Welcome to Leavenworth, Washington, the Christmas capital of the Pacific Northwest. Decades ago, Leavenworth was a near ghost town on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, one of the region's poorest communities. The mines and the sawmill had closed ...

Christmas Day has arrived! But before running out the door for those last-minute gifts, stocking stuffers, tree trimmings ahead of Santa’s visit, or final, forgotten ingredients for that big dinner or delicious dessert,

Freshly baked pretzels, shining tree lights and sleds in the snow lend a ruddy warmth to an unlikely collection of Bavarian-themed chalets in the mountains of Washington state

Decades ago, Leavenworth was a near ghost town. But in the 1960s, desperate business owners made a gamble and began taking out loans to remodel the downtown.