JEFF TER HAR PHOTO A fun afternoon at the Seaside Downtown Development Association Wine Walk.

For the Dixon family, as well as extended members and friends, Seaside’s wine walk is all about fun, fellowship … and hats.

This year was the first time they attended the annual spring Seaside Downtown Wine Walk, held May 16, but the tradition of wearing and swapping elaborate hats started five years ago during the fall event, also sponsored by the Seaside Downtown Development Association.

It was the family’s second attendance at the fall Wine Walk after stumbling across the event the year before during a trip to Seaside. It also was the birthday of Dixon matriarch Sue Dixon, of Vancouver, Wash., and the family decided to buy her a birthday cake hat from Seaside Mostly Hats in the Seaside Carousel Mall.

The rest of the family thought, “‘We should do something that makes us all look together,’” said Sue Dixon’s daughter, Chelsea.

Since then, the tradition has snowballed, accumulating other family members and, of course, more hats, along the way, and the family shows up every fall. For each event, the group divides the duration of the four-hour Wine Walk by how many people are present to determine how frequently to swap hats in order for each person to wear each hat at least once. Everyone is given a number to determine the order of the swap, so it’s important to remember who is before and after you, Sue Dixon said.

The event is harder to attend in May, but after the family’s photographs were used to advertise for the 2015 spring Wine Walk, the family knew they had to make an appearance, even with smaller numbers, said Erin Dixon, Sue Dixon’s daughter-in-law.

Sue Dixon, her children Chelsea and Chris Dixon, their spouses Sarah Tiller-Dixon and Erin Dixon, nephew Brady Petersen and his wife Panan Phat and friend Amelia Peachy traveled from the Vancouver, Wash., and Portland areas to attend the event donning their chapeaus.

When asked what keeps them returning year after year, Chelsea Dixon responded, “The wine, the hats…”

“The friends,” Sue Dixon finished.

Seaside Mostly Hats decided to donate some new hats to the Dixons this year, to help update the family’s collection.

As they’ve been buying hats consistently from Seaside Mostly Hats, co-owner Wendy Knick said, “we thought, ‘we can donate.’”

“They have a lot of fun doing it. They always tell people where they got their hats,” she said, adding that free advertisement is good for the business.

The shop offers an array of hats, some indicative of current trends and others goofy, capped with oversized hotdogs, Viking horns and animals. They order from about 100 suppliers to maintain the variety, Knick said. The most popular hat varies constantly, depending on weather or other factors.

“People ask us what our best-seller is and we just laugh, because it does just depend on the day,” Knick said.

In addition to the Dixons and their extravagant hats, this year’s spring Wine Walk brought 24 Oregon wineries to locations throughout town. For $10, an attendee could purchase an specialty wine glass — necessary to partake in tastings – and an identification bracelet, as well as an entry into a drawing for gift certificates and a Seaside weekend getaway package. Winery representatives were stationed at businesses throughout the downtown core, from Beach Books to the Seaside Coffee House and Del Sol. Most charged $1 to taste a wine, or four tastings for $3. Hors d’oeuvres were complimentary at each site.

The Wine Walk “definitely brings a big crowd to the downtown area,” Knick said, adding, “anything that brings people to town is good.”

About 770 people attended the spring event, according to Seaside Downtown Development Association Director Tita Montero. She said she did not know the net amount of money raised from the event.

“We love seeing people having fun throughout the downtown,” Montero said in a news release. “They get to know what our businesses have to offer. Many of the wineries have told us we have the best organized wine walk of the many conducted by towns throughout the state.”

The next Wine Walk sponsored by the association will be in November and mark the event’s 10-year anniversary, Montero said.