Alone, together: What it's like to bartend on Christmas in Seattle

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

For the last 15 years, since he started tending bar, Travis Sanders worked on Christmas.

While most of America cozies in with their nearest and dearest, Sanders pours drinks for the people too far from their families – physically or emotionally – to visit. But Sanders, currently the beverage director for the Hotel Sorrento on Seattle's First Hill, says he loves the community that forms in a bar on Christmas.

“Everyone’s friendly and jovial, they have no problem talking to each other, they're making new friends,” he describes. “People are buying each other drinks because it's Christmas and everybody’s kind of in that same spot, especially in a hotel bar.”

This year, Sanders looks forward to a little extra celebration – for himself, in his first year at the Hotel Sorrento, and for everyone just in need of a little festivity.

https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/food/article/what-its-like-to-bartend-on-christmas-in-seattle-16718272.php

[luvs2sing]

1. When I was single..

I loved going to my favorite neighborhood dive bar on Christmas night. I would have just got home from a couple days with my parents, and I needed to decompress. They opened at 8pm, and everyone who came in was friendly and mellow. Most of them like me, decompressing from the holiday. People brought leftover cookies and snacks. Often, a jazz trio played later in the evening. I usually would have to be at work the next morning so didn’t drink much, if at all, but it was more about the experience than the drinking.