The Christmas ships are decorated with lights and other holiday frivolity, Dec. 11, 2024.
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
Steve Cridland, a retired freelance photographer who now spends his time delivering boats and conducting water tours, has spent the holiday season over the last eight years piloting a boat decorated with a big blue Christmas-hat-wearing shark.
“The public loves it,” he said. “We can hear the people on the shore. And we’ll yell ‘Merry Christmas!’ And you get all this yelling back. Then there’ll just be some preteen just screaming.”
The Portland Christmas Ships are celebrating 70 years parading up and down the Willamette and Columbia rivers this holiday season. The flotilla is made up of about a dozen families who own and pay for their own boats, spending as much as $500 on fuel for the 15-night run.
Cridland said the holiday display began as a one-person show.
“Some guy started out in 1954 in a sailboat and a string of lights. And the next year somebody said, ‘Well I’ll go with you,’” he said with a smile.
“It’s become a Northwest tradition, and a lot of people really look forward to seeing us.”
The schedule can be found at christmasships.org, and it includes parades at John’s Landing on Friday, Lake Oswego on Saturday and a final parade on Sunday by the St. Johns Bridge.
About a dozen families parade their boats along the Columbia and Willamette rivers to celebrate the holidays.
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
