"In general, it seems that not as much is happening," Angela Hatfield wrote in the November 3 issue of Manzanita Connections, once the clocks fell back and the streets went quiet. She then listed music, art, books and candle making, and she was right that the town hadn't gone quiet. Its schedule had moved.
From now until mid-December, most of Manzanita's holiday calendar happens after the shops would usually lock up. Bare Moon Botanicals at 430 Laneda Avenue and Perch Makers Table at 123 Laneda Ave run their classes at 5:30 or 6 p.m. The Hoffman Center's clay studio does the same with its holiday workshops. Most of these are small, ticketed and split into time slots, so the holidays here work best if you plan them in evenings and book them in advance.
Here's how the season lays out, starting the week this post goes up.
The 5:30 street: this week's and next week's class nights
This stretch is the busiest run of weeknights before Thanksgiving. Every class below is on Laneda Avenue, so you can easily park once and walk to the next stop.
| Date | Class | Where | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Nov 13 | Candle Making & Plant Bingo | Bare Moon Botanicals, 430 Laneda Ave | 5:30 p.m. | Advance tickets required |
| Sat, Nov 14 | Alcohol Ink Workshop | Bare Moon Botanicals | 5:30 p.m. | Tickets online |
| Sat, Nov 14 | Procreate for Beginners | Perch Makers Table, 123 Laneda Ave | 6–8 p.m. | $35 |
| Thu, Nov 19 | Live Plant Terrarium & Kokedama Workshop | Bare Moon Botanicals | 5:30 p.m. | Tickets online |
Candle bingo makes good use of the wait. You make your own candle, then play bingo for plants while the wax cures, and the newsletter notes that you need tickets in advance. Saturday's Alcohol Ink session already showed "low stock" on Bare Moon's events page, so book it first if it's on your list. For the Procreate class at Perch, bring your own iPad, Apple Pencil and the Procreate app.
Bare Moon keeps longer daytime hours than most of the street this time of year. It's open every day, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and often by 10 a.m. on weekends. That means you can stop in during the day to look at the soaps and seasonal plants before you commit to an evening there.
November 21 is the one big daytime Saturday
On one Saturday the action moves to daylight, and two events overlap enough to plan together.
The North Tillamook County Women's Association Holiday Fair fills Pine Grove Community House from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It has artisan vendors, gift baskets, a curated wine wall, a raffle and a local business gift-card pull. The association, which you can read about at ntcwa1933.org, runs it every year, and the gift-card pull means a share of the fair's prizes goes back to shops in town.
From noon to 4 p.m. the same day, Perch hosts a Make Your Own Bracelet Pop-up with Lynn from Cloud & Leaf Bookstore. The RSVP is free and you pay in person, $25 for your first bracelet and $15 for each one after that. It runs in one-hour slots. A morning at the fair followed by an afternoon slot at Perch covers most of a gift list in one day without leaving town.
Thanksgiving week runs on pickup windows and a late shop
Thanksgiving week has three fixed times to plan around.
Wednesday, November 25. Brittney Bakes, the Garibaldi baker many people know from the Manzanita Farmers Market, is taking Thanksgiving pie orders, with every pickup on Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. According to Manzanita Connections, you can order by message on Instagram or Facebook, by text or by email. The newsletter also mentions a pecan pie with maple custard.
Friday, November 27. The day after Thanksgiving, Tess of Loom & Air leads Under the Mistletoe, a beginner felt-making class at Perch, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. You reserve your first two pieces online for $35 and pay $10 at the table for each one after that. The class runs in one-hour slots, and Perch suggests picking up cocoa or another hot drink at The Spinn across the street beforehand. The shop stays open until 9 p.m. that night, which Perch calls a start to Small Business Saturday weekend.
Saturday, November 28. Two things happen that day. Perch's Dolly Disco Stitch Night runs from 6 to 8 p.m. for $45. It's also the last day of the Hoffman Gallery's Word & Image, an exhibit of broadsides and original art by 12 writers and 12 visual artists with ties to the North Oregon Coast. The show grows out of ekphrasis, writing made in response to visual art, and turns it into an exchange that goes both ways. The gallery is open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., so Thanksgiving Day through Saturday gives you three days to catch it before it closes.
December stacks its evenings closer together
In December the evening pattern holds, but the events land closer together, and a few nights have more than one thing going on.
Thursday, December 3
The Hoffman Center hosts Juliet Sings, an album release event by Juliet Yänko. Doors open at 6 p.m., the show starts at 7 p.m., and tickets are $25. The December gallery exhibition, with work by Brittany Boles, Ally Bruser and Jennifer Foran, opens the same day and runs through December 26.
Saturday, December 5
You can fill a whole evening on December 5 if you plan for it.
- 3–5 p.m. The Hoffman Gallery's opening reception for the December show. Hoffman receptions are free and open to the public.
- 5 p.m. Deb Montgomery's Advent Concert, as listed in the October 20 Manzanita Connections. Montgomery also leads This Little Light, a series of song and poetry evenings at St. Catherine's on Highway 101.
- 6 p.m. Wildcraft Wreath Making Workshop at Bare Moon Botanicals.
December 11 through 13
The second weekend in December has the most going on.
- Friday, December 11. The Winter Concert Series at White Clover Grange Hall, at 36585 OR-53 in Nehalem, hosts Kathryn Claire. Doors open at 5 p.m., music starts at 6 p.m., and admission is $25, with tickets through the series page. The series comes from the people who organized Wheeler's concerts by the bay last summer.
- December 11–12. Bare Moon's Stained Glass Workshop begins at 5:30 p.m. and runs across both days.
- Saturday, December 12. Winter Paper Lantern Making at Perch, 6 to 8 p.m., $45 with materials included.
- Sunday, December 13. Shaping Intentions, a ceramic workshop with Janice Gaines-Ehlen in the Hoffman clay studio, 1 to 4 p.m. It costs $60, which covers instruction, materials and firings, and scholarships are available.
On a Sunday afternoon, clay is about the only thing on this calendar that isn't held at night. It works well as a quiet wind-down after a busy weekend.
Small things to pick up between class nights
If you're already walking Laneda for a class, a few newer things are worth a stop.
- A candle that smells like town. UnFurl worked with Seafolk Studio on a custom Manzanita candle scented with spruce and sea salt musk.
- A design studio in the back of Perch. Manuela Dourado has set up Golden Inch, a full-service interior design studio, in the back of Perch Makers Table. If you're there for a felt or lantern class, it's a few steps away.
- A new mural on the way back to the car. The renovated public restrooms at Laneda Avenue and 5th Street South now have a mural by Rockaway artist Hope Montgomery and her mother, Amy, as part of the restroom renovation by Manzanita Public Works.
Most of these classes have limited space or one-hour slots, and small-venue schedules can change. Check each event page before you go, and book the ones you care about most first.
I'm a renovation guy at heart, so a winter of lantern frames, kiln firings and hand-felted mistletoe is my kind of season. If one of these evenings on Laneda gets you thinking about what your own place could look like, or what it might take to make a Manzanita home fit your life, I'd be glad to talk it over with you. Todd Braden is easy to reach whenever the timing feels right. Let's Connect.
