Timberline Lodge

An excerpt from…
Culinary Traveler: Holiday Traditions Oregon Style
By Michelle M. Winner

Celebrating Christmas in the Pacific Northwest is a natural. Oregon is the number one U.S. producer of Christmas trees so even it’s agricultural traditions are part of this treasured holiday.

Christmas at Timberline Lodge

First a toy drops. Then the polished buckle and toe of a black boot is visible just below the immense wood beam mantel. Finally a huge bag of toys squeezes through the small opening of the massive stone fireplace. And all of a sudden boys and girls of all ages get worked into a frenzy when a jolly fat man in a red suit pops out of the stone shaft. “Santa” the kids shout. “Santa you came!”

Christmas tradition is part of the heart of this great lodge. Oregonians have been making Christmas Eve at Timberline a part of their holiday celebration for several generations. It’s a perfect place to feel the magic of Christmas. And so it has been for many Christmases since Timberline Lodge was built by depression -era craftsmen and laborers in the 1930’s as a WPA (Works Progress Administration) project. Constructed on a flank of Mt. Hood or Wy’East as the first peoples called the mountain, Timberline Lodge is now a place to reconnect your spirit to nature in all seasons. Winter is special here. As snow drifts climb outside the windows and wisps of ice clouds halo the peak of the mountain, visitors take to the lifts to snow board or ski and return to cozy up by the two rock fireplaces. When nighttime skiing is suspended for Christmas Eve, (you wouldn’t want someone to ski into a reindeer would you?) the quiet outside adds to the expectation as swirls of snow dance along the windows.

These smiling kids don’t care that the Lodge was built by hand of local stone and timber. Nor that old utility poles became fanciful newel posts of a bear, eagle, mole, lynx, mallard, fox, fawn, pelican, king-fisher and badger in the hands of a skilled carver. Or that old uniforms were cut and hooked into rugs and railroad rails were hammered into andirons. These kids have one thing in mind as they sit patiently through dinner and listen for the update from the Lodge’s PA system. Finally the announcer returns and says. “Santa was spotted crossing the Columbia River and is headed directly for Mt. Hood!”

Oh boy, it’s time to roll! Kids hop off the carved wooden chairs, all running now through the halls of modernist artwork, scrambling up the newel post-trimmed stairs to the main fireplace to wait for the man of the hour. The big red guy is on his way to Timberline; do you hear reindeer hooves on the roof? This instauration of magical Christmas excitement renews each December 24th about seven o’clock after a candlelight dinner and before caroling begins. Once Santa has extricated himself from Oregon’s most famous and best-loved chimney, he holds court near the towering Christmas tree twinkling with lights. The children line up to visit with him in turn showing Santa that they are indeed very good boys and girls. When one very tiny boy reaches the head of the line to receive his personal message of Christmas from Santa and a special toy, his parents look on with a sense of wonderment that still lights their eyes. Outside, where surely the reindeer await on the roof, the wind throws the snow in timeless patterns against the windows as the moon lights the peak of Mt. Hood.

Click here to view our holiday menu and make a reservation for a meal with us.