Soap Lake's Winterfest starts Saturday
Chrystal Doucette/Columbia Basin Herald<br> Ephrata resident Emily Ellsworth, 3, tosses a bean bag into a snowman last year at Winterfest in Soap Lake.
SOAP LAKE — Soap Lake businesses plan to bring Christmas from around the world to the city on Saturday.
The city’s annual Winterfest celebration includes food, turkey bowling and pictures with Santa.
“To me, it’s a thank you from all the businesses to the community,” said Bridgett Oie, the Healing Water Spa’s owner. “It’s a kind of fun way to give back and have a fun thing to do.”
The event starts with a pancake feed at the Soap Lake Senior Center from 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. After the feed, games, including turkey bowling, start on Main Avenue. This year, there are two lanes open, one where people can bowl a regular turkey and a children’s lane with a Cornish hen. Each version costs $1 per chance. If people get a strike with the turkey, then they win a turkey.
“We have a specific turkey just for (turkey bowling),” Chamber of Commerce President Denise Keegan said. “Anybody can bowl the turkey, it’s not just adults.”
The prize for getting a strike in the children’s lane is a cookie, Oie said. There will be Christmas carol karaoke in front of The Healing Waters Spa and a cupcake walk as well. The cupcake walk is similar to musical chairs with wooden symbols placed on the ground.
“We’ll play music and when it stops whoever is standing on one of them wins a cupcake,” said Sue Zimbelman, who organizes the cupcake walk. “The kids have a ball.”
A craft fair inside of the banquet room at Don’s Restaurant starts at 10 a.m. Oie said the crafts range from baby dolls to scarves.
“Mostly it’s hand crafted stuff,” Oie said. “We’re just going to a lot of vendors.”
Food, including German sausages, gyros, chili, cornbread and cookies, and hot chocolate, hot Dr. Pepper and hot spiced cider will be sold on Main Avenue. The food goes along the theme of Christmas around the world, Oie said.
Santa arrives at the event at noon at the gazebo, and will be available at Santa’s Cozy Cabin at 315 Main Ave. E. Pictures with Santa can be purchased for $10 a piece. The proceeds go to the Soap Lake food bank. More craft vendors are available there.
“We have the best Santa in the whole world. I was told that by a couple mothers last year,” Oie said. “He’s just incredible.”
Two raffles are available at the event. The Soap Lake Food Bank is raffling off two gift baskets. The other supports the Soap Lake fireworks. Prizes include a half of a side of beef, a Jacuzzi suite at the Inn at Soap Lake, a $100 gift certificate for the Soap Lake Shell Station and a $100 gift certificate from the Daisy Street Car Wash.