Make the short jaunt to Canby’s rodeo arena for a half-mile walk through tunnels of holiday lights, a Christmas tree show, school band performances, and Santa himself. There's a holiday market, too, with gifts from local vendors, as well as kid-friendly craft activities. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for kids 4–12, and free for ages 3 and under.

Feel like meeting jolly ol’ Saint Nick at the North Pole? Take a trip to Hood River, where every year the Mt. Hood Railroad transforms its excursion trains into delightful Christmas carriages. On the Polar Express, everyone gets a cookie, a mug of hot cocoa, and a chance to meet Santa. Tickets are $49–109 for the ride, which runs around 90 minutes.

It’s the season of big water on the Oregon Coast, with December the second of three months of extra-high tides. During this time, the Oregon King Tides Project—a citizen-science initiative organized by CoastWatch and the Oregon Coastal Management Program—asks for help documenting these king tides in an effort to understand the effects rising sea levels have on coastal communities. Participation in the project is open to anyone willing and able to venture out to the coast and operate a camera (but safety first, please).  

Bend’s High Desert Museum helps visitors weather the dark days of winter by staying open late every Thursday in December, with themed activities and access to exhibitions, including a new show of photography by David Paul Bayles, capturing the McKenzie River canyon post–Holiday Farm Fire. Decorate cookies, join a toddler dance party, and munch on food and beverage samples. A different themed outfit—from ugly sweaters to pajamas—is encouraged each week.

Join staff and volunteers at Silver Falls State Park to celebrate the holiday season with craft activities, interpretive walks, and more (as of publication time, we're still waiting on the full slate of offerings). Activities are free, but drivers need to pay the $5 day-use fee to park.

The Geminids are considered by NASA to be one of the Northern Hemisphere's more “reliable” annual meteor showers, but they'll have some competition thanks to city lights and cloud cover. To improve your chances of seeing more than 100 shooting stars per hour, we recommend heading out of town and seeking out clear skies—not an easy feat in Western Oregon in December.

Some people hike to collect mushrooms, while others collect Oregon diorama ornaments. That's the name of the game on certain trails around the Willamette National Forest this time of year. Two hundred tree baubles have been placed by the Willamette Valley Visitors Association, which has been putting on the annual ornament hunt since 2018. Find just one per household (leave some for others, dude) and it's yours to keep, plus you become eligible to enter a sweepstakes for a Willamette Valley getaway. But get out there soon—the ornaments were placed in mid-November.

Whale alert! After summering in Alaska, thousands of gray whales are on the move south to the balmy lagoons of Baja, Mexico, and for about a week they can be spotted up and down the Oregon Coast. Volunteers will be posted at more than a dozen state parks to help visitors spot these majestic mammals, understand their migration patterns, and record their numbers.