Bellingham's Tree Lighting Moves to Whatcom Creek This Year, Where the Salmon Already Are

The downtown tree is moving this year. Downtown Bellingham Partnership has announced that the 2026 tree lighting on Saturday, Dec. 5 will be held at what it is calling "Merrytime" Heritage Park, meaning Maritime Heritage Park on Whatcom Creek. Festivities start at 5 p.m., the countdown ends at 6 p.m. when the tree lights up, and activities continue until 7. Last year the ceremony was held at 1100 Railroad Ave., which is Depot Market Square, as the Bellingham Herald listed it.

The new location puts the holiday season on a creek that has its own fall calendar, and that calendar starts earlier. Chum salmon return to Whatcom Creek before the downtown lights go up. If you want to see fish and lights in the same park this year, plan two visits, starting Saturday, Nov. 21.

Two December evenings now end at the creek

The tree is one of two evening events that now finish at Maritime Heritage Park. According to the Partnership's 2026 listing, the Lighted Bike Parade on Saturday, Dec. 12 meets at Depot Market Square at 4:45 p.m. and leaves at 5:00. Riders loop down toward the Bellweather Hotel and end at Maritime Heritage Park around 5:30, where there is free hot cocoa and cookies for purchase. Whatcom Transportation Authority partners on the ride and keeps its own event page, which is the place to check the final route before you ride. The ride is free, open to everyone and goes ahead rain or shine.

The tree lighting at the park comes with free cocoa and cookies, a free photo booth, Santa sightings, stilt walkers, glow jugglers and face painting. The Partnership hasn't given a reason for the move. The City of Bellingham has been working to bring more activity to this park. Its Maritime Heritage Park page describes a fee waiver under the Mayor's Downtown Forward Initiative for free public events held there. The stated goals are to "increase positive daily presence in the park" and to expand community programming.

The park is at 500 W. Holly St., between the City Center and the Lettered Streets neighborhood, and is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Both December events end well before closing.

The creek's peak comes first

For salmon, the best time at Maritime Heritage Park is mid-November. Last fall, Sarah Brown, Stewardship Program Manager for the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, explained the timing to The Front, Western Washington University's student paper:

"A few dozen" chum salmon are typically reported each year in Maritime Heritage Park during late October and mid-November.

In the same story, Brown said the park usually doesn't get many coho, even though coho return to Whatcom County creeks around the same time as chum. NSEA's volunteer Salmon Spotters summary for the 2025–26 season recorded chum and coho spawning in Whatcom Creek from late September to mid-December. That means the creek may still have some salmon when the tree is lit on Dec. 5, but it's past the stretch the park is known for.

NSEA's Salmon Sighting at Whatcom Creek is Saturday, Nov. 21, from noon to 3 p.m. Staff will set up at Maritime Heritage Park near C St. to watch spawning chum and answer questions. No registration is needed, and parking is on nearby downtown streets. NSEA posts weather-related changes on the same page and on its Facebook page. If the creek is quiet when you get there, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife suggests trying again after a rain.

What the park holds once you're standing in it

Many people have walked past Maritime Heritage Park on Holly Street without going down to the water. The salmon visit is a good reason to go down, and what you see there will help the Dec. 5 crowd make sense.

• The hatchery. At the park's northwestern edge, Bellingham Technical College runs the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife salmon hatchery. Fish are raised there in spring and released in fall. Numbered signs along the salmon run and holding ponds explain each stage of the life cycle. According to Bellingham Technical College, the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences program offers tours of its training facility throughout Fall Quarter, booked Monday through Thursday. Its students raise more than 2 million salmon and trout a year at the Whatcom Creek and Bellingham hatcheries.
• The Salmon Woman Totem. This 1997 pole on the creek's east edge was carved by the Lummi House of Tears Carvers. It tells the Coast Salish story of Salmon Woman, Raven and Bear. Steve Seymour's "Steel Salmon Going to Salmon Woman" and "Returning Salmon" stand nearby.
• The art along the trail. The eastern field has Phillip Baldwin's "Four Ages of the Seas" and Gerard Tsutakawa's "Confluence." On the west bank, Elizabeth Conner's "Quiet Middens, Noisy Waters" uses concrete pilings to recall the site's industrial past. Mike McRory's "Eagle Memorial Totem" on the northernmost trail honors the victims of the 1999 Olympic Pipeline explosion. The City's Salmon Art Trail map shows the route.
• The view from the bridge. WhatcomTalk calls the view from the highway bridge over the northern waterfalls one of Bellingham's iconic views. From the amphitheater and fields you can see the waterfront to the south and the Whatcom Museum's historic building to the north.

The site has been through big changes before. The Roeder-Peabody Mill ran here from 1852 to 1885, and some of its concrete foundations still sit in the creek bed. The park began in 1978, when the fish hatchery helped restore what had been a sewage treatment plant and industrial waste site. This year it becomes the main gathering spot for the holidays too.

How the weekends line up

Once you know the creek peaks first, the season falls into order. The Saturday market at the Depot is the steady morning stop, and the evening events now happen down at the creek.

Thanksgiving weekend has the most going on. The Partnership's Shop Small Saturday on Nov. 28 points shoppers to downtown's boutiques and galleries. Starting that weekend, storefront windows throughout downtown are decorated and lit for the Shine Bright window displays. On the same two days, the Shop Small Holiday Makers Market brings 50 vendors to the Cruise Terminal. Admission is free, Saturday hours end at 6 p.m., and Sunday runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The second Makers Market weekend, Dec. 12–13, is the same weekend as the bike parade.

The Bellingham Farmers Market runs at Depot Market Square every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Dec. 19. On Dec. 5 and Dec. 12 you can shop the market in the morning and walk down to the creek for the evening event. The bike parade starts at the Depot about three hours after the market closes.

A route for the two creek Saturdays

The park sits between the market and the waterfront, so each visit can be a short walk.

1. Nov. 21, midday. Go to NSEA's table near C St. between noon and 3. Look for chum in the creek, then walk the Native Plant Trail along the east side of the creek past the Salmon Woman Totem. The children's drawings on its signs were made with students from Columbia Elementary and Whatcom Middle School.
2. Before Dec. 5. If you'd like to see the hatchery from the inside, book a Bellingham Technical College fisheries tour on a Monday through Thursday while Fall Quarter is still in session.
3. Dec. 5, evening. Arrive at 5 for cocoa, the photo booth and the stilt walkers. Find a spot for the 6 p.m. countdown, then stay for the activities that run until 7.
4. Dec. 12, late afternoon. Spend the morning at the Depot market, meet at Depot Market Square at 4:45 with a decorated bike, and ride the route the Partnership lists, which ends at the park for cocoa around 5:30.

The lights will draw the bigger crowd, but the Nov. 21 visit is the best chance this season to see salmon in Whatcom Creek.

If seeing more of downtown this season has you wondering what your own home near the creek or the Lettered Streets would sell for in the new year, the team at Donita Dickinson Real Estate is glad to help. We'll listen first and give you a clear, no-pressure picture of where your home stands. Get a Free Home Valuation whenever you're ready.