In 1966, Gwin Smith, the founder of Economy Wiring, climbed a Douglas fir and hung the lights himself. From 1982 on, apart from a break during the pandemic, the company held an early-December lighting at its location at 633 SW 148th Street. Over the years it added the St. Francis School Choir and a Santa who arrived with firefighters. For more than 30 of those years, King County Fire District #2 crews put the lights up.
Last December the tradition stopped. The B-Town Blog reported that the fire district could no longer safely string lights on the tree because of its size and condition, and Economy Wiring canceled the 2025 lighting. "We as the fire department are ceasing our support of putting the lights up and taking the lights down," Fire Chief Jason Gay told the B-Town Blog.
As of mid-October, Discover Burien's November and December calendar has no tree lighting on it. The rest of the season is already scheduled, and it works differently. Burien's late-fall calendar is a series of walks along SW 152nd Street. Each one is built from whichever storefronts agree to serve as stops that day, so no single business or crew carries the whole event.
The season at a glance
| Date | Event | Where it starts | Cost or payment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday, Oct. 22 and 29 | Burien Farmers Market, summer hours 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. | Burien Town Square, 480 SW 152nd St. | EBT accepted |
| Saturday, Oct. 24 | Boo in Burien, noon to 4 p.m. | Downtown storefronts; haunted house at 616 SW 152nd St., Suite B | Free |
| Thursday, Nov. 5 | Winter Market begins, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Burien Town Square | EBT accepted |
| Saturday, Nov. 28 | Mimosa Walk, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Discover Burien, 611 SW 152nd St. | $45, 21+ |
| Saturday, Dec. 5 | Holiday Cookie Crawl, noon to 4 p.m. | Discover Burien, 611 SW 152nd St. | $30, all ages |
Nearly everything in that table happens within a few blocks of the same stretch of 152nd. Two of the walks check in at the same door, and the free one relies on window signs.
Saturday's map is written in the windows
Boo in Burien runs this Saturday, Oct. 24, from noon to 4 p.m., "or until participating businesses run out of candy," according to Discover Burien as quoted by the B-Town Blog. There's no registration and no vendor row. Costumes are welcome but not required.
Signs in storefront windows show which businesses are handing out candy. Each shop opts in on its own, so the route is whatever the street adds up to that afternoon. The one fixed point is the haunted house at the Paralyzed Veterans Association, 616 SW 152nd Street, Suite B, open the same hours.
The "until they run out" clause matters. A 3:30 p.m. arrival may find some windows already finished, and an early start gets the full route. Discover Burien also suggests leaving extra time to shop and eat downtown, which is the point of a format that sends families past every participating door.
A new address on 152nd
Dry Spell, a 100% non-alcoholic bottle shop, has moved from its original pop-up near BECU to a permanent home in the back of Growing Crazy, an exotic indoor plant shop at 636 SW 152nd Street, Suite E. The two share the space but run as separate businesses, with their own checkout counters and staff. They held a joint grand reopening on Oct. 16 and have said more collaborative events and classes are coming.
Two things about the shop fit the season ahead. It offers free daily tastings, and it sells beers and ready-to-drink mocktails as single cans and bottles, so customers can try something without buying a full pack. The B-Town Blog's sponsored announcement called it "Burien's only alcohol-free bottle shop" and suggested it "may have become the town's closest thing to a speakeasy," given its spot behind the plants. On a street where two of the season's biggest events are walks from door to door, one address with two businesses inside is one more reason to stop.
The Thursday constant, on shorter hours
The Burien Farmers Market at Town Square, 480 SW 152nd Street, is the one weekly fixture on this calendar, and its hours are about to change. Discover Burien's market page lists summer hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from May through October, with Thursday, Oct. 29 on the summer schedule. The Winter Market then runs Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., November through April. The first winter-hours market falls on Thursday, Nov. 5.
The two lost hours are the after-work hours. Starting Nov. 5, a 5 p.m. market run won't work. Thursday, Oct. 29 is the last chance at the later closing time.
A few practical details carry into the cold months:
- Most vendors accept and prefer cash but can take cards. You can also buy market tokens with a card at the information booth and spend them at any booth.
- EBT is accepted, and the main tent can explain how shoppers can receive up to $10 through the SNAP Market Match program.
- The market closes if there is snow on the ground or the temperature is below 20 degrees, and signs go up at Town Square and on social media.
Discover Burien says vendors rotate with the seasons. The November market will look different from the late-summer one, even at the same Thursday address.
Two ticketed walks, one front door
By late November the walk format turns into ticketed events, and both start at Discover Burien, 611 SW 152nd Street.
The Mimosa Walk, Saturday, Nov. 28, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A $45 ticket buys one sample specialty mimosa at each participating establishment, about 12 to 15 stops. Each stop serves its own mimosa creation. Maps come at check-in, and participants must be 21 or older. Shopping receipts earn raffle tickets at Discover Burien, one for every $10 spent, toward a custom gift basket drawing. The event is part of Shop Local Burien, Discover Burien's tie-in to a nationwide campaign supporting small businesses. The date is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and the raffle rewards spending at the stops, so the event works as a holiday shopping day with a drink at each door. Details are on the Mimosa Walk event page.
The Holiday Cookie Crawl, Saturday, Dec. 5, noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are $30 per person. Each crawler gets a map of participating establishments and a reusable bag for collecting treats along the way, and the event is suitable for all ages. Only 100 tickets are available, and the page states a no-refund policy. In mid-October, the Cookie Crawl page still listed tickets as "Available Soon." With a family of four, a party can take a meaningful share of a 100-ticket cap, so it's worth checking that page from now on.
Both walks hand out the map at check-in, and the Mimosa Walk page gives an approximate count of stops. Like Boo in Burien, each route depends on which businesses join.
The calendar the tree used to anchor
Put together, the season runs Saturday, Oct. 24 for Halloween, Thursdays for the market, the Saturday after Thanksgiving for shopping and the first Saturday in December for cookies. The Economy Wiring lighting was held in early December, the same stretch of the calendar the Cookie Crawl now occupies. When the company canceled in 2025, it said it was saddened to stop a longtime tradition. The fire district's reason was the size and condition of the tree itself, so any return depends on a new way to get lights up that Douglas fir.
At Hines Group, we follow Burien's downtown calendar as closely as its streets, and we see a season built door by door as part of what makes a place feel like home. If a move this winter is on your mind and you'd like to talk it through between the Mimosa Walk and the Cookie Crawl, request a complimentary home consultation and we'll plan around the dates that matter to you.
