A fun family holiday event in northeast Seattle is the annual Candy Cane Lane, a cluster of houses all decked out in lights and themed decorations, located on NE Ravenna Blvd/NE Park Road at 21st Ave NE (see map below).

The origins of Candy Cane Lane

Carousel display in the traffic circle at Candy Cane Lane on NE Park Road in Seattle.

Candy Cane Lane began in 1949 when the Seattle Times newspaper held a Christmas-decorations contest.  Residents of NE Park Road made candy cane-striped poles so that each house had some consistent decorations, with various other lights and figures in the front yards and front windows.  Each house has a theme, such as Toy Factory.

Some of the original candy-striped poles have rusted and are no longer usable, but some new candy cane poles have been made from plastic pipe.

Park Road won top prize in the contest that year and the name “Candy Cane Lane” stuck, as it is referred to today.  Now the residents hold a garage sale every summer to raise funds to help with their electric bills at Christmastime!  They begin planning in September and, after Thanksgiving, they get to work on setting up each year’s design.

In the 1960s Bill Rehder, a logging engineer, moved to Candy Cane Lane.  He came up with the idea of a mechanized display with animation — a carousel set up on the traffic circle of the street.  The carousel which he built is still maintained and set up every year by Park Road residents.

This year’s Candy Cane Lane events:

Beginning on Saturday night December 7, 2024, through New Years Day 2025, you can drive through or walk through Candy Cane Lane nightly.

It’s always preferable to walk through, to be unhurried by traffic and be able to admire the decorations, and the opening night, December 7, will be closed to cars to host pedestrians only.

Hours on Sunday through Thursday nights are from 4 PM to 9:30 PM.  Friday and Saturday night hours are 4 PM to 11 PM.

There will be four nights when Candy Cane Lane will be closed to cars and will host pedestrians only: December 7, 10, 15 and 19.

Candy Cane Lane

You are encouraged to bring food donations (canned food like soup or dry food like spaghetti boxes) for the Food Bank barrel at the end of the lane.

See the Candy Cane Lane Facebook page for more details.

The history of NE Park Road (Park Home Circle) is that the street was developed in the 1920s with a site plan and architectural plans for the houses as a group.  The site was owned by W.W. & Louise Beck who developed the Ravenna community beginning in 1889.  In the 1920s their son Broussais Beck engaged architect Carl Gould to plan the site and design the Park Home Circle houses.

Candy Cane Lane location map, Park Road NE off of NE Ravenna Blvd.