This Week in New Haven (December 12 – 18)

A fter starting the week coated in its first substantial snow of the season, New Haven warms up nicely with arts, indulgence and Daily Nutmeg’s first party ever.

Tuesday, December 13
During an online talk at 12:30 p.m., Katie Trumpener, a professor of English and comparative literature at Yale, enters “The World of the Blitz”—Nazi Germany’s nine-month bombing campaign against Britain in 1940 and ’41—by way of the contemporaneous artwork featured in the Yale Center for British Art exhibition Bill Brandt | Henry Moore.

The next Brew & Glue, a monthly “DIY collage happy hour” at Three Sheets, starts at 5. “As always, we’ve got the scissors, glue and clip art! Just bring yourself and friends!”

At 7:30 in Yale’s Morse Recital Hall, the Rolston String Quartet, who boast some of the best promo pics in the biz, perform works by Haydn, Janácek and Beethoven.

Wednesday, December 14
At 6 p.m., an Adult Gingerbread House Party at the 1741 Pub and Grill, located in Middlefield at Lyman Orchards, invites ticket holders to “go wild with icing, candy, gumdrops, peppermints, sprinkles and edible decor galore while you wine and dine.” Just note that the wining and dining costs extra.

sponsored by

Hopkins School

Thursday, December 15
At 5 p.m. in Old Heidelberg (beneath the Graduate New Haven hotel), Daily Nutmeg’s Holiday Happy Hour begins. We’ll have festive drink specials, free drink tickets for the first 50 arrivals and dozens of great prizes to give away, including a fabulous two-night stay at the Graduate; a beautiful oil painting, valued at $1,200, by the great local artist Michael Angelis; and not one but five $50 gift certificates to NOA, one of the city’s best new restaurants. We’ll also have some of our writers and the editor (that’s me!) on hand, who might be able to help you if you get stumped during the scavenger hunt. RSVP here to let us know you’re coming, and we’ll see you there!

Friday, December 16
New Haven Ballet’s annual production of The Nutcracker, featuring both local and New York City Ballet performers, begins a four-show stand at the Shubert at 5 p.m. “This wonderful classic, set to music by Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky, tells the story of the Von Stahlbaum family as they celebrate the holidays with a festive party, and brings to life a dream young Clara Von Stahlbaum experiences after the party ends.”

Saturday, December 17
At 1 p.m., with popcorn and soda, Fair Haven Library screens In the Heat of the Night, the 1967 Best Picture-winning drama/thriller “about a black police detective from Philadelphia who forces a bigoted sheriff to accept his help after a wealthy Chicago businessman is murdered in a small Mississippi town.”

Starting at 3 in the Lyman Center at SCSU, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s Holiday Extravaganza features “guests from the Fairfield County Children’s Choir and holiday music from The Nutcracker, Polar Express, The Grinch, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, and Home Alone, along with classic carols like ‘Stille Nacht’ and ‘Deck the Halls.’”

Between 5 and 9, Edgerton Park’s annual Winter Solstice Luminary Walk promises paths lined with more than 1,000 luminary lanterns, a lantern parade (led at 7 by the Hillhouse Marching Band) and an exhibition of light sculptures, plus additional live music, seasonal beverages and a science demo.

Providing a countercultural thrust is Freak Show: A Performance and Visual Art Show at Bregamos Community Theater. The occasion starts at 5 with a vendor popup; transitions at 10 to a variety show of burlesque, drag, pole, poetry and live music; and finishes with a dance party.

Sunday, December 18 – Chanukah Begins
Though the holiday officially begins at sundown, local Jews will be celebrating all day. Congregation Mishkan Israel’s annual Chanukah Torch Run in Hamden starts at 8:15 in the morning. Also in Hamden, Temple Beth Sholom gets going as early as 9:45, with youth-oriented activities giving way to all-ages ones as a latke lunch approaches. Later, at Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel in New Haven, an outdoor, hourlong Fireside Singalong at 4:45 leads to a menorah lighting inside, before people head back out for a light dinner with warm beverages and s’mores.

At 11 a.m., certified forest therapy guide Kristine Weidner leads a “forest bathing” session around Lake Wintergreen. The idea is to “to enhance health, wellness, and happiness” on “a gentle slow-paced walk where you will be invited to connect with nature using your senses through a series of invitations.”

At 4, “Cafe Nine & The Sunday Buzz Matinee celebrate the Season” with the Saint James Jazz Band, “an all-star collective of New Haven-area Jazz musicians.” The band promises to “perform[] timeless classic selections from the Great American Songbook” with just the right balance of creativity and reverence—and also complimentary appetizers.

Written by Dan Mims. Image 1, photographed by Steve Freihon, features Old Heidelberg. Image 2 features the Rolston String Quartet. Image 3 features Sydney Poitier (left) in In the Heat of the Night. Image 4, photographed by Dan Mims, features a past city menorah. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.

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Dan has worked for a couple of major media companies, but he likes Daily Nutmeg best. As DN’s editor, he writes, photographs, edits and otherwise shepherds ideas into fully realized feature stories.

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