A 75-foot Douglas fir arrived in downtown Portland on two trucks Tuesday morning, hoisted into place at Pioneer Courthouse Square to launch the city's holiday season. The 45-year-old tree weighs about 8,000 pounds and was grown on sustainable forestlands in Gaston before making the trip into the city.
According to KGW, the tree's arrival officially launched the Downtown for the Holidays event series, which includes concerts, theatre showings and holiday pop-up shops featuring local businesses. Stimson Lumber Company has now provided the city's tree for 25 years running, and the tree started its journey from Gaston earlier in the week. As reported by KPTV, the Douglas fir was confirmed to have arrived downtown Tuesday, while KATU noted it was grown on sustainable forestlands in Gaston.
Rodney Jacobs, Stimson's Forest Grove area manager, said the tree-selection process continues throughout the year and formally starts in August, per the same KGW report. Jacobs said Stimson uses drones to view potential trees from different perspectives before settling on the right one. Over the next couple of weeks, crews will attach roughly 400 branches cut from other trees to fill out its shape before the big reveal.
Portlanders Brave the Rain to Watch It Rise
Heidi Kohne, quoted by KGW, said Portlanders would watch the tree go up with or without umbrellas, capturing the enthusiasm that drew onlookers downtown despite the weather. Marva Miller told the station she was amazed by the engineering involved in transporting and raising the towering fir into position at the square. The tree's debut sets the stage for the 42nd annual tree-lighting ceremony, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 27, according to KATU — though Downtown Portland Clean & Safe's own holiday events page separately lists a 33rd annual tree-lighting ceremony for Nov. 29, a discrepancy that has not been resolved between the two listings.
Per Pioneer Courthouse Square's event listing, Santa Claus is set to flip the switch and illuminate nearly 10,000 colorful lights on the city's tree. The ceremony is also billed as featuring a community sing-along led by Portland's own Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini, joined by other local musicians and chorale singers. KGW reports the tree lighting will be streamed on the KGW app for those who cannot make it downtown in person.
Empty Storefronts Get a Six-Week Lifeline
Eric Zimmerman, a Portland city councilor, announced that 17 pop-up businesses are moving into brick-and-mortar locations downtown, per KGW. Zimmerman said the downtown core has faced difficult foot traffic and a wave of business openings and closings over the last six years, framing the pop-ups as a direct response to that stretch. He noted that brick-and-mortar pop-up businesses make it easier for nearby shoppers to find local vendors without having to go online.
The 17-business lineup was nearly double the 2024 tally, according to The Registry Pacific Northwest Real Estate, even as office-driven vacancy continues to weigh on the central city's core. Downtown Portland Clean & Safe says its PDX Pop-Up Shops program has spent 15 years connecting local makers and small businesses with temporary retail space, bringing new life to vacant storefronts while giving entrepreneurs a chance to test out owning a brick-and-mortar location, the organization states on its holiday-season page. This year's lineup includes Oregon-made and locally sourced goods, from Oregon Wagyu beef and Oregon wine to matcha and Native-caught salmon, according to Downtown Portland Clean & Safe.
Foot Traffic Climbs, But Office Workers Stay Away
The timing lines up with broader signs of downtown recovery. Downtown Portland recorded more than 22.2 million pedestrian visits from January through August 2026, 3.6% higher than the same stretch in 2025, KATU reports. Both July and August topped 3 million pedestrian visits for the first time since 2020, and August's foot traffic reached 81% of its 2019 level — the strongest monthly recovery rate since then, per the same report.
Still, worker activity downtown remains nearly 50% below its 2019 level, held back by continued remote and hybrid work, according to KATU. Willamette Week reported separately that office-worker counts in the Clean & Safe District have hovered around 350,000 since May 2022, even as monthly visitors and office workers combined hit 3 million for the first time since 2019. Hotel nights sold in the central city reached 240,000 in July, marking a fourth consecutive year of increases, per Willamette Week.
Last year's ceremony, then in its 41st year, drew thousands of people to Pioneer Courthouse Square, according to KOIN. With roughly 400 branches still to be attached to the fir, a packed pop-up roster and a downtown still working to rebuild its daytime crowds, this year's lighting is poised to carry extra weight for a city hoping the holiday rush helps close the gap.
