The city of Camas’ annual Hometown Holidays celebration and tree lighting ceremony will fill the streets of downtown Camas with holiday joy from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6.
Residents and visitors will once again enjoy a bustling downtown Camas, filled with school and community choirs, bands and dancers, photos with Santa (bring your camera), crafts for the children, street food vendors and downtown restaurants and shops open for business. The tree-lighting ceremony will kick off the event at 5 p.m., thanks to the coordination and sponsorship by the Downtown Camas Association and the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce. Hometown Holidays is coordinated and hosted by Camas Parks and Recreation and coincides with Downtown Camas Association’s First Friday.
Hometown Holidays and the events are free and open to all, thanks to the financial support of Columbia Credit Union, Windermere Camas, iQ Credit Union, Downtown Camas Association, Lutz Hardware and in-kind donors and volunteers. In addition, various restaurants and food vendors will be open to purchase food. Visitors can also use the opportunity to shop for their holiday gifts in Camas’ well-known historic downtown.
The free parking shuttle, courtesy of the Camas School District, will run its park-and-ride event shuttles from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Four color-coded parking lots within 1 mile of downtown Camas will be incorporated into one continuous shuttle route. The shuttle route will stop at each of the parking lots and will drop off riders on the street between Camas City Hall and the Camas Public Library. The shuttle is free. More details can be found online at cityofcamas.us/parksrec under the “Special Events” tab.
Organizers ask participants to leave pets at home, as the event is expected to be crowded. Visitors with strollers can park them at the Festival Information Tent, located at the intersection of Northeast Fourth Avenue and Northeast Cedar Street. Journey Church also will host a quiet room for nursing mothers and families who need to make diaper changes.