Shopover Weekend in Harvard Square

December 16th - 18th

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and there is no better place to spend it than historic Harvard Square. With so much to see and do, come for the weekend!

Shopping! Dining! Ticketed Events! Outdoor family-friendly free events! Come Friday and stay for the weekend. Shop until you drop! Dine on the run or sit down for a luxurious dinner. When you’ve shopped and eaten your way through the Square, take some time to enjoy a show, concert, movie or a play.

Friday, December 16th
Longy School of Music
Graduating Student Recital

THE DIFFERENT FACES OF THE HUMAN • Eliana Osorio, soprano

December 16th
3:00 pm
FREE – $20.00

All Longy students present full recitals as part of their education and ongoing evolution as artists. They are charged with thinking critically about what stories they tell, whose voices to amplify, and who’s in the room for their event while also considering how to use performance spaces in innovative ways and how to truly engage audiences and create interactive music experiences. Tickets available here.

Opera Experience Live! • Class Performance • Carol Mastrodomenico, Director

December 16th
8:00 pm
FREE – $20.00

While this event is open to the public, you must pre-register in order to gain access in person. No walk-ups will be allowed at Longy for performances.

Stage Director Carol Mastrodomenico and Music Director Libor Dudas present scenes from Opera, Operetta, and Musical Theater at the Longy School of Music of Bard College on Friday, December 16 and Saturday, December 17 at 8 PM in Pickman Hall. Be sure to arrive early or stick around after the performance for a special presentation of Private Audience. Learn more here.

Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, (617) 876-0596

Longfellow House

Open House
December 16th
4:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Stroll the halls of the Longfellow House, decorated in period style and featuring special seasonal objects from the site’s museum collection. Plus, pick up “take-and-make” crafts and treats for the whole family, and stop by the outdoor selfie station. Free; no reservations required. Event concludes at 8:00 PM; last entrance to the house at 7:30 PM.

Join us in reflecting on the power of special places and traditions to bring us together. The past several years have seen shifts in the way we gather, communicate, and spend time with one another. This holiday season, we’ll look to the house’s history to reflect on ways of celebrating being together, past and present. A fun and festive evening for all ages!

Longfellow House, 105 Brattle Street, (617) 876-4491

The Brattle Theatre
It’s a Wonderful Life

December 16th
3:00 pm & 6:00 pm

Director: Frank Capra Run Time: 130 min. Format: 35mm Film Release Year: 1946

Starring: Donna Reed, Henry Travers, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore

A Holiday Tradition!

Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, a forlorn small-town banker with a serious case of regret who, while considering suicide, meets Clarence (Travers), an angel in training. Clarence shows George what life would be like if he had never been born, and through this George is able to realize how valuable one person’s life can be. This film, which offers one of the most memorable (and bittersweet) Christmas stories ever, is a wonderful reminder that life may not be what we expected but it is still sweet and rich. Forget about watching this classic film at home on TV, we’re showing it the way it was meant to be seen: on the Big Screen on real-live 35mm film! Tickets available here.

Black Christmas
December 16th
9:30 pm

Director: Bob Clark Run Time: 98 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1974

Starring: Andrea Martin, John Saxon, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, Marian Waldman, Olivia Hussey

A group of co-eds preparing for winter break are terrorized at their sorority house by a mysterious killer in this seminal slasher from Bob Clark (A Christmas Story).

“There’s no doubting that Black Christmas had all the advantages of being first of its kind. The film stands as the mother of the modern slasher. It was able to make its own rules, and subsequently created a template for the films that came after.” – Jourdain Searles, Thrillist. Tickets available here.

Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, (617) 876-6837

Passim
Kemp Harris in Concert
December 16th
8:00 pm
$25 / Members $20

Kemp Harris has a long and varied career as a performer, composer, musician, activist, children’s author, and teacher. Born in North Carolina, Kemp taught himself piano and was writing songs at age 14. Kemp has acted in numerous films and TV shows such as SMILF (Showtime), and is comfortable sharing the stage with artists such as Taj Mahal, Koko Taylor, and Gil Scott-Heron, as well as performing shows with his smokin’ band.

He wrote and performed “If Loneliness Was Black” for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Complexions Dance Company. Kemp has also composed for WGBH Public Television/Boston. Tickets available here.

Passim, 47 Palmer Street, (617) 492-7679

The Sinclair
Mr. Brownstone & Power of Love
December 16th
8:00 pm
$25

Stereogum hailed Mr. Brownstone as “the sloppiest, drunkest Guns N’ Roses cover band on this side of the Atlantic” and Gothamist featured the band’s notorious appearance on Letterman in a piece aptly titled “The Worst Band To Ever Play The Late Show With David Letterman". Over the past decade, despite all the debauchery (or because of it?), word spread and the band continued amassing fans. The band’s on-stage misadventures have included broken fingers, lost teeth, and once smashing a 1974 Guild guitar that didn’t belong to them. They claim to have never played a show without finishing a bottle of Jack Daniels on stage, and have never actually rehearsed. Tickets available here

The Sinclair, 52 Church Street, (617) 547-5200

Scullers Jazz Club
Mark Morganelli & the Jazz Forum All-Stars
December 16th
7:00 pm

Trumpeter/Flugelhornist Mark Morganelli began presenting concerts in his first Jazz Forum loft at 50 Cooper Square in June 1979. By the time the second Jazz Forum loft closed its doors in April 1983, recordings, videos, films and radio broadcasts had documented performances by Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, Woody Shaw, Red Rodney, Carmen McRae, Barry Harris, Philly Joe Jones and Max Roach. After residencies at the Village Gate and Entermedia Theater, thirty-five years ago, Morganelli established Jazz Forum Arts, a not-for-profit arts presenting organization, and in 1985 started the River-side Park Arts Festival, which concluded on its 13th anniversary in August 1997. Tickets available here.

Scullers Jazz Club, 400 Soldiers Field Road, (617) 562-4148

Blue Heron

Christmas in Renaissance Spain
December 16th
8:00 pm

A festive new program of sonorous motets, exuberant villancicos, and comic ensaladas for the Christmas season, with singers, guitars, percussion, and dulcian.

Location: Sanctuary at First Church in Cambridge, Congregational 11 Garden Street Tickets available here.

Blue Heron, (617) 960-7956

Saturday, December 17th

Harvard Square Holiday Fair

December 17th

11:00am – 7:00pm

The Harvard Square Holiday Fair is one of the oldest and most popular fairs in Boston – the original rock and roll holiday fair.  Now in its 36th year, the fair runs for two consecutive weekends, Dec 9-11 and Dec 16-18 at 33 Dunster St in Cambridge. The fair is juried and includes a changing mix of New England craftspeople and world traveling importers featuring a great selection of beautiful, original and affordable gifts. Talking to the craftspeople who make what they sell gives shoppers a connection to what they are buying that is just not possible at the mall, through a catalog or online.

This is not your average craft fair – it’s more like a party where you can buy stuff!  It’s a high energy alternative marketplace with a great soundtrack – a taste of the old Harvard Square.

Admission is free

Harvard Square Holiday Fair, (413)625-9779

Harvard COOP

Winter Wonderland

December 17th

11am – 2pm

The COOP, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, (617) 499-2000

The Charles Hotel Outdoor Holiday Fair

December 17th

1pm - 5pm

The Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett Street, (617) 864-1200

The Brattle Theatre

It’s a Wonderful Life

December 17th

12:00pm, 3:00 pm & 6:00pm

Director: Frank Capra Run Time: 130 min. Format: 35mm Film Release Year: 1946

Starring: Donna Reed, Henry Travers, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore

A Holiday Tradition!

Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, a forlorn small-town banker with a serious case of regret who, while considering suicide, meets Clarence (Travers), an angel in training. Clarence shows George what life would be like if he had never been born, and through this George is able to realize how valuable one person’s life can be. This film, which offers one of the most memorable (and bittersweet) Christmas stories ever, is a wonderful reminder that life may not be what we expected but it is still sweet and rich. Forget about watching this classic film at home on TV, we’re showing it the way it was meant to be seen: on the Big Screen on real-live 35mm film!

Tickets available here.

Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, (617) 876-6837

Longy School of Music

Graduating Student Recital

IJE: JOURNEY • Anthony Ifeanyi Epum, countertenor

December 17th

3:00 pm

FREE – $20.00

All Longy students present full recitals as part of their education and ongoing evolution as artists. They are charged with thinking critically about what stories they tell, whose voices to amplify, and who’s in the room for their event while also considering how to use performance spaces in innovative ways and how to truly engage audiences and create interactive music experiences.

Anthony Ifeanyi Epum is a student of Pamela Dellal. Tickets available here.

Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, (617) 876-0596

Brattle Theatre

Die Hard

December 17th

9:30 pm

Director: John McTiernan Run Time: 131 min. Format: 35mm Film Release Year: 1988

Starring: Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Bruce Willis, Reginald VelJohnson

When married-to-the-job New York City cop John McClane (Willis) arrives in L.A. on Christmas Eve hoping to patch things up with his estranged wife (Bedilla), he instead walks into a dangerous hostage situation at a Holiday party. Tickets available here.

Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, (617) 876-6837

Blue Heron

Christmas in Renaissance Spain

December 17th

3:00pm & 8:00pm

A festive new program of sonorous motets, exuberant villancicos, and comic ensaladas for the Christmas season, with singers, guitars, percussion, and dulcian.

Location: Sanctuary at First Church in Cambridge, Congregational 11 Garden Street. Tickets available here.

Blue Heron, (617) 960-7956

Longy School of Music

Graduating Student Recital

THE DIFFERENT FACES OF THE HUMAN • Eliana Osorio, soprano

December 17th

8:00 pm

FREE – $20.00

All Longy students present full recitals as part of their education and ongoing evolution as artists. They are charged with thinking critically about what stories they tell, whose voices to amplify, and who’s in the room for their event while also considering how to use performance spaces in innovative ways and how to truly engage audiences and create interactive music experiences. Learn more here.

Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, (617) 876-0596

Scullers Jazz Club

Nat King Cole Christmas

December 17th

7:00 pm & 9:00 pm

NAT KING COLE CHRISTMAS is a festive holiday concert celebrating one of America’s most beloved musical legends. This program will feature some of the greatest songs ever written, performed by an all-star lineup. Featuring: Christian Sands (musical director), Michael Mayo, Lauren Kinhan, Russell Hall, Dan Wilson, Ryan Sands, Veronica Leahy, Marquis Hill and Steve Davis. Tickets available here.

Scullers Jazz Club, 400 Soldiers Field Road, (617) 562-4148

The Sinclair

The Slackers

December 17th

8:00 pm

$22

The Slackers are a classic American band that is equal parts grit and grace. Their slow rise against the odds is a story of perseverance and a belief in their musical vision, what Vic likes to call, "Jamaican Rock N Roll." While they have been influenced, and even personally taught by Jamaican Ska/Reggae originators, like the Skatalites and the Upsetters (Original backing band for the Wailers), the band sees its music as an extension of the traditions of the United States. This band is equally appreciative of old Blues, Country, 60s Soul, Rock, and Rn'B as it is of Reggae, Rocksteady, Dub, and Ska. It is as if the Rolling Stones or the Yardbirds had grown up on Bob Marley as well as Muddy Waters. Tickets available here.

The Sinclair, 52 Church Street, (617) 547-5200

Sunday, December 18th

Harvard Square Holiday Fair

December 18th
12:00 pm – 6:00 pm

The Harvard Square Holiday Fair is one of the oldest and most popular fairs in Boston – the original rock and roll holiday fair.  Now in its 36th year, the fair runs for two consecutive weekends, Dec 9-11 and Dec 16-18 at 33 Dunster St in Cambridge. The fair is juried and includes a changing mix of New England craftspeople and world traveling importers featuring a great selection of beautiful, original and affordable gifts. Talking to the craftspeople who make what they sell gives shoppers a connection to what they are buying that is just not possible at the mall, through a catalog or online.

This is not your average craft fair – it’s more like a party where you can buy stuff!  It’s a high energy alternative marketplace with a great soundtrack – a taste of the old Harvard Square.

Admission is free

Harvard Square Holiday Fair, (413)625-9779

The Brattle Theatre

It’s a Wonderful Life

December 18th
12:00 pm, 3:00 pm & 6:00 pm
Director: Frank Capra Run Time: 130 min. Format: 35mm Film Release Year: 1946
Starring: Donna Reed, Henry Travers, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore
A Holiday Tradition!

Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, a forlorn small-town banker with a serious case of regret who, while considering suicide, meets Clarence (Travers), an angel in training. Clarence shows George what life would be like if he had never been born, and through this George is able to realize how valuable one person’s life can be. This film, which offers one of the most memorable (and bittersweet) Christmas stories ever, is a wonderful reminder that life may not be what we expected but it is still sweet and rich. Forget about watching this classic film at home on TV, we’re showing it the way it was meant to be seen: on the Big Screen on real-live 35mm film!

Tickets available here.

Brattle Theatre

Die Hard
December 18th
9:30 pm

Director: John McTiernan Run Time: 131 min. Format: 35mm Film Release Year: 1988

Starring: Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Bruce Willis, Reginald VelJohnson

When married-to-the-job New York City cop John McClane (Willis) arrives in L.A. on Christmas Eve hoping to patch things up with his estranged wife (Bedilla), he instead walks into a dangerous hostage situation at a Holiday party. Tickets available here.

Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, (617) 876-6837

The Boys of St. Paul’s Choir School

Christmas in Harvard Square
December 18th
3:00 pm

Saint Paul’s Choir of Men and Boys presents a spectacular celebration of Christmas and the holiday season when its popular “Christmas in Harvard Square” program returns this year with live, in-person concerts on Sundays, December 11 and 18, 3 pm, Saint Paul’s Church, Harvard Square, Cambridge. The performances feature the boy choristers of Saint Paul’s Choir School, Back Bay Brass ensemble, percussion, and the majestic Saint Paul’s pipe organ, conducted by Director of Music James Kennerley.

This season’s iteration of “Christmas in Harvard Square” features a Christmas program that originates across the globe – including music from Mexico, Ireland, Scotland, Poland, England, France, the Ukraine, and the US. Immerse yourself in a holiday traditional like no other, and enjoy audience favorites like “Joy to the world”, “Carol of the Bells” and “It came upon the midnight clear”, as well as a medieval French processional hymn, and three new arrangements composed by James Kennerley especially for the choir, which will receive their world premières.

A cameo appearance by the youngest choristers of the choir delight in a beloved arrangement of “Silent Night”, originated by Saint Paul’s Choir School Founder Theodore Marier.

Tickets available here.

St Paul's Choir School, 29 Mt. Auburn Street, (617) 868-8658

Ongoing

Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre

The Nutcracker Family Affair
Thru December 18th

Join us for The Nutcracker Family Affair, a special event celebrating the timeless magic of The Nutcracker!

The Nutcracker Family Affair will feature select highlights from the beloved Holiday Classic, including snowflakes, soldiers, mice, angels, cherubs, and the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier of course. Immerse yourself in Clara’s journey as you enjoy tasty treats, refreshments, and a wine & beer bar in a Kingdom of the Sweets atmosphere. The event will also feature a Live Holiday Auction with great gift options and much more! Don’t miss what is sure to be a special experience for the uninitiated and veteran Nutcracker fan alike. Tickets/waitlist available Here 

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
B. Ingrid Olson: History Mother, Little Sister

Thru December 23rd

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts is pleased to announce two simultaneous solo exhibitions by artist B. Ingrid Olson: History Mother and Little Sister, each on a separate floor of the Center’s landmark Le Corbusier building. The exhibitions feature site-specific installations informed by a feminist engagement with experiences of doubling and mirroring, gendered forms, reciprocity between photography and sculpture, and ways the artist’s body and each viewer’s body relate to the built environment.

In the Carpenter Center’s Level 3 Sert Gallery, History Mother takes an unconventional approach to the “history” of Olson’s practice. A selection of photographic works from the past decade joins new works, together articulating how Olson uses her own body as subject matter—bent knees, limbs, hands, and feet press up against mirrors and photographic surfaces, confusing points of contact between the figure and the picture plane—as well as the archival impulse that runs through her practice, with collections of objects, images, and gestures often gathered, repeated, and rhymed across the assembled works. Alongside this photographic “retrospective,” Olson will show a new room-sized installation, Proto Coda, Index (2016–22), that choreographs the display of meticulously produced MDF reproductions of all of her sculptural reliefs made to date.

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street, (617) 496-5387

Revels
The Midwinter Revels: A Solstice Celebration

December 16th – 28th

The Midwinter Revels is a cherished holiday tradition for over 70,000 people throughout the country. Every December, the Cambridge Revels community gathers in Harvard University’s historic Sanders Theatre to celebrate the season through the traditional songs, dances, and stories of cultures from around the world. This year’s production will be performed live at Sanders Theatre December 16 – 28 and will be followed by a virtual encore streaming option!

Our 52nd annual Midwinter Revels takes us into the past to a time and place of great change in American history – Ellis Island of the 1920’s. A point of entry to the New World for many immigrants, Ellis Island was a place where many peoples and cultures came together from all over the world.

It is Christmas Eve, and a delay in the processing on Ellis Island means that a number of families from Ireland, Russia, and Germany must spend some extended time together. The Irish and Old World Jewish families have many differences, but through the curiosity of their children and the insights of the Mexican nurses who are charged with their care, they find ways to celebrate their rite of passage through music, song, and story. Tickets available here.

Revels, (617) 972-8300

Noir
Maccabee Bar, A Hanukkah Pop Up
Thru December 30th

Boston’s first Hanukkah Pop Up bar, Maccabee Bar is back for its fifth year. This year Maccabee Bar will be hosted by Noir located in the Charles Hotel. In celebration of the wintertime festival of lights, Naomi Levy, the creator of Maccabee Bar, brings the Hanukkah themed experience to Noir featuring festive décor, unique flavored cocktails, classic bites and lots of wit.

There will be brand new cocktails to try along with past years’ favorites such as the Latke Sour (Apple Brandy, Potato, Lemon, Havana & Hyde Bitters) and Whiskey Shamash (Bourbon, Fig, Lemon, Mind). Noshes will include special snacks from the kitchens of Backbar (by the team at Field and Vine) and Noir. They will have latkes as well as jelly donuts by Kate Holowchik’s Lionheart Confections.

Noir, 1 Bennett Street, (617) 661-8010

Holiday Poetry Stroll
Thru January 1st

Longfellow House – Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, in partnership with the Harvard Square Business Association and Mass Poetry, are delighted to announce the 3rd Annual Harvard Square Poetry Stroll. On view from December 10th until January 1st, this year’s self-guided outdoor stroll highlights local poets with a focus on finding hope in trying times. 18 poems are displayed in store fronts and public spaces in the Square.

Get inspired!

One of the poems, written by 15 year old Cambridge Rindge and Latin sophomore Justice Brooks, “Cataclysm of Snowfall” closes with the reflection “you, and I are one.” Think of a time when you felt deeply connected to something, someone, or some idea. Then, write a poem or create a piece of art reflecting on that connection or create something in reaction to any of the eighteen featured poems! If you’re feeling bold, email it to [email protected] or share it on social media using #HSQPoetry2022. We might share it in a gallery on this page!

To read all of the poems on this stroll, please visit: Harvard Square Poetry Stroll

Longfellow House, 105 Brattle Street, (617) 876-4491

American Repertory Theater

Life of Pi
Thru January 29th

Sixteen-year-old Pi and his family set off to emigrate from India, but after their ship sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Pi is left stranded on a lifeboat with just four other survivors—a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a Royal Bengal tiger. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive? Called “extraordinary and unmissable” by The Guardian for its inventive puppetry and winner of five 2022 Olivier Awards including Best New Play, this highly imaginative theatrical adaptation brings one of the most beloved works of fiction to the stage to tell its epic story of endurance and hope. Tickets available here.

American Repertory Theater, 64 Brattle Street, (617) 547-8300

CPD’s Secret Santa for Seniors Gift Drive is Back for Its 16th Year; Support Local Businesses and Seniors This Holiday Season

Whether your holiday shopping is already underway or you’re preparing in advance of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and/or Cyber Monday, the Cambridge Police Department wants to encourage residents and businesses to once again consider supporting the “Secret Santa for Seniors” gift drive. Now in its 16th year, the gift drive brings gifts and joy to seniors who may not have any remaining family members or loved ones nearby during the holiday season.

This program relies solely on generous donations from Cambridge businesses, residents, community members, and CPD employees. Gift bags are organized and distributed to seniors throughout the city on the days leading up to Christmas to remind them that they are not forgotten.

“Every year, more and more seniors in Cambridge are identified as worthy recipients of this impactful program,” said Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elow. “The Cambridge community always rises to the occasion and meets these growing demands. With the community’s continued support, our goal is to ensure that no seniors feel lonely this holiday season.”

The following suggested items – unwrapped – would be greatly appreciated:

Food – non-perishable (e.g. chocolate, tea, jams, crackers, hard candy, pudding cups, soup and other canned goods)

Gift cards
Winter hats and gloves
Sweatshirts
Washcloths
Socks
Slippers
Bathrobes
Pajamas
Cough drops and skin therapy lotion
Chap Stick
Local sport team items
Puzzle books

Donations will be accepted now through Friday, December 16th, 2022. Residents are encouraged to support local businesses by purchasing gifts in-person or online through Cambridge Local First or the various Cambridge business associations. A Secret Santa for Seniors “Wish List” has also been created on Amazon.

Amazon Wish List

Cambridge Local First
Central Square Business Improvement District
East Cambridge Business Association
Harvard Square Business Association

Gifts can be dropped off 24/7 at drop boxes in the first-floor main lobby of the Robert W. Healy Public Safety Facility at 125 Sixth Street in Cambridge. They can also be shipped to Sgt. Susan Kale, Cambridge Police Department, 125 6th Street, Cambridge, MA 02142.

This year’s Secret Santa for Seniors partners include the Office of Mayor Siddiqui, the City of Cambridge City Manager’s Office, the Cambridge Housing Authority, CambridgeSide, Reservoir Church, MIT, Whole Foods, Cambridge Brands, Phil’s Towing, U-Haul Central Square, Trader Joe’s, Pro EMS and Coca-Cola.

For more information, please contact Sgt. Susan Kale at (617) 349-3210 or email.

9th Annual Cambridge Winter Warmth Drive

For the past eight years, Councillor Marc McGovern has launched an effort called the Winter Warmth Drive. This project raises money to purchase sleeping bags for unhoused individuals in Cambridge. Over the course of the past several years, they have purchased over 1,000 sleeping bags, which have been lifelines to those experiencing homelessness. Although we have reached our goal for this winter, if you would still like to make a financial contribution, we would gladly accept toward our next winter goal.

McGovern has once again partnered with First Parish Cambridge Unitarian Universalist, Harvard Square Business Association, Central Square Business Improvement District, the East Cambridge Business Association and Hilton’s Tent City.

Please consider making a contribution today. It is getting cold fast, and the sooner we raise the funds the sooner we can purchase the bags and distribute them.

If you would like to make an online contribution, please click here or mail a check make out to: First Parish UU Church and write “Winter Warmth Drive” in the memo section, and mail to First Parish, 3 Church St., Cambridge, MA 02138.