Alpenrose Dairy

Plenty of cows, and they produce some dam fine milk… goodnight moon, and goodnight cow jumping over the moon.

This is a fun experience for a young child. Our 2 year old toddler had a great time seeing all the animals, looking in all the storefronts and watching all the model trains, and visiting the storybook village. There also is a very convincing Santa, and you can avoid the hour plus wait because they will text you when it’s your turn. We’ll be back next Christmas!

I’ve visited Alpenrose about a dozen times to ride in the cyclocross races they host each fall and every time it’s great: plenty of parking & bathrooms, diverse terrain for the race course (they even have a velodrome!), and quirky scenery (duck pond & a hokey little old-​time western street front). Bravo, Alpenrose!

I was really looking forward to visiting during the holidays. I looked for information on the website but it wasn’t very detailed at all, so we went with our can donations with the hope of seeing Santa.
We arrived an hour and half before closing and went straight to Santa. We were told that we had to give our phone number to be texted, and oh, sorry, it is a two hour wait. We were pretty disappointed that this information was not available on the website.
So even though we thought we had enough time to see Santa, we were apparently very wrong. We wondered around and looked inside the shops, inched through Storybook Lane (which was pretty disappointing as well – the entire set up has everyone and everything packed in like sardines) and then the theater. The theater was the highlight, actually.
One other thing worth mentioning, we noticed a strong sewage smell periodically. Of course tihs is a dairy and manure smells, etc are to be expected, but this was no normal smell – pretty strange and definitely gave me pause, espcially since I first noticed it in front of the food building. Definitely turned us off eating.
Despite the adults dashed expectations, the kids enjoyed themselves, having nothing to compare it to.

Great Santa and super cute little village to wander around in while you wait. Santa opened at 10am and we had our name on the list at 10:45. We got a text when it was our turn which was after about 45 minutes. The photographer did a great job of making my two year old feel okay enough to get a picture with a smile. Afterwords we got chocolate milk and walked through story book lane. Overall it was a wonderful Christmassy day!

I grew up in West Linn, and I have no idea why my parents never took us here for Christmas, it’s FREE people! While it may be a little out of date, It’s FREE!!! It’s a quaint little town, and there are animals to see, people who are obsessed and will talk to you about trains forever and a day, and the movie theater is just darling. There’s food to buy (cash only). It’s a great Christmas experience! We’ve been going since they reopened four years ago. My husband remembers going when he was a kid, and watching his brother race on the little car track. Go people, it’s FREE!

For all those who are into locomotives, Model railroad here alone is worth the trip, they have it set up nicely in two rooms. My son loves loves loves trains and was so excited to see this. The owners are really friendly. The old time model village is pretty cool. My kids had a great time here. It was nice for them to see how things looked like in olden days in person, than me showing them images on the PC. We did like that we were free to go around to take a look at and experience the old village with the kids at our own pace unlike at some places where it is with a guide. I would suggest they put up a lil more info about the displays either on their website, which we could print/​pull up on phones to explain to kids (and educate ourselves as well. Truth be told I didn’t know what some things were or how some things worked. Don’t tell my kids, for the time being, Mommy is a know-​it-​all ~wink~). They serve icecream and it is was a hit with all of us. Will certainly visit again. Did I mention the owners are some nice folks? :)

I went to see the Christmas Cows and get my daughter’s picture with Santa. neither happened.
I’ve never been to this place, I’m from out of town, it was hyped up to me as a really cool little place. Here’s what to expect.
Parking: absurd. You’ll get a spot, but they have people directing traffic and nobody can park.
Area: The dairy area is built around a town-​square with one off-​shoot section. All the building are small, usually about half the size of a real building. So take the smallest town square you’ve seen in real life. I’d say 20 paces by 20 paces at max for the town square, and a second area that’s a set of two side streets with buildings you can go in.
Total content is about one city block.
Attractions:
Santa (four hour wait?)
Christmas Cows (did not see them)
two buildings with model railroads in them
two stands that sell their milk and snacks.
Strawberry milk at one, regular at another. Cash only.
Nativity barn which is maybe 80 Christmas trees crammed into a small area, covered in fake snow, and some stuff for tiny kids to play in. There’s a few animals here also. There are lines literally out the door and to the other side of the town square for this.
Warming tent where you can wait while Santa takes pictures.
Empty shops that you can walk a little into — post office that’s tiny, sheet music store with old pianos everywhere, etc.
Candy store, nick-​knack store
Sled in the center of town you can take your picture in. If you stand near it you’ll hear the constant exclamations of people that they’re worried it will break from the weight of them.
The narrative:
We walked in from the side of the duck pond. It was fenced in, dreary, filled with ducks. Saw a horse hanging around in a black field with some chickens way off in the distance. Everything was behind fences.
I was told the Christmas cows were housed in the barn next to the horse, but this was the last I was to hear of them.
Walking up the only road to the place I passed the warming station and started noticing that all the signs in the village were chipping and decaying. At one point they obviously had been taken care of, but it did not appear any work had been done in the past few years to keep the signs looking nice.
I’m asked if I want strawberry milk by my wife. I tell her no and she wonders why. The idea of cold strawberry milk in 40 degree weather holds no appeal and I can’t explain that with anything other than a stare.
We get in the only line in town. I expect that at the end of this line Santa waits on his mighty throne, this was not the case. It’s the nativity barn. At least that’s what I call it. They had two goats, a sheepdog, three sleeping ducks, a knuckle-​biting donkey, and two or three passed the eff out black cats. The place is also wall to wall white trees and smells like it does when you open up a package with a lot of Styrofoam.
There are some small houses in this place, people stop to get pictures of adults in tiny shops. I’m not particularly enthralled by the place and come out with fake snow all over my jacket. That’s ok because it shakes off.
Companions are annoyed that the places only accept cash and that to get what you want foodwise involves going to two different stores that are eight paces from each other with different long lines.
Model railroad looked pretty nice, but I did not feel like fighting to see it.
We went into a store, I think it was the only actual store, I’m not sure, and looked around for a minute. The store was the size of a bedroom room, so a minute was about what we needed and left.
Taking a picture in the sleigh was the only next thing to do. It felt like it needed some support, but it held us and everyone else.
At some point during this the smell of sewage, hopefully from the cows, overwhelmed my senses and I left the town square to get out of it.
The tiny post office and tiny sheet music store were interesting, but there was nothing to do, no information to learn, no tidbits. It was like walking into a child’s play house.
I wandered into the heating area to warm myself and my baby back up. The group debated what to do because we’d pretty much done it all and we left.
On the way out we passed some broken down props that ad just been placed to the side of the thing.
The whole place had an air of «this used to be great» to it, but having never been there before there was no reliving the childhood memories for me, and I felt if I said anything I was going to be the person who ruined the trip.

I was very excited to take my granddaughters here for their Christmas Village and Santa. Sadly, a bit of a disappointment. The place was not well maintained, bathrooms very rather difficult to find, and everything was overcrowded. We went a t 11 am on Saturday. Pictures with Santa were out of the question! The system requires you to take a number and they would text you when it was your turn. Sounds great, right? We were there for 2 hours and when we checked back in to see if they had forgotten us, we were informed that it would be ANOTHER 2 hours until our turn. Needless to say, we left. That being said, their Storybook Lane was precious and our girls enjoyed it. Other than that, don’t waste your time. Santa downtown for us next year!

My daughter goes to school with a member of the Alpenrose family. They were kind enough to offer their space for a concert featuring the Spizzwinks of Yale University (If you’ve never heard of them, look them up. GREAT A Capella group!) for a fundraiser for the choir program at the school. I had no pre-​conceived notions about this venue.
We were seated in the TINY seats in the opera house. (Large or tall folks beware, the seats have little to no leg room and are quite narrow.) It’s obviously a few years old, but was warm and a great place for this event. This review is NOT a rag on the venue… keep reading.
The trees outside, lining the «street» were lit up with large white bulbs and almost fairy-​land like. Parking was down the hill closer to the race track and baseball field, but adequate. There were plenty of people directing traffic as this place can be a bit overwhelming, especially in the dark. There was a small bathroom on the street that was open for guests, thanks for no porti-​potties!
The hospitality was amazing. Not only did they donate the space, but they donated ice cream for everyone that was at the concert! Choir students dished out several flavors to anyone who lined up. Seating in the ice cream shop was at many long tables. We opted to eat outside in the 24 degree weather because it was very crowded, but what do you expect with 600 people wanting free ice cream!
Big kudos to the Alpenrose folks for being a great community partner and for providing great hospitality!

What a great little hideaway! The facility is great, it’s not too far removed from the city, and the people are wonderful. They really have a lot to offer and a good variety for people of any age.
Worth checking it out at least once, even if you’re lactose intolerant!

Talk about lame. After hearing the hype and watching the stories on the 10 o’clock news, I was expecting some really magical Christmas time fun at Alpenrose Dairy but instead, I was treated to the most boring holiday experience ever. EVER. First of all, don’t even bother with the Alpenrose web site as it does not at all explain the event or hours very clearly. I re-​visited the site after our non-​memorable trip to see if maybe I missed something. Nope. However, I did see what they did there that got me confused.
So, first things first: DO NOT visit during the week unless you are only going to hand over large sums of money for a picture with Santa.
Sencond: DO NOT visit on the weekend unless you are only there to hand over large sums of money for a picture of Santa after walking around the lamest holiday experience EVER.
Third: Go to the mall and hand over smaller sums of money for a picture with Santa where you can also visit the food-​court instead of the closed café.
Just so you know, the picture with Santa was $ 14.95 for ONE 5×7 photo. The second photo was $ 7.50. They also had a package deal for ONE 5×7 photo with FOUR 2×3 photos for a measly sum of $ 29.99. And that’s the special price. The normal price was $ 34.95.
To sum up:
Don’t waste your time or your money as there is plenty of other fun things to do around town that don’t suck nearly as bad as this black hole of a dairy farm.

This is a pretty fun little place. After years of being closed it’s finally open to the public again. Come during December to take pictures with Santa, get some tasty treats, and visit Story Book Lane, which features live animal for the kiddos. A Portland tradition for over 50 years.

If you have heard lore about the cool village at the Alpenrose dairy from family or fiends it is true, BUT Alpenrose has really let this icon of Portland fall to ruin.
The most interesting thing is the small ice cream shop which is still open in the village. It is a bit scary looking like it teleported into place from the 50s but I must admit the ice cream is good.
They only take cash ($ 1.50) for a tub of ice cream served in left over Alpenrose cottage cheese containers. It is a strange enough experience to be one of those must do things.