Turkey bowling and more at Soap Lake's Winterfest

SOAP LAKE - Each year Soap Lake's Winterfest adds another flag to its celebration.

"It has a lot to do with the five flags," Soap Lake Chamber of Commerce Director Kelley Skotland said. "We've got this display set up for each country. It's kind of cool, because we have food from all those different places."

This year, the flag for Ukraine has been added to flags from the United States, Mexico, Germany and Greece, explained Skotland. She's in charge of the chamber's celebration.

"It seems like they've added one every year," she said.

The celebration has been going on in Soap Lake for 25 years, Skotland said. It was originally called Dickens' Little Christmas, but changed to Winterfest five years ago.

This year's Winterfest takes place Dec. 8 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"Winterfest is an outside celebration," Skotland said. "It's when Santa Claus comes and passes out bags for all the kids. They have turkey bowling outside, we have food booths from five different countries, we have the art show also going on that whole week."

The event also includes children's games in downtown Soap Lake and a raffle drawing in which all the proceeds go into next year's Winterfest celebration.

Turkey bowling "is very popular," Skotland said. "It's a lot of fun. I'm not sure how it got started. I've only been involved with the chamber for a couple years now, and it's always been here since I've been here."

It's also Skotland's own personal favorite part of the celebration.

"To see the little kids go out there and try to throw this big turkey, it's a lot of fun for them," she said.

During the event, the celebration is raffling off a half-side of beef with a freezer, with a first prize being a a Jacuzzi suite at the Lodge and $60 toward dinner, and second prize being a night at the Inn at Soap Lake and a massage for two at the Healing Waters Spa. Third prize is a gift basket from the spa, and there are also gift baskets from Van's Coffee and Coulee City Express.

Last year, the event included karaoke inside Soap Lake's Masquers Theater for residents to warm up. This year, Soap Lake and Ephrata high schools offer a Christmas concert at 3 p.m.

"It's for the community, for the businesses to get involved," Skotland said of the overall Winterfest event. "This year, there's a lot more businesses involved, which I'm happy with, and newer games for the kids. I hope that gets the kids more excited; it seemed like the last two years they were the same games."

Last year, roughly 175 children participated. Skotland said 250 bags are usually put together for the kids.

"It's really cool -we have that big, huge Christmas tree right in the middle of town," she said.

Skotland said the chamber is looking for donations of artificial trees to decorate the gazebo in downtown Soap Lake.

For more information, call Skotland at 509-289-9529.