Over the Thanksgiving weekend, the surest sign of the start of the holiday season on Capitol Hill appeared. Yes, it’s that time of year. The No Parking Baby Doll Tree is back on E Pike.
“I have read different theories about what different things represent on the tree and I find them pretty hilarious,” No Parking thrift shop owner Linda Young tells CHS.
But she says not to read too much into the bizarre holiday display that has helped make the thrift shop she runs with husband Billy Hutchinson a Pike/Pine season of light photo op. It was really a happy accident. A few years back, the couple’s seven-year-old son Liam had a great idea.
Young had a box of doll parts in the shop left over from possible Halloween deployment. As they put together the vintage Christmas tree that year, Young joked around by adding one of the doll heads as the crowning angel. Liam’s exuberant decoration with the remaining parts completed the look.
Liam is now 12 and the tree has seen quite a few holiday seasons come and go in front of No Parking. It has survived everything the wild sidewalks of Pike/Pine can throw at it. And its bizarre shine still holds up enough to make people smile — even after this guy moved in.
Young tells CHS things at No Parking continue to hum along — we last visited back in 2015 for a chat about the thrift shop and its 240 square feet of one of a kind treasures — even if the ongoing wave of new Hill residents don’t always know the little store is there.
So, newcomers, gather up your loved ones and head over to 1102 E Pike for your annual holiday photo with the Baby Doll Tree. It’s a Capitol Hill tradition.
No Parking on Pike is open Wednesdays through Saturdays, usually around 1 to 7 PM, Sundays and Mondays noon to 5 PM…ish. You can learn more at facebook.com/pg/NoParkingOnPike.
Looking for your own holiday tree? Another Capitol Hill tradition is underway with the 28th annual SASG Seattle Area Support Groups tree sale:
Is the statue of a naked, racist president still in residence there?
A sign of non-hipster life on the Hill. It’s a Festivus miracle.