FESTIVAL
Sinterklaas | 12/4 in Rhinebeck
The brainchild of celebration artist Jeanne Fleming (creative director of the New York City Halloween Parade), Sinterklaas is the gold standard of local holiday festivals, a day-long event that features children’s workshops, dance, theater, and music that draws thousands to Rhinebeck. The highlight is the Children’s Starlight Parade, featuring two-story tall, animated puppets carried by hundreds of volunteers that closes the day at twilight. Parking can be tricky in the village on festival day, so plan accordingly.
ART SHOW & AUCTION
Family of Woodstock Fundraising Auction | 12/4 at Mountainview Studio
This art show and auction, produced by Dr. Gerry Herman and Leslie R. Herman, benefits Family of Woodstock, the multi-program human service agency that has provided invaluable services to individuals and families in need for 50 years. The auction will be called by Abbe Sue Graber and features work by Peter Max, Lenny Kislin, Christina Varga, Scott Michael Ackerman, Charlotte Tusch, Henrietta Mantooth, Norm Magnusson, and many other regional artists. The auction will take place in Woodstock on December 4 starting at 1:30pm.
FESTIVAL
Winter Walk | 12/4 in Hudson
This month marks the 25th anniversary of Hudson’s Winter Walk, a nondenominational celebration with stunning storefront displays, roaming carolers, street performers, food, and drinks along the mile-long stretch of Warren Street, as well as a fireworks display over the Hudson River. Perennial Winter Walk favorites such as Sax-o-Claus, Sean the Prankster, Crazy Christine Balloons, Roger the Jester, Holly, Andy & Ivy, the Orcapelicans, Circus Theatricks with Sean Fagan, Acadia Otlowski, and Key of Q are slated to perform. Winter Walk takes place on December 4 from 5 to 8pm.
FILM
The First Wave | 12/5 at the Orpheum Theater
The Woodstock Film Festival and Upstate Films present a screening of Matthew Heineman’s upcoming film The First Wave. Heineman’s doc follows the everyday heroes at the epicenter of COVID-19 as they come together to fight one of the greatest threats the world has ever encountered inside one of New York’s hardest-hit hospital systems during the terrifying first four months of the pandemic. The First Wave screens on December 5 in Saugerties at 1pm. The film will be followed by a Q&A session with Heineman and a reception at The Dutch at 3:30pm.
DANCE/THEATER
Into the Light | 12/11 at the Rosendale Theater
The Vanaver Caravan, in collaboration with Arm-of-the-Sea Theater, returns with the holiday pageant “Into the Light,” which celebrates the traditions of Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Sankta Lucia, Winter Solstice, and Yule through festive dance, live music, and puppetry. “Into the Light”is set in a northern country where a young girl named Lucia loses her inner light as the sun’s light diminishes with the coming of winter. “Into the Light” will be performed in Rosendale on December 11 at 2pm and 4pm.
WORKSHOP/PERFORMANCE
"Tell It Like It Is" | December 12 at the Rosendale Theater
As part of its Celebrating Aging Series, the Rosendale Theater presents “Tell It Like It Is,” an interactive workshop and performance with storytellers Verna Gillis and David Gonzalez. Gillis, author of Tales from Geriassic Park,and Gonzalez, one of the country’s foremost storytellers, will perform excerpts from their repertoire, offer insights into their creative processes, and help bring out the storyteller in participants. “Tell It Like It Is” will take place on December 12 at 2pm in Rosendale.
THEATER
A Radio Christmas Carol | December 17-19
SITI Company returns to the Fisher Center to develop a new live performance based on Orson Welles’ 1939 radio play of “A Christmas Carol,” as part of the company’s 30th anniversary celebration. Reimagining the intimacy and alchemy of that recording studio, SITI conjures the ghosts of the past, present, and future to speak to our need for gratitude, charity, fairness, justice, and equity. Co-directed by Bard alum Anne Bogart and Darron West, these work-in-progress performances are a preview of the world premiere of the full production at the Fisher Center next December.
