You can mark Christmas Dive Bar off your wishlist this year. An 11th Ave club has transformed into Capitol Hill’s winter wonderland for this holiday season.

“Seattle winters can be super dark and super gray,” owner Joey Burgess said. “This was an interesting opportunity to light up a space that could be unique to the Hill.”

Unlike holiday venues that can pop up to profit off Capitol Hill’s nightlife culture, Christmas Dive Bar is a local venture.

“This is just a homegrown project, by Capitol Hill for Capitol Hill,” Burgess said. “We appreciate everyone’s creativity, we know this isn’t a unique concept. We just thought we could try to do it our way and keep it local.”

CHS reported here in November on the surprise plans from the business family behind Queer/Bar, The Cuff, Oddfellows, Elliott Bay Book Company, and Big Little News to transform the group’s The Woods venue for the holiday season.

Burgess isn’t worried about customers reacting to transformation at The Woods.

“What makes us special are the people that work there and the space that we fill year-round,” Burgess said. “The Woods has truly been an event space since the pandemic and it’s just a fun opportunity to do something for the neighborhood with people from the neighborhood. It’s about spreading some good cheer for a brief time through the holidays.”

Talk about the Christmas Dive Bar began in spring when Burgess and his team started brainstorming something festive they could do together in the neighborhood.

“We all just felt like being creative,” Burgess said. “It just seemed like a good opportunity to activate a space that would be fun for the neighborhood right in the heart of the pipeline corridor.”

Burgess said that he and his team have been working on the space since Halloween, though they have been “pre-planning” since spring.

When customers enter the space, beware, it is no home for Grinches — inflatable ornaments hang from the ceiling as a life-size Santa waves you in.

“A lot of fun people were putting together wish lists and trying to make them happen,” Burgess said. “We just wanted to push it as over the top as we possibly could.”

For now, Christmas Dive Bar is a “one-and-done,” but Burgess and his team are always open to what the future holds.

Christmas Dive Bar is open through “the New Year” at 1512 11th Ave. Learn more at christmasdivebar.com.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍