Three New Haven Christmas tree lightings, two pet photo ops with Santa and two presentations each of A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker confirm it’s December.
Monday, December 2
From 4 to 7 p.m. for the next three Mondays, the Connecticut Post Mall in Milford hosts family photos with Santa—whole family photos, pets included.
At 6, Asian bar/restaurant Blue Orchid hosts a World AIDS Day screening of Rent (2005). “Sing along to all of the songs and share in community.”
Tuesday, December 3
Between a lecture at 4:30 p.m. and a concert at 5:15, the Yale Collegium Musicum, a historically informed orchestra, presents “Music in the Ghetto: Jewish Musicians and their Music in Renaissance Italy” at Yale’s Beinecke Library.
After kicking off the run with a sold-out first preview performance on Sunday, a pay-what-you-can second preview of Long Wharf Theatre’s She Loves Me starts at 7 in Hamden’s The Lab at ConnCORP. This “reimagined” version of the popular musical still “takes you to 1930s Budapest, a city full of romance, longing, and change,” and aims to retain “the emotional core” too.
At 7:30, Yale School of Music faculty members José García-León (piano), Tai Murray (violin), Tara Helen O’Connor (flute) and David Shifrin (clarinet), who can reportedly boast five Grammy nominations between them, take the Morse Recital stage with the Callisto Quartet and the Yale Voxtet for an intergenerational concert of music by Chausson, faculty composer David Lang, and Yale composers Charles Ives and Quincy Porter.”
Wednesday, December 4
Starting a 12-day run with an opening performance at 2 p.m. (and another at 7), Legacy Theatre in Branford resurrects its annual presentation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, as adapted by the theater’s own artistic director and cofounder, Keely Baisden Knudsen.
The New Haven Preservation Trust’s 2024 Preservation Awards ceremony convenes at 5:30 at City Hall. This year, “the Trust will celebrate the active reuse of two formerly abandoned schools—Edwards Street School (Landmark Award) and St. Michael’s School (Merit Award)”—along with conferring “House Awards” for “the restoration of two 1955 ‘California Modern’ residences and special recognition for a renovated 1869 house at 1389 Chapel Street.”
Balancing all that talk of land are songs of the sea, as Cafe Nine hosts a Sea Shanty Night at 8 featuring The Dreadnoughts and My Druthers.
Thursday, December 5
New Haven’s tree lighting festivities begin at 5 p.m., when a “Holiday Village featuring an array of fantastic local vendors” opens for business on the Green (with hours on Friday and Saturday as well). At 5:30, things notch into higher gear with amusement rides, live performances and “the dazzling lighting of the tree.”
A potentially uproarious Paint Your Partner party at Armada Brewing promises “a night of creativity, questionable artistic talent, and an overwhelming amount of ‘happy little accidents.’ Bring your significant other, your bestie, or the person you swiped right on last week—no painting experience required.”
At 7 in SCSU’s Lyman Center, “join the Grand Kyiv ballet on an unforgettable journey into a world of dreams, magic and triumph over evil” during a performance of The Nutcracker. “The Grand Kyiv Ballet, including the most prestigious ballet dancers from Ukraine, invites you to a heartwarming experience that has thrilled audiences on the world's stages for years.”
Also at 7, the Treasures from the Yale Film Archive series screens Black Narcissus (1947). “Anglican nuns attempt to create a convent school high in the Himalayas, but chilling winds and emerging obsessions threaten to throw their plans—and vows, and sanity—off a cliff. Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Sabu, and a spellbinding Kathleen Byron star in this “rapturous, near-indescribable work of cinematic art” (Noel Murray),” which reportedly deploys “Technicolor at its most emotionally expressive.”
Friday, December 6
Wooster Square’s neighborhood tree lighting happens between 5:45 and 7 p.m. in Wooster Square Park.
At 7:30, Woolsey Hall hosts a very different Nutcracker. “The New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band will perform its famed Pan American Nutcracker Suite, a jazz/Afro-Caribbean reconceptualization of Tchaikovsky’s classic… unit[ing] diverse musical traditions of the Americas and beyond. Each movement of the Pan American Nutcracker Suite will be followed by one from the traditional, classical arrangement performed by the Yale Concert Band, led by Thomas C. Duffy, in a wonderful presentation that juxtaposes two complementary versions of this timeless masterpiece.”
Also at 7:30, Pantochino Productions opens a three-weekend run of Dorothy’s Christmas in Oz at the MAC, a venue owned by the Milford Arts Council. “Just in time for the holidays, Dorothy journeys back over the rainbow to discover a wonderful, wild and wickedly merry Christmas in her search for holiday cheer. Follow her, Auntie Em, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, Glinda and of course the Wicked Witch in this hysterical reimagining of Munchkinland, the Emerald City and all of Oz! Be sure to bring your own food and drink as this production is served up ‘cabaret-style!’”
Saturday, December 7
Ronald McDonald House of Connecticut’s annual Trees of Hope fundraiser, featuring a raffle of “over 150 beautiful holiday displays” often stuffed with prizes, lasts from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily today through December 15 at the Long Wharf Maritime Center (555 Long Wharf Drive). Special events during the run include appearances by the Clauses and concerts.
From noon to 4, Broadway Island hosts The Shops at Yale’s annual ice carving competition and a cappella concert featuring five carvers and eight cadres of crooners. And there’s more. “Come early to join the Hot Cocoa Competition from 12 to 3 p.m., while supplies last. Receive your tasting cup at The Shops at Yale table and vote on your favorite to win gift cards!” Gift cards will also be awarded to lucky visitors who vote in the ice sculpting contest.
Also starting at noon downtown, an all-day-and-night Bad Santa Bar Crawl anticipating more than 3,500 crawlers promises over 10 venues, more than 20 DJs, drink specials, “product and merch giveaways,” $3,000 worth of costume prizes and photographers and videographers capturing the fun.
Those looking for a festive time at a lower ABV can head to Two Roads Brewing in Stratford, where an indoor/outdoor Winter Market & Tree Lighting event from noon to 9 offers 27 local vendors, dog photos with Santa, a bonfire, carolers, hot cocktail specials, free s’mores and hot chocolate and a sensory and craft zone for kids.
Back in New Haven, the Shubert presents its own version of A Christmas Carol. After debuting at the theater last year, “this original production will feature expanded dance and music sequences and even more of your favorite Christmas carols performed by a spirited ensemble cast of actors and singers. These new additions deepen the traditional elements that have made… Dickens’s tale a holiday favorite for generations, while remaining a distinctive take on the familiar story.”
Altered Landscapes, a new exhibition at City Gallery, gets an opening reception from 4 to 6 (and an artists’ talk tomorrow from 2 to 3). The show features “painting, photography, video, and installation art by Sue Rollins [and] Maria Markham” intended to examine contours of ecological decline and, they hope, recovery.
From noon to 6, an Anti-Mall Shop Small event at Lotta Studio gathers 13 vendors selling honey, soaps, apparel, jewelry, art and more—and dovetails with Westville’s nearby tree lighting at 5:30.
Sunday, December 8
Sarah Cody, author of Around Every Corner of Connecticut, a book that “celebrates the abundance of beautiful destinations and exciting seasonal (and year-round) activities here in Connecticut,” holds a 1 p.m. book signing at the Yale Bookstore.
The Unitarian Society of New Haven, technically located in Hamden, ends the week at 7:30 with more carols—specifically “carols of light and peace” by the New Haven Oratorio Choir, to be followed by a reception where it sounds like everyone can join in on the caroling.
Written by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
