How many stamps are on your passport? The Ballard Tomte Trail opened November 1 at shop counters across the neighborhood, and the passport you pick up there is the season's real calendar. Ballard's holidays are set up as one long trail with a single payout day, and the payout comes on Saturday, December 5, at Marvin's Garden Park.
Nearly everything else on the calendar fits around that trail. The National Nordic Museum is a stop on the passport, and it also hosts Julefest near the middle of the run. The holiday lights frame the finish. After the finish, the season moves out to the water. Here's the order it comes in, starting from publish day:
| Date | What | Where | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Now through Dec. 5 | Ballard Tomte Trail | 41 Ballard businesses | Free passport |
| Nov. 20 | Julefest 21+ Friday Night Market, 5 to 9 p.m. | National Nordic Museum | $20 in advance, $25 at the door |
| Nov. 21 and 22 | Julefest markets, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | National Nordic Museum | $12 adults in advance, kids under 12 free |
| Dec. 5 | Ballard HolidayFest & Market, 2 to 8 p.m. | Marvin's Garden Park and north Ballard Ave NW | Free |
| Dec. 10 | Christmas Ship shoreline performance, 8:15 to 8:35 p.m. | Golden Gardens Beach | Free from shore |
| Dec. 23 | Christmas Ship shoreline performance, 2:35 to 2:55 p.m. | Ballard Locks | Free from shore |
A passport that starts at a shop counter
The Ballard Tomte Trail runs November 1 through December 5, 2026. Little tomten are hiding inside 41 neighborhood businesses. When you find one, ask a staff member to stamp your passport.
The stops are an inventory of the neighborhood's independent retail. There are bookstores, Ballard Books and Secret Garden Books. Sweet Mickey's Candy Shoppe and Pie Bird Bakeshop cover the sweet tooth. Mox Boarding House is on the list, and so are Bakke Coffee Museum, Fair Trade Winds, Market Street Shoes, Culinary Essentials, Kurfunkle Kids Market and Woodland MOD. So is the National Nordic Museum, which makes the museum both a trail stop and the biggest event venue of the season.
There's also an off-map bonus stop. A tomte is hiding at Tumbles on 24th Ave NW, and finding it gets you a special stamp on the front of the passport.
How the trail works from here:
- Pick up a passport at any participating business, or download the 2026 passport and print it at home.
- Find the tomte at each stop and get a stamp.
- Bring the passport to HolidayFest at Marvin's Garden Park on December 5 between 2 and 5 p.m. You get a prize no matter how many stamps you have.
- With 10 or more stamps, fill in your contact information and enter the drawing for a National Nordic Museum Annual Family Membership. Winners are contacted by phone or email and don't need to be there for the drawing.
The 2 to 5 p.m. prize window is the deadline to plan around. The trail ends the same day as HolidayFest, so any stamps you haven't collected by that afternoon don't count.
Julefest falls midway through the trail
Julefest runs November 20 through 22 at the National Nordic Museum, 2655 NW Market St. My Ballard reported that the outdoor Christmas market will have more than 40 vendors selling local goods and Nordic-inspired wares.
The weekend is split in two. Friday, November 20, is the 21+ Friday Night Market, 5 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door, or $15 and $20 for museum members. Saturday and Sunday run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with all-day markets, food and music. Adult tickets are $12 ahead or $16 at the door, kids' tickets are $5, kids under 12 get in free, and members are free.
The food tells you whose holiday this is. There are æbleskiver, Danish pancake balls served with lingonberry sauce, powdered sugar and whipped cream. All weekend, the 21+ Beer Garden pours glögg, mead and beer, and local Nordic performers play in the Valhalla Beer Hall. The cookies come from dozens of volunteer bakers who spend weeks turning out thousands of krumkake, rosettes and princess gems, and the museum is still taking volunteer bakers.
The museum is also a tomte stop, so a Julefest visit gets you one more stamp before the December finish.
December 5: the finish line runs from the park onto Ballard Avenue
Ballard HolidayFest & Market is Saturday, December 5, 2026, from 2 to 8 p.m. It fills Marvin's Garden Park, and the north end of Ballard Avenue NW becomes a market. It will have vendors, live music, a fire pit with a s'mores station, a Ballard Tomte Toss, and food and drink specials from the restaurants inside the event footprint.
In the park, free photos with Santa run from 2 to 5 p.m., and you need to be in line by 4:30. Santa leaves at 5, but the event keeps going until 8. That evening is also when the tree lighting happens, along with cider, holiday treats and the Tomte Trail prize giveaways. HolidayFest is free, produced by the Ballard Alliance with support from the Seattle Office of Economic Development and volunteers from the Ballard business community.
The lights around the event are up for a long time. The 2026-2027 Holiday Lights display wraps 273 trees along NW Market St, Leary Ave NW and Ballard Ave NW. It adds snowflakes at Bergen Place, lights up the Centennial Bell Tower, strings colored bulbs in the big trees at Marvin's Garden Park, and puts a lit archway at the National Nordic Museum. This year's new piece is sphere ornaments on every other tree along Ballard Ave NW. The display stays up until shortly after Valentine's Day weekend, and the Ballard Alliance says it also makes the sidewalks safer during the darkest months.
Getting there on a newly finished Route 40
If you're coming to Market Street from Greenwood, Crown Hill or Loyal Heights, the bus trip has changed since last December. SDOT and King County Metro celebrated the completion of the Route 40 project on October 29, 2026. Route 40 runs from Northgate light rail station through Greenwood, Crown Hill, Loyal Heights, Ballard and Fremont down to Pioneer Square, and averages more than 9,000 weekday boardings.
The finished project includes three miles of bus-priority lanes, signal changes that help buses avoid delays, 16 upgraded bus stops, 15 new or upgraded crosswalks, 47 curb ramp upgrades, and more than 6,000 feet of upgraded sidewalks. In Ballard, the work added a new signal at Leary Ave NW and 20th Ave NW, a few blocks from where the HolidayFest market sets up on Ballard Avenue.
The changes also help with trips south. Two blocks of protected bike lanes now run in Fremont, along with a redesign north of the Fremont Bridge. King County Metro says new bus lanes leading to the bridge help buses get ahead of traffic after bridge openings. That helps on December 23 if you're riding toward Lake Union Park to catch the Christmas Ship's Grand Finale sailing.
After the finish line, the season moves to the water
Once the trail is over, Ballard's December events are on the shoreline. Argosy's Christmas Ship Festival schedule has two Thursday, December 10 sailings out of Shilshole Bay Marina, both with Central Kitsap High School Vocal Motion on board. The early sailing stops for a shoreline performance at Carkeek Park from 5:20 to 5:40 p.m. The late sailing stops at Golden Gardens Beach from 8:15 to 8:35 p.m.
On Wednesday, December 23, the Grand Finale sailing leaves from Lake Union Park and stops at the Ballard Locks for a shoreline performance from 2:35 to 2:55 p.m.
Sundays keep going through all of it. The Ballard Farmers Market runs year-round on Ballard Ave NW from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., between 22nd Ave NW at NW Market St and 20th Ave NW. This season it sets up under the wrapped trees of the Holiday Lights display. The market falls on November 15, 22 and 29 and on December 6, 13, 20 and 27. The December 6 market is the morning after HolidayFest.
Put it all together and you have one plan. Collect stamps on Saturday errands, use Julefest on November 21 or 22 for the museum stop, turn your passport in at Marvin's Garden Park before 5 p.m. on December 5, and get down to Golden Gardens by 8:15 p.m. on December 10.
Our family has been helping neighbors in North Seattle for a long time, and seasons like this one show the neighborhood at its most local. If you're thinking about what's next for you, from staying near the shops on your passport to finding a home within walking distance of Ballard Avenue, The Christophilis Team would be glad to talk it through. Schedule a free consultation to discuss your neighborhood goals.
