At 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, the Madrona Business District hands its sidewalks to costumes. For two hours, until 6, shops and restaurants along 34th Avenue give out candy and treats as part of Trick or Treat on 34th Ave, the Madrona Neighborhood Association's Halloween afternoon.
Within a few weeks the same blocks look different after dark. Lights and swags go up on the trees from Spring Street to Pike Street and stay through February. The neighborhood pays for them with Thanksgiving pies, raffle tickets and donations to the association, and the season of raising that money starts the weekend kids come by for candy.
Two Hours of Candy, and an Old Tradition
The 2026 event is simple. The association's page lists the date, the 4 to 6 p.m. window and the business district as the place, and says local shops and restaurants will hand out candy and treats. You don't sign up, and there's no route to follow beyond the avenue itself.
This isn't new. The association has posted its October 2011 newsletter, and it describes the same business-district trick-or-treat. That year each business held one letter of a secret word. Kids collected the letters, solved the puzzle and picked up a prize at the Shelterhouse. The newsletter also announced the "First Annual Halloween Costume Contest." Bottlehouse donated root beer floats for four as one of the prizes.
In the next column of that same 2011 newsletter, right after the Halloween item, came this line: "Now the wintergreens are coming." In 2011 the Halloween afternoon came first and the lights followed it, the same order the 2026 calendar keeps.
What Goes Up After the Candy Is Gone
The newsletter calls them Madrona's Wintergreens: "holiday lights & swags along the length of the 34th Avenue commercial corridor (from Spring to Pike)." It says they give the neighborhood "a warm glow through the dark fall and winter months, November to February."
Volunteers put them up. In 2011 the crew met at 9 a.m. on Saturday, November 19, outside the Madrona Plaza building across from Hi Spot Cafe. They were told to bring heavy-duty gardening gloves, and young people working toward service hours were welcome. The tradition goes back further than that. The neighborhood events calendar from June 2008 already lists "Winter Greens & Holiday Lights" as a November event.
Strings of lights on street trees wear out, burn out and use power. Someone pays for the repairs and the electricity every year, and in Madrona that is the neighborhood association, using money it raises over the holidays.
Who Keeps the Power On
The association's Thanksgiving Bake Sale page is plain about where the money goes. Proceeds from the annual pie and baked-good sale go "directly toward maintaining, powering, and repairing the lights so they shine safely and beautifully through the season." The headline on that page reads "Support the Bake Sale, Keep the Lights On!"
The second source of money is the Winter Market & Raffle, which the association calls "a tree lights fundraiser." Every dollar from raffle tickets goes to the winter tree lights. Last year's raffle offered more than $6,500 in prizes, and this year the prizes will be split into several gift bags so more people can win. The 2026 prizes haven't been posted yet. The page says they'll be listed closer to the event.
The third source is direct donations. The association's donations page has a fund for the winter tree lights and says every donation goes to the 2026 lights. As of April 2026, that page showed $550 raised toward a $6,000 goal. The total has very likely changed since spring. The goal still tells you the scale: lighting a few blocks of 34th Avenue costs about as much as the raffle gave away in prizes last year.
The Businesses Give Twice
The 2025 raffle prize list, which is still on the Winter Market page, is made up largely of businesses in the district. Among them are Bottlehouse, Madrona Arms, Madrona Wine Merchants, Hi Spot and Madrona Market & Deli. The same shops whose sidewalks the lights brighten donated the prizes that paid for them. Bottlehouse appears in both records, with the root beer floats it gave for the 2011 costume contest and its place on the 2025 prize list.
Here are a few places on the avenue to know heading into the season:
- Bottlehouse, 1416 34th Ave, opens daily at 3 p.m. Happy hour runs from 3 to 6 p.m., so it overlaps the whole trick-or-treat window.
- Madrona Wine Merchants, 1127 34th Avenue, posted on its website as recently as October 16, 2026. That's useful to know before Thanksgiving dinner and December parties.
- Madrona Arms serves lunch every day from 11:30 a.m. to close, with seating inside and out. The pie sale happens on the sidewalk out front.
- Yoka Tea, at 34th and Spring, is a Filipino- and Korean-inspired cafe. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reports it opened last year in the space that was Cupcake Royale's original shop. Its shelves carry Asian pantry goods. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog covered Cupcake Royale's closing in November 2024.
That corner of 34th and Spring is about to get busier. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported in September that a cafe called Casa Ella is taking shape in the new building on the northeast corner, across from Yoka Tea. It will focus on Colombian flavors and small-batch imported beans, and the blog said to watch for pop-ups before it opens. The Casa Ella website names Daniela Bursztyn as founder and says the coffee comes from single farms in Colombia and is roasted in Seattle. The city issued its building permit for a coffee shop at 3400 E Spring St on May 29, 2026. There's no opening date yet. This year's walk past that corner shows a cafe still being built, and next Halloween it may be handing out candy.
Four Dates Between Now and the Long Nights
Every event on this calendar leads to the next, and most of them feed the same fund.
- Saturday, October 31, 4 to 6 p.m.: Trick or Treat on 34th Ave in the Madrona Business District.
- Wednesday, November 4, 7 to 8:15 p.m.: The Madrona Neighborhood Association's monthly meeting, at the Madrona Playfield Shelterhouse and on Zoom. It's open to everyone.
- Wednesday, November 25: The Thanksgiving Pie/Bake Sale in front of Madrona Arms. The association's homepage still lists the time as TBD. The association always needs bakers, and the sign-up address is [email protected]. Last year, leftover pies went on sale outside Madrona Arms from 1 to 5 p.m. on November 26, according to the association's 2025 sale page.
- Thursday, December 10: The Winter Market & Raffle, time TBD, with all proceeds going to the tree lights.
The night before Thanksgiving tends to be when someone remembers the dessert. In Madrona, buying that pie in front of Madrona Arms on November 25 helps keep the trees on 34th Avenue lit through February.
The lights on 34th Avenue are one of our favorite parts of a Madrona winter, and so is the small group of neighbors who keep them going. If you're bringing kids up the avenue on Halloween, baking for the pie sale or eyeing a raffle bag in December, we'd love to hear how your season goes. Hinds Team WA is always glad to talk about the blocks we know best, the businesses there and the traditions that keep them going. Contact Hinds Team.
