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Holiday Guide 2025
Below are our featured stories, along with a digital version of our print Holiday Guide.
A Winter Wonderland Returns with WinterFest in February
WinterFest returns to the Old Mill District Feb. 13-15 with music, art, family friendly activities, fire and ice! Music headliners include Brandi Cyrus on Friday evening and Tiffany on Saturday. Cyrus, Miley Cyrus’s sister, performs a mash-up of country, pop and electronic beats that’ll get the crowd dancing. Opening for Cyrus is Saxsquatch, a 7-foot-tall…
New Boutique Hotel in Old Post Office Now Accepting Reservations
The Westman Hotel is set to open in mid-December in the newly remodeled historic post office in downtown Bend. Reservations are being accepted starting Friday, Dec. 19. The high-end hotel has 23 rooms and suites on three floors ranging in price from $399 to $749 per night. At the top end are two-story lofts which…
A Dino-Mite Christmas Experience
Jurassic Quest returns to the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center for a special holiday edition. Billed as North America’s largest and most realistic dinosaur experience, families can walk among more than 80 life-size, animatronic dinos. There are also interactive exhibits, fossil digs with T-Rex Teeth and a triceratops horn, dino rides, bounce houses, live…
Music for Questionable People
Brandon Campbell has released a new album, “Swinging from the Chandeliers.” It’s the first time all three members of The Brandon Campbell Trio have recorded together. It’s a Bend-based instrumental group which Campbell describes like this, “We are an acoustic trio with a sound rooted in the tradition of Gypsy Swing icon Django Reinhardt, but…
Free Will Astrology Week of Dec. 4
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The world’s oldest known musical composition is the Hurrian Hymn No. 6. It was discovered etched on clay tablets in Syria, dating back to 1400 BCE. When finally decoded and performed, it revealed harmonies that still resonate with modern listeners. Your projects in the coming months could share this timeless quality,…
Grace & Goods Elevates the Shopping — and Giving — Experience
Shopping here is as guilt-free as can be. Grace & Goods, a soon-to-open thrift boutique in Redmond, will offer shoppers an experience that goes beyond that of a typical thrift store. Folks can peruse its racks during the shop’s grand opening on Dec. 10. The thrift boutique sits in a 350-square-foot building on NW Sixth…
Where to Eat and What to Cook This Holiday Season
The season is here and you can feel it in the crisp air along the Deschutes and the twinkle lights that creep earlier into the afternoon. Bend becomes a swirl of visiting family, friend reunions and the familiar question that floats through every living room this time of year. Where should we eat? And if…
Spreading Holiday Cheer
One of the best things about the holidays are traditions and Christmas carols are a tradition dating back to the medieval times of the 14th century. It’s believed the first carols were sung by Franciscan friars who stood in a circle, linking hands, singing together. Christmas carols have somehow survived through the centuries. According to…
Pushback Mounts Against Oregon’s Planned Transportation Tax Hike
On Nov. 7, Gov. Tina Kotek signed Oregon House Bill 3991 into law. But before it can take effect, a petition may send it to next year’s ballot instead, giving Oregon voters the power of a thumbs up or thumbs down. The new legislation will raise the state gas tax by 6 cents, raise the registration…
Time to Shine with a Freak Holiday Salad
Jello salad was created in 1904 by Mrs. John E. Cook of Pennsylvania. She called it the “Perfection Salad.” The colorful item became especially popular after World War II as a convenient, inexpensive dish for busy housewives. It became overshadowed in the 1960s and 70s with the rise of other cooking trends. Nonetheless, many families…
Swingin’ Tower Christmas Returns to Tower Theatre
One of Bend’s most festive Christmas performances is back! Swingin’ Tower Christmas will light up the stage at the Tower Theatre in December, with four performances. https://www.towertheatre.org/events Get ready to jingle all the way! These festive and family-friendly shows feature a lively blend of holiday classics and seasonal tunes, bringing the joyous spirit of Christmas…
A Gas Tax Repeal Could Be Looming, But Oregonians Will Feel the Effects Right Away
From the flurry of activity that has been happening around the proposed gas tax referendum, it’s clear that many Oregonians have strong feelings about the issue of raising fees on car registrations and raising the state gas tax by 6 cents. Partisan historians are calling the effort “unprecedented.” Some are going out of their way…
One Homeless Man Seeks More Than Just Survival on Second Street
The man in the tent was undeniably oratorical. He casually supplied adjectives like “adversarial,” discussed the concept of trickle-down economics with disdain, and held the word “conducive” (often used incorrectly) to its dictionary definition. Three feet away from an open bucket serving as a makeshift toilet, I was speaking to someone more eloquent than many…
Complying with Gravity
My obsession with musical theater switched off one day before I was able to join the “Wicked” fanbase. The music from “Les Mis,” “Hedwig,” “Spring Awakening,” “Rent,” “Once,” “Rocky Horror,” “Phantom” and a few more still spin round in my head some weeks, but shows like “Cats,” “Rock of Ages” and “Frozen” feel lukewarm and…
We Are All Afraid
Last month’s message was titled We Are All One. Simply said, we need each other so much more than we could ever imagine. This understanding of life puts peace in my head and my heart. Even if you and I disagree on many things, you and I might very well need one another sometime…soon. I…
Four Decades of the Festival of Trees
You can decorate your home without effort and donate to a good cause by bidding on a tree at the annual Festival of Trees. The Hospice of Redmond has hosted the fundraiser for 42 years. It’s been chosen by Source readers as the Best Nonprofit Event in 2024 and 2025. More than 30 elaborately decorated…
A Summit High School Valedictorian Snags $100,000 with a 33-yard Field Goal
A former Summit High School valedictorian and Storm soccer player is $100,000 richer, thanks to his field goal-kicking chops. Otto Haar, who graduated from Summit in 2023 and is currently a junior at the University of Oregon, attended ESPN’s campus-hopping “College GameDay” broadcast at the Memorial Quad in Eugene on Nov. 22. As part of…
Letters to the Editor, Week of Dec. 4
Parking Problem Parking on Deschutes Market Road adjacent to the Pine Nursery dog park has been in the news recently. There used to be access to the dog park from Deschutes Market Road before the roundabout was put in. Some residents from the apartment complex Solis also used to park there. Safety may be a…
Species Spotlight: Burrowing Owl
Pronghorn are perhaps the most graceful animal native to the high desert country of central and eastern Oregon. Golden eagles are the most majestic, greater sage-grouse the most emblematic. And burrowing owls? They’re the funniest. For starters, burrowing owls have the peculiar habit of living in underground burrows — not the trees that most birds…
Women Homebuyers
Something’s shifted in real estate over the past few years. Women, especially single women, are buying homes at rates that would’ve been unthinkable a generation ago. In 2024, single women made up about 20% of all buyers, while single men accounted for only 8%. Among first-time homebuyers, nearly one in four buyers is a single…
Brewery Mug Clubs are the Gifts that Literally Keep on Giving
There are two kinds of gifts: things and experiences. The beauty of gifting someone a mug club membership is that you’re giving them both (tangible or, rather, drinkable beer plus the mug itself and perhaps some swag, as well as the community and comradery that is baked into the membership. It was when I’d run…
