Front Street – Leavenworth, Washington, USA

Leavenworth used to switch on its Christmas lights with a ceremony every weekend. The crowds got so big that the town now just leaves all half a million lights on from Thanksgiving to the end of February.

Even the big chains have to play along. Leavenworth’s sign code bans corporate logos unless they’re redone in Bavarian lettering, so the McDonald’s and Starbucks here look the part. A federal judge upheld the rules in 2012.

Just down Front Street is the Nutcracker Museum, with more than 9,000 nutcrackers, including a bronze one that’s around 2,000 years old. Arlene Wagner opened it with her husband in 1995, and she was still running it at 101.

The horse-drawn carriages leave from the Maipole on Front Street, Friday to Sunday. The horses are Sven, Gandalv and Aksel.

Did You Know? One shop owner who was fighting the sign code put up a sign that followed every rule, in perfect Bavarian lettering, and it said “Leavenworth Sign Code is Baloney.” The city allowed it.

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