Madrona shop would open sometime after October 21 and pointed readers to the bakery's Instagram, @umamikushi, for updates. Check there for current hours before you walk over. Umami Kushi's Rainier Beach store at 9099 Seward Park Ave S lists pickup Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., but those hours are for that location only.
Farther up the street, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported in September that Casa Ella is planned for the northeast corner of 34th and Spring, across from Yoka Tea, as a café serving Colombian coffee. We covered that corner in more detail in our post on Madrona's last weekend of October. The newsletter also notes that the blocks north of Spring now include Dirkse/Prim Gallery, and that Squarehead West and Poppie, Smallish Photo Studio's expansion, have joined the street. Not every change has been an opening. Mr. West's Madrona café closed suddenly at the end of May.
The lights are what ties those storefronts together after dark. The association's stated reason for hanging them is to make evening walks, window-shopping and dinners on 34th more pleasant through the dark months, so this winter's glow will fall on a street where several businesses are in their first season and could use the evening foot traffic.
Getting a pie, or a raffle ticket, toward it
The calendar is short, and most of what you can do happens in the next five weeks:
- Now through mid-November: If you bake, email [email protected] or fill out the baker pledge form on the pie sale page.
- Mid-November: Check that same page for buyer ordering details.
- Wednesday, November 25: Bakers drop off in the morning, and the sale runs in front of Madrona Arms near 34th and Union.
- Thursday, December 10: The Winter Market and raffle, also in front of Madrona Arms. Before you go, confirm the start time on the Winter Market page, since the October newsletter says 5 PM and the event page hadn't posted a time yet.
The newsletter also includes a QR code for direct donations to the tree lights, if neither pie nor a raffle ticket appeals. For more on the neighborhood around these blocks, see our Madrona neighborhood page.
At Exact Home Team, we think the best parts of a neighborhood are often the ones neighbors quietly keep going year after year, and the lights on 34th are one of them. If you're dropping off a pie on the 25th or hoping your raffle ticket lands one of the gift bags in December and want to talk about Madrona while you're out, Let's Get Started.
