Silverton Christmas Market — Attraction in Silverton

People going for Christmas lights/market. A couple tips from our visit last night. First, parking. There is at least three parking areas. The furthest away parking area is the first one you come to with the big bright industrial lights. The next one past that is another field type parking area again with big bright lights. Between the two field parking areas is a smaller, regular parking lot.

We got there at about 5:30 and it was a Tuesday. At that time the field lot closest to the admissions area was full and it was clear that there was confusion on where to go once that lot was full. On the other side of that lot, there is a not well lit road with no signs. That will take you to the other parking areas. I think they could do a lot to alleviate the confusion with a few extra signs.

Walking from the parking areas is about a quarter mile to the entrance for the lights/market etc. Slightly uphill. Again, not enough signs for first timers like us to know which way to walk once we got parked other than just following people that seemed to know where they were going. I don't view the lack of signage as bad, it just would have been nice to not have to question it.

One nice thing is that right before the ticket booth, is a pair of Porta potties. Welcome and appreciated.

After the ticket booth, you still don't really know where to go other than assuming it's probably down that way where there is some lights? Yep.

After that it's all good and I was really happy with our visit. You walk through some lights and end up at the first hot cocoa/beer/snack booth.

One of my favorite things is they have several little warming shacks peppered in here and there. Very smart. It's really cute and not run down feeling. The atmosphere was very good. Didn't feel trashy.

The market is kinda cool but we didn't buy anything. Was about 7 vendors with "Saturday market" type stuff they were selling. Lots of cute stuff. Each booth was a little shed similar to the snack booths.

This area is where the main market food place is. It was the most busy at that one. It had some pretty decent snacks such as Mac and cheese, polish dogs, pulled pork, pretzels with home made cheese dip which was very good. Beers at the beer garden were delicious. And a good musician.

Would go...

My family and I needed a mini family trip and after one of my co-workers told me about Christmas in the Garden, I decided to give it a go. We spent one night at the Resort and we all had a great time. There were a couple things that could have been better, but overall it was a great mini trip and will give it another try next year. In my opinion, the first thing I see could improve is the customer service at the front counter and at the various activity stations. I clearly heard the front desk staff be very friendly to the 4 other guests that checked in while I was in line, but when I got to the counter the friendliness was almost non-existent. I looked passed that and went on to enjoy our day, but as we would go to the snowless tubbing & the ice skating, no one except for one or two teenagers were friendly and welcoming at the snowless tubbing. Again, I looked passed that too and went on to enjoy the lights show. They were probably just worn out and cold. I might take them some hand warmers next time! The second thing I would say needs improvement are the pillows, they are not comfortable at all, but next time I will just bring my own 😊 My two girls (9 & 16yr old) had an awesome time. We ate at the snowman restaurant and my husband loved their tacos, they were much better than expected and let me tell ya….we know our tacos! The resort is close to a Safeway where we went to grab some snacks. The light show is very impressive, and I loved how they have several firepits all around the light show. Unfortunately, the various stands/shops were closed, but I think it was due to it being Jan 1st & 2nd. I recommend you give it a try, you don’t have to stay...

I so badly wanted to love this, especially since we made a 10 hour round trip just to see the lights. While the lights were beautiful, my home town with a population of 464 puts on a very similar display for free. It's nothing like the reviews of previous years make it seem. The walkways are so small and compact, the lines for very simple food and drinks were unbelievably long, and while there were a handful of vendors they were constantly blocked off by people just standing in front of them from lack of space. The worst part, I know isn't completely about the event itself, but it was like a gathering of all of the most rude people in Oregon. Lots of children were completely unattended, it feels so incredibly rushed like you shouldn't even stop to actually look at the displays, we got stepped on, hit, constantly bumped into, and smacked in the face with more umbrellas than we can count. And the photo ops were odd. I guess I imagined something like in themed museums where they have it set up so you click a button to take a picture then email it to yourself, or even have workers there to take pictures, heck even a simple stand to set up your phone for pictures. Instead you're expected to ask strangers to take photos for you. It was also weird that the light path travels through backyards? You could see people in the buildings half a foot behind light displays. It felt invasive. All in all, I definitely don't recommend you traveling for this. Maybe it would be better if you live in Silverton, but to travel any real distance for an hour worth of an event (if you walk through it twice)...