It brings CHS no joy to deliver such Grinch-y news.

In 2020, it’s better if you keep your Thanksgiving feasts small and socially distanced.

And it’s not going to be easy to find a Capitol Hill Christmas tree.

Stevens Elementary, site of one of the neighborhood’s big annual holiday tree sales, has announced what you probably might have expected — there will be no trees at the North Capitol Hill school this year:

Unfortunately, we will not be having the Tree Sale this year. Pandemic restrictions and community safety are our main concern. It’s a loss, for sure! We’ll miss seeing the community come together and have the opportunity to connect with each other.

The school’s PTA says the annual sale raised around $15,000 for programs for the public school’s kids. You can give here if you’d still like to pitch in.

Without the Stevens sale, finding holiday greenery on the Hill in 2020 could be a challenge. Another longtime holiday tradition ended in the neighborhood in 2018 when Seattle Area Support Groups announced it was ending its annual sale as part of its move out of the Dunshee House.

Grocery stores will again stock trees and there will likely be commercial lots again in the area. Some might take the leap into an artificial tree or, gasp, no tree at all.

Meanwhile, Pike/Pine’s infamously wonderful Baby Doll Tree is probably also now a ghost of Capitol Hill Christmas past. Vintage shop No Parking closed earlier this year after more than a decade in the neighborhood.

For all the Scrooges responding to this with a bah and a humbug, enjoy the lumps of coal in your stockings while they last. Judging by evening walks across the Hill, people’s holiday light displays are going to be bigger, more plentiful, and, yes, earlier and probably longer lasting than ever in 2020. Ho, ho, ho, ho.

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