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Snowport has free curling, 130 vendors and a pink yeti: what to know before you go
Snowport, the Seaport’s holiday market, is back for its sixth season with more than 130 vendors, four themed bars and free curling down the street. Getting in costs nothing, though a weekend fast pass will get you in at a set time. Here’s everything to know about Snowport in Boston this year, from the hours to the yeti. The Holiday Market at Snowport runs November 6 to December 27 at 100 Seaport Boulevard. It has more than 130 businesses, including 17 local food and drink vendors. 61% are from New England, and 82% are owned by women or people of color. Shop Avigail Adam, Hillside Harvest, Drift Collective, Rosey Design Co. and Wicked Ducks, then eat your way through Dumpling Daughter, Cheese Louise, Cheese Wheel Pastas, Lakon Paris, Naughty Waffle and Union Square Donuts in the 10,000-square-foot dining area. Take your photo under the 12-foot Mistletoe Arch or at the 25-foot Winter Wish Wall, and if you have kids, the LEGO Creativity Corner does make-and-take crafts on Tuesdays. There’s a heated beer garden tent and four themed bars: The Jingle Bar, The Dizzy Dreidel, Betty’s Bar and The Blizzard Bar. Through December 6, it’s open 3 to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and until 8 p.m. on Sunday. From December 7, weekdays open at 11 a.m. It’s closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas and closes at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve. General admission is free. On weekends, you can skip the line with a timed-entry fast pass in the Seaport Insider app: $15 for adults, $7 for veterans and kids 6 to 17, and free for kids 5 and under. A dollar from every ticket goes to Boston Xchange. Weekday evenings are the easy time to just walk in. Iceless curling is on Harbor Way, between 101 and 121 Seaport Boulevard, and it’s free. Sessions are 30 minutes for up to eight people a lane, and you book through the Seaport Insider app. If you’ve never thrown a stone, sign up for Learn to Curl. Lanes run through February 28, 2027, so this outlasts the market. It’s the most fun you can have in the Seaport for free. Betty is Snowport’s giant pink yeti, and she hangs out at Betty’s Blizzard Bluff in the Superette Courtyard, 131 Seaport Boulevard, from noon to 3 p.m. on December 23 and 30, then a few more days into February. Her plush toys are sold to benefit 826 Boston, so you can take a mini Betty home. From December to February, the Betty Cocktail Crawl sends you to 13 Seaport bars, including Puttshack and F1 Arcade. Fill your stamp card and you get a $50 gift card, and a dollar from every Betty cocktail goes to 826 Boston. Light Up Seaport, the 10th annual tree lighting, is December 4 on Seaport Common, with a 52-foot tree and more than 10,000 lights, and CBS Boston carries it live. The menorah lighting is December 10 in the One Seaport Courtyard, and the Seaport Holiday Stroll is December 12 from 1 to 4 p.m., starting at the Snowport gondola on Harbor Way with free totes while they last. On Mondays from November 9 to December 21, Berklee musicians play at 5 p.m. Need a tree? There’s a Christmas tree market on Harbor Way that delivers. Take the Silver Line SL1 or SL2 to Courthouse on Seaport Boulevard. If you drive, the One Seaport Garage at 75 Sleeper Street is open 24 hours. The Seaport Ferry is $5 each way, which is a fun way to arrive with a group.
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Home Alone and the Muppets are back on Boston’s big screens: 6 Christmas movie outings
Kevin McCallister is coming back to Brookline. The Coolidge Corner Theatre has Home Alone on its December calendar, along with The Polar Express, The Muppet Christmas Carol and a 35mm print of Christmas in Connecticut. Downtown, a live orchestra plays Love Actually, and the Boston Pops bring the Muppets to Symphony Hall right after Christmas. That's 6 ways to watch a Christmas movie with a crowd this year, which beats your couch every time. Here are the dates, showtimes and where to get tickets for each one, in order. The Coolidge kicks off its Christmas movies with The Polar Express at 10:30 AM on Sat, Dec 5 and Sun, Dec 6. It's part of the theater's Kids' Shows series, and the Coolidge recommends it for ages 6 and up. Tom Hanks stars in the 2004 Robert Zemeckis film, based on Chris Van Allsburg's book about a boy who doubts Santa until a train shows up outside his house on Christmas Eve. The Coolidge, at 290 Harvard St., was built as a church in 1906 and opened as an Art Deco movie palace in December 1933, according to its history page. It has never closed its doors since, which makes it a great room for a holiday tradition. On Sun, Dec 6, Love Actually In Concert plays the Emerson Colonial Theatre at 2 PM and 7 PM. The whole movie plays on a full-size screen while a live orchestra performs Craig Armstrong's score, and yes, the orchestra plays All I Want for Christmas Is You live, according to the theater's box office. The Colonial is at 106 Boylston St., across from Boston Common, so you can walk over to the Common's holiday lights after the 2 PM show. The box office asks you to arrive at least 45 minutes early for bag checks. The Muppets take over the Coolidge on Sat, Dec 19 and Sun, Dec 20, with The Muppet Christmas Carol at 10:30 AM both days. Michael Caine plays Ebenezer Scrooge, Kermit the Frog plays Bob Cratchit and Miss Piggy is right there with him. It's another Kids' Shows pick, recommended for ages 4 and up, so it works for the littlest movie fans too. If your crew loves this version, it pairs well with a live stage show from our A Christmas Carol guide. For a grown-up night out, the Coolidge screens Christmas in Connecticut from a 35mm print at 7 PM on Mon, Dec 21, as part of its Big Screen Classics series. Barbara Stanwyck plays a famous writer on marriage and homemaking whose publisher asks her to host a war hero for Christmas dinner at her famous Connecticut home. The catch is that she's single, can't cook and doesn't own a home. Dennis Morgan and Sydney Greenstreet co-star. It's the one Christmas classic on the Coolidge calendar that's on film, and it's a Monday, so it's an easy way to start Christmas week. The day after Christmas, the Coolidge shows Home Alone at 10:30 AM on Sat, Dec 26 and again on Sun, Dec 27. Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern and Catherine O'Hara star, and the Coolidge recommends it for ages 10 and up. It's a smart plan for the slow days after Christmas, when the kids have new gifts and everyone needs to get out of the house. The Boston Pops close out the season with Disney's The Muppet Christmas Carol in Concert at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave., at 2 PM on Sun, Dec 27 and Mon, Dec 28. The film plays while the Pops perform the music live, with Gonzo narrating as Charles Dickens alongside Rizzo the Rat, Fozzie Bear as Fozziwig and Robin the Frog as Tiny Tim, according to the Boston Pops. So you can see the Muppets twice this season, once at the Coolidge and once with a full orchestra. -
Boston vintage shopping: $2-a-pound racks in an 1893 soap factory, plus 9 more
The Garment District is open every day in Cambridge. ManRay still runs the goth nights, and Waltham’s steampunk festival is over for 2026. Boston vintage shopping runs from $2-a-pound bins in Cambridge to Chanel one flight up on Newbury Street, and the best finds are spread across Cambridge, Somerville, Beacon Hill, Jamaica Plain and Roslindale. Here are the 10 shops we’d plan a Saturday around, with what each one does best, how to sell your own clothes, and the sales worth timing a trip for. Start at The Garment District at 200 Broadway, a short walk from Kendall/MIT. The building went up in 1893 for soap maker Lysander Kemp & Sons, and it’s the last one standing from Cambridge’s soap-making days. More than 40,000 new and used pieces fill over 12,000 square feet, and Boston Costume, around since 1965, moved in from Chinatown in 2007. The best deal is By the Pound, where everything costs $2 a pound. It goes back to 1981, when the business started selling clothes by weight on Saturday mornings. By the Pound closes at 6 on Fridays, two hours before the main store, so go early that day. Great Eastern Trading Co. at 49 River Street began as an army and navy surplus store in 1969. Now it’s where Cambridge goes for party clothes, with racks from the 1920s through the ’80s plus costumes and accessories. Ask the staff to pull looks for a theme party or a wedding you can’t figure out. It’s closed Tuesdays, and opens at 1 on Sundays and Mondays. The Attic in Harvard Square is the Boston outpost of a Brooklyn vintage shop, and the owner’s family runs a Massachusetts textile recycler, so she sees the donations before anyone else. Go straight to the $10-and-under room. It mixes ’70s-style pieces with early 2000s jeans, bags and sports jerseys. Raspberry Beret at 2302 Mass Ave in North Cambridge mixes ’60s, ’70s and ’90s vintage with Free People, Reformation and Dr. Martens, and it turns away fast fashion. Go downstairs to the beret basement first. It’s open every day from 11 to 7 and takes consignment by appointment. Anything that doesn’t sell in 60 days goes to Mass Appeal International. A second shop in Allston adds furniture and housewares. Castanet is the designer stop, on the second floor of 175 Newbury Street, where The Closet sold consignment for 38 years before Castanet took over in 2016. Expect Chanel, Céline, The Row and Comme des Garçons. Consignors get up to 50% of the sale price. Hours are short, Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5:30, so plan around them. Keezers on Charles Street in Beacon Hill dates to 1895, when Harvard students sold their used suits through a men’s clothing co-op in Cambridge. It shares space with a tailor, so you can buy a tweed sport coat and get it fitted in one stop. Check here before you rent a tux. 40 South St. Vintage in Jamaica Plain is our favorite shop to hang out in. The owner plays punk while you browse, and it made the Boston Globe’s 2026 Best of the Best list for thrift and vintage. It also buys vintage from the public. It’s open Thursday through Sunday, so don’t make the trip on a Tuesday. Diversity Consignment fills two floors on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, and the racks aren’t split by gender, so shop the whole store. It does styling and alterations on site, so you can leave with a blazer that fits. Watch for its Fill A Bag sale. Buffalo Exchange at 238 Elm Street in Davis Square opened in 2009 as the chain’s first New England store. It’s the easiest place around to sell clothes you’re done with: no appointment, just bring a government ID and browse while they go through your bag. It’s open until 8 Monday through Saturday, so you can stop by after work. The Thrift Shop of Boston in Roslindale has sold secondhand clothes, furniture and housewares since 1926, and every dollar goes to The Home for Little Wanderers. Time your trip to the weekly deals: half-price kids’ clothes on Wednesdays, half-off books, music and movies on Thursdays, and half-off jewelry on Fridays. Bring the car. -
After 6 p.m., Amtrak’s Boston to New York ticket can cost just $20
The cheapest Amtrak from Boston to New York usually comes down to when you ride, who you ride with and which fare you click. Northeast Regional and Acela trains both leave from South Station, Back Bay and Route 128 in Westwood, and prices change by day and time, running highest around holidays and peak hours. Tickets go on sale up to 11 months ahead, so book as soon as your dates are set. If your dates are flexible, check the trains an hour earlier and later too, since the price can change from one departure to the next. Here’s how to pay less. Amtrak’s Night Owl fares cover Coach seats on trains scheduled to leave between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m., anywhere between Boston and Washington, and Amtrak lists Boston to New York at $20 one way. Washington to Boston is listed at $30, and early risers count too, since a 7 a.m. train qualifies. Seats are limited, so the cheap ones go first, and you can’t book them with Guest Rewards points. If you roll into New York late, know that Moynihan Train Hall closes from 1 to 5 a.m., and trains use Penn Station, across Eighth Avenue, during those hours. Share Fares cut the price when you book a group on one reservation: 15% off for 3 people, 25% for 4, 37% for 5, 47% for 6, 54% for 7 and 60% for 8. That makes a bachelorette weekend in New York a lot easier to pitch. It works in Coach and Acela Business, and you have to book at least 2 days ahead with code V291. It doesn’t combine with other discounts. Traveling with kids? Ages 2 to 12 ride for half off with an adult 18 or older, and one child under 2 rides free on your lap. Students 17 to 24 get 15% off with a valid student ID in Coach or Acela Business, booked at least a day ahead with code V814. Riders 65 and older get 10% off most fares with proof of age. Neither one stacks with other deals, so compare the discount with whatever sale fare is showing for your train. The cheapest fare isn’t always the best buy. Sale fares can’t be changed, and you lose 50% if you cancel. Value fares can’t be changed either, and you lose 30%. Flex fares cost more but can be changed or refunded with no fee. Every ticket can be canceled free within 24 hours of buying it, as long as the train hasn’t left, but skip the train without canceling and you lose that whole trip. If your plans might move, the Flex fare can end up cheaper. Regular commuters should look at Amtrak’s multi-ride tickets: a 10-ride pass that’s good for 45 to 90 days depending on your stations, or a monthly pass that covers up to two trips a day on the Northeast Regional. They don’t work on Acela, and you reserve each trip up to 14 days ahead. The passes can’t be shared. Want Business or Acela First without paying full price? Amtrak sometimes sends a BidUp invite up to 4 days before you travel. Name your price, and you pay only if your bid wins. Bids close 30 minutes before the train leaves. One catch: a winning upgrade makes your ticket nonrefundable and unchangeable, even a Flex fare. Amtrak Guest Rewards is free to join and earns 2 points per dollar, with bonus points in Business and Acela First. Points go toward free trips, upgrades from 2,500 points and lounge passes, so sign up before your first booking. And watch for Amtrak’s short sales, like the Northeast Sale, which took up to 30% off Regional fares in 2025. -
Boston’s 200-year-old oyster house is being sold, plus 7 more old-timers
Union Oyster House turned 200 this year, and in August the Boston Globe reported that it was being sold to the family of Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta, who owns Landry’s. The sale still needs a liquor license transfer, and the buyers say the name, the staff and the traditions are staying put. Here are the oldest restaurants and bars in Boston that are still open, in order of age, from a 1780 tavern to a 1974 pizza counter, plus one famous pub that isn’t as old as it looks. Warren Tavern on Pleasant Street opened in 1780, five years after the British burned most of Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill. It’s named for Dr. Joseph Warren, the Patriot leader who was killed in that battle. Paul Revere came here for Masonic lodge meetings in the 1780s. Fans of Robert B. Parker will also recognize it, since Spenser eats here in the 1982 novel Ceremony. The Freedom Trail ends nearby at the Bunker Hill Monument, so it’s an easy stop at the end of the walk. The Bell in Hand takes its name from Jimmy Wilson, Boston’s town crier, who carried a hand bell on the job and, by tradition, opened the bar in 1795. It calls itself America’s oldest continuously operating tavern. A 2025 Globe story found its current building dates to about 1844, and that the bar moved in much later. It’s still a fun, loud spot for oysters and a beer, a few doors down Union Street from the oyster house. Union Oyster House opened on October 7, 1826, as the Atwood & Bacon Oyster House, in a building that went up around 1716. It’s a National Historic Landmark and is widely called the oldest restaurant in America still serving. Daniel Webster was a regular at the raw bar. Upstairs, booth 18 was John F. Kennedy’s, and a plaque has marked it since 1977. Every November 22, the anniversary of his death, the staff put a single white rose on the table. Sit at the curved oyster bar downstairs and order a dozen and a cup of chowder. The Parker House hotel opened on School Street in 1855, and its kitchen gave the world two things Boston still eats. Parker House rolls came from here, and so did Boston cream pie, now the official state dessert. The hotel says JFK proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier at table 40, a plaque marks the spot, and Boston.com reports couples still book it for their own proposals. Get the pie. It would be rude not to. Amrheins on West Broadway has served Southie since 1890. The Boston Preservation Alliance counts it as the neighborhood’s oldest restaurant and bar. Go for brunch, served every day until 2, and enjoy the free parking, which is rare in Southie. J.J. Foley’s Cafe on East Berkeley Street opened in 1909, and the Foley family has run it ever since. Its biggest night came in 1919, when Boston police officers met in Fay Hall, the room upstairs, and voted to form a union. On September 8 they met there again and voted 1,134 to 2 to strike. That vote led to the Boston police strike and made Governor Calvin Coolidge a national name. The J.J. Foley’s downtown on Kingston Street is a separate bar run by another branch of the family. Make sure your friends go to the right Foley’s. Kelly’s opened on Revere Beach, just north of Boston, in 1951 as a hot dog stand. The roast beef sandwich came later, and the company story says it was born from beef left over after a cancelled wedding. New owners bought the business in 2025, but the stand on the beach is the original, so eat your sandwich on the seawall facing the water. Umberto Deuterio opened Galleria Umberto on Hanover Street in 1974, and it won a James Beard America’s Classics award in 2018. The menu is short: square slices of Sicilian pizza, arancini and calzones. It takes cash only, serves lunch only and closes when the food runs out, so get there early. One famous pub isn’t as old as its sign. The Green Dragon Tavern at 11 Marshall Street puts 1657, 1773 and 1776 on its sign. The real Green Dragon, where the Sons of Liberty met, stood on Union Street and was torn down in the 1800s. The Globe found the current pub opened in 1993 in a building from around 1850. So the Sons of Liberty never met in this building.
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Boston’s first Thanksgiving pie deadline is Nov 20: 5 bakeries to order from now
Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, and Boston’s first pie deadline lands six days before it. Tatte stops taking Thanksgiving orders at 8 p.m. on Friday, November 20. After that you have Flour, which delivers until Saturday afternoon, a Cambridge bakery with pickup slots on Tuesday and Wednesday, and two North End pastry shops where a whole apple pie costs about $20. Here’s where to pre-order Thanksgiving pies in Boston, in order of deadline. Tatte’s Thanksgiving collection covers seasonal pies, cakes, tarts, fresh rolls and sweets, and you have to order by 8 p.m. on Friday, November 20. You pick a pickup day anywhere from November 20 to December 1 at the café you choose, so the same order can cover the long weekend after Thanksgiving. Every Tatte café is closed on Thanksgiving Day. The order page doesn’t list prices, so you’ll see them at checkout. It’s the most polished pie on this list, and it looks the part on a dessert table. Flour delivers its whole Thanksgiving menu anywhere around Boston until 4 p.m. on Saturday, November 21, while supplies last, and you can also pre-order for pickup during Thanksgiving week. A classic pumpkin pie is $30. Southern pecan and sweet potato are $35, the Piefecta is $38, and the double crust apple, the roasted pear, cranberry and almond crostata and the TCHO chocolate cream pie are $40 each. Gluten-free pumpkin ($35) and chocolate cream ($45) are on the menu too. If you’re hosting, add the Yukon gold mashed potatoes ($19), sausage stuffing ($20) and the buttery pull-apart rolls ($16), and half your table is done. The rest of the sides list runs from stoneground cornbread ($14) and roasted mushroom and multigrain stuffing ($22) to apple cider-thyme pan gravy ($15), cherry-cranberry chutney ($10), whipped butternut squash ($18) and a creamed spinach and kale gratin ($19). Sofra, Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick’s bakery, opened in 2008 as part of the Oleana group, and it takes Thanksgiving pre-orders for pickup at two cafés: 1 Belmont Street in Cambridge and 210 North Harvard Street in Allston. Pickup is Tuesday, November 24 and Wednesday, November 25, in one-hour slots from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with no slot from noon to 1. Both cafés are closed on Thanksgiving Day. The pie list is on the bakery’s Thanksgiving menu. Email info@sofrabakery.com about Cambridge pickups or infoallston@sofrabakery.com about Allston. If you want a dessert nobody else will bring, start here. Modern Pastry on Hanover Street sells a 10-inch apple pie for $18, and pumpkin and blueberry pies for $19 each, for local pickup. There’s also a ricotta pie from $25 and a pumpkin cheesecake for $55, if your family has a cheesecake person. The shop hasn’t posted a Thanksgiving order date or deadline, so call 617-523-3783 or email orders@modernpastry.com and ask when you can pick up. The pies are sold whole, for pickup at the shop, so plan on carrying them home yourself. At these prices, you can buy one of each. Bova’s on Salem Street has been family-owned since 1926, and it says it’s open 24/7. Its 10-inch apple pie is $22, holiday-only and made to order, so call 617-523-5601 instead of hoping to find one on the shelf. The holiday pie list also includes pumpkin, blueberry, custard, chocolate cream and cherry, and the ricotta pie is $30 whole or $7 a slice all year. Bova’s also ships some of its baked goods through its online shop, and it delivers through GrubHub and Uber Eats. If you forget dessert entirely, this is the one bakery on the list worth trying late on Wednesday night, but call first. -
Boston’s Feast of the Seven Fishes starts at $85, and 2 restaurants are already booking Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve, Italian-American families skip meat and eat seafood. The Feast of the Seven Fishes, often called La Vigilia, grew out of the Catholic custom of skipping meat on Christmas Eve, so families got creative with fish and shellfish, course after course, according to Northshore Magazine. Boston restaurants have run with it, and a few turn it into the best dinner of the whole season. Christmas Eve is Thu, Dec 24 this year. Two places are already booking it: Geppetto in Cambridge and both Boston locations of Davio's. Four more served a Christmas Eve fish feast last year and haven't posted their 2026 plans, so here's what they cooked in 2025 and where to watch for this year's menus. Here's who's booking now and who to watch. Chef Will Gilson's Geppetto at Cambridge Crossing already lists its Feast of the Seven Fishes for Thu, Dec 24, 2026 on OpenTable. It's $140.76 per person, prepaid, for parties of 1 to 6, and the menu is coming soon. Last year's version was a 6-course set menu on Christmas Eve, from a Sicilian-style crudo of salmon, tuna and yellowtail to lobster arancini, linguine with clams and pan-roasted swordfish, per Boston Restaurant Talk. Watch the 2026 menu, since it may change. Ken Oringer's Coppa opened at 4 PM on Christmas Eve 2025 for a 5-course Feast of Seven Fishes with drink pairings for each course. The 2025 menu had lobster and pumpkin chowder, wood-oven roasted monkfish and squid ink linguine with mussels and clams, and everyone went home with house-made Italian Christmas cookies. Coppa warned last year that there wouldn't be much space for walk-ins, so book ahead once 2026 opens. Coppa hasn't posted its 2026 plans, so check its site for 2026 menus and booking. At Porto, chef Jody Adams, a two-time James Beard Award winner, served a 4-course Feast of the Seven Fishes Tuesday through Saturday last December, through Sat, Dec 27, 2025, including Christmas Eve, according to Boston Restaurant Talk. The whole table had to order it. Last year's menu opened with a crudo trio, including a local oyster with pomegranate mignonette. Porto's events page has nothing for 2026 yet, so check its happenings page. Both Boston locations of Davio's are serving a 3-course Feast of the Seven Fishes on Thu, Dec 24, 2026, from 4 to 11 PM, for $85 per person, with the full dinner menu available too, so not everyone at the table has to go all in on seafood, according to the Christmas Eve pages for Back Bay and Seaport. Back Bay's menu starts with prawn, crab meat and calamari, then linguine with clams and mussels and Atlantic cod with butter-poached lobster. The Seaport's has oysters Rockefeller, tuna tartare, crab meat and prawn, linguine with Nantucket Bay scallops and flounder with Maine lobster. Steve DiFillippo bought the original Davio's in the Back Bay in 1985, according to Davio's. Check the Back Bay and Seaport pages for 2026 menus and booking. Prima, the Italian steakhouse in Charlestown, ran a 4-course chef's tasting Feast of the Seven Fishes on Tue, Dec 23, 2025 and Wed, Dec 24, 2025, per Caught in Charlestown. The whole table had to commit to it. The 2025 menu had bay scallop crudo and spaghetti all'assassina topped with tuna tartare. Check its site for 2026 menus and booking. Prezza owner Anthony Caturano grew up with Christmas Eve fish feasts in a tight-knit Revere neighborhood, and in 2025 his North End restaurant served an à la carte Feast of the Seven Fishes menu on Fridays in December, according to Northshore Magazine. Last year's dishes included fried smelts, octopus carpaccio and spaghetti with Nantucket bay scallops. Prezza is named for his mother's hometown in Abruzzo. Check its site for 2026 plans. -
Clowning, babka and 11 more Boston classes
Kenny Raskin played the lead clown in Cirque du Soleil’s Nouvelle Expérience and originated the role of Lefou in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. On December 12 he’s teaching a one-day physical comedy workshop at The Rockwell in Somerville, and you don’t need to be a performer to sign up. That’s the wildest class on the calendar right now, but it’s far from the only good one. Here are 13 classes in Boston worth booking, starting with the soonest. The Boston Public Library‘s knitting and crochet circle meets Mondays from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Central Library in Copley Square, through November 30. The group listens to a podcast about that week’s news while everyone works, then talks about it. Bring your own project. The library has a little yarn on hand, and registration is required. Craft Club meets every Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the HUB inside Boston Public Market. It’s $5 to register and that covers supplies. The crafts are simple, so it works after a long day, and you can come by yourself. Long Live Roxbury runs a holiday pottery workshop on November 13 from 7 to 9 p.m. for $85, and a drink from the brewery is included. You hand-build a mug, bowl, vase or planter with pinch pots and coils. Firing is a separate add-on: pay for it and the studio glazes your piece and ships it back food-safe in six to eight weeks. Boston Building Resources in Roxbury runs Tools 101 on November 14, a four-hour class for women and for anyone who didn’t grow up using tools. You get your hands on drills, impact drivers, saws, sanders, levels and wrenches, no experience needed. It’s $161.90, and closed-toe shoes are required. Foundation Kitchen in Charlestown runs a $69 pasta class worth knowing. You make pappardelle by hand and on a machine, with an herby marinara, on four dates between November 15 and December 20, and it’s beginner friendly. Boston Fiber Company in the South End teaches you to crochet a hat on November 17, 6 to 8 p.m., for $40. Bring worsted-weight yarn in a light color and a 6mm hook. Skip anything fuzzy or textured, which is harder for beginners. Buy your supplies at the shop before class and you get 10% off. You start the hat as a group and leave knowing how to finish it at home. The chocolate truffle class on November 20 or December 4 has you making ganache and rolling cognac, pistachio-rose and espresso truffles, and you leave with a box. The truffle night is 21 and up and drinks are for sale, not BYOB. On December 2, Creative Wrappings takes over Triple Decker Candle Co. to teach you how to tie a real bow and decorate a fresh balsam wreath. The pine cones, greens and ornaments are supplied, and $55 covers one wreath. Sushi is also $69. At Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall on December 5 or 18, a chef shows you how to season the rice, pick sushi-grade fish and roll your own. It’s 21 and up, drinks cost extra, and the room is not wheelchair accessible. Bakey on Tremont Street is teaching its own babka on December 10, from 6 to 9 p.m. You learn how the bakery makes it, then shape and bake one yourself and eat the results. It’s $150, seats are limited, and you can come alone. Raskin’s workshop is called Follow the Laugh, and the idea is simple: if the audience laughs, keep going in that direction. You start with no prepared material, learn to create accidents and then make them intentional, and practice listening to the room. It’s built for people who want to clown and for actors who want more physical comedy in their work. Check-in is at 9:30 a.m. and the day runs 10 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Tickets are $80, $125 or $225, it’s 16 and up, and there are no refunds within seven days. Raskin is also the artistic director of Hearts and Noses, a Boston medical clown troupe, and he has been teaching clowning for about 40 years. The same shop’s Building Romance date night on January 15 teaches you how to take things apart: pulling fixtures, outlets and switch plates, seeing what’s inside a wall and sorting what can be reused. Bring a partner or come alone. It’s $69.07, 21 and up, and you don’t need any earlier session. Milk Street’s Recipe Development Bootcamp is the splurge at $1,250, and it’s capped at 10 people. It runs Thursday evening, February 18, with a cooking assignment and a welcome dinner, then a full Friday in the kitchen at 177 Milk Street. You design a recipe with a partner, cook it, taste everyone else’s and get notes from the people who develop Milk Street’s recipes. Lunch is included on Friday. -
Dance at a stranger’s wedding: 11 free things to do in Boston through New Year’s
Meg and Andrew are getting married this month, and they want you at the reception. Not as a plus-one. As a dancer. Their wedding party is a free Lindy Hop dance, open to the public, with a live swing band. It’s the best free invitation in Boston this month, but it isn’t the only one. Here are the free things to do in Boston from now through New Year’s Eve. On November 14, Meg and Andrew’s reception at the Substation in Roslindale is a free, open-to-the-public Lindy Hop dance. Doors open at 8 p.m., the JD Davis Sextet starts at 8:30 and the dance runs until 11. The floor is polished cement, so wear shoes you can dance in. The room has a strict capacity limit, so RSVP to hold your spot. The cash bar has beer, wine and cocktails, and the couple will happily take donations toward the party. Bring them a card. It’s only polite. Long Live Roxbury on Hampden Street books jazz on Thursday nights from 7 to 9, with players who teach at Berklee and New England Conservatory. Sets move through bossa nova, Latin, reggae and world jazz, and local food pop-ups set up in the room. Admission and parking are both free. If the RSVP list shows sold out, the venue still lets people in free that night. It’s closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. On November 14, Non-Event and the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture take over the mezzanine of Boston City Hall for two free performances. Guitarist Lautaro Mantilla plays a new work, and sound artist Kristina Warren plays her album Tusk, using a concertina to control the electronics. RSVP ahead, and leave time for City Hall security. On December 11, Aeronaut Brewing in Somerville turns the taproom over to vinyl. Common Groove Records sets up a pop-up record shop at 6 p.m., and DJ Sprino starts spinning soul at 7. Aeronaut’s Lagers and Leaves fall festival on November 14 runs from noon to 5 p.m., with folk and fiddle music and a waffle bar from Mimi’s Chūka Diner topped with things like miso caramel. Order the black lager or the smoked maple bock, or get a flight of four fall lagers. Five days later, on November 19 at 7 p.m., Aeronaut pours four of its barrel-aged bottled beers for free. The beers were picked to go with holiday dinners or to give as gifts. You have to RSVP for this one, and only 20 spots are open. Then on November 22, Somerville Chocolate brings three guest chocolate makers, Sotto, Wild Child and Sueños, to Aeronaut for Choco Fête. Expect chocolate beers, a chocolate mousse from Mimi’s Chūka Diner, games with prizes and the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory on the projector. Every Aeronaut event is 21 and up unless kids come with their own parent. The Somerville Ciné-Club’s new SpliceTape series screens old formats in places that aren’t movie theaters. The first one is on November 20 at Aeronaut, on 16mm film, and the title stays a secret until it hits the screen. All they’ll say is that it’s a mystery comedy. Style Exchange sets up a community thrift market in the Fort Point Room at Atlantic Wharf on November 14, from noon to 3 p.m., with clothes, shoes and accessories from local closets. Admission is free. The Boston Women’s Market brings more than 30 New England women makers to Warehouse XI in Somerville’s Union Square on November 22, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. They’re hiding five golden tickets around the room, and each one is worth a $50 gift card. On December 31, from 1 to 5 p.m., Boston Harbor Now holds its Waterfront Ice Sculpture Stroll, a trail of ice sculptures put out by businesses and cultural sites along the waterfront. Stay out and the midnight fireworks over the harbor between East Boston and the North End are free to watch too. Good places to watch are Fan Pier, Christopher Columbus Park and the East Boston waterfront. -
Taylor Swift and TOOL by candlelight: 14 Boston concerts through Christmas
A string quartet playing TOOL in a theater inside the New England Aquarium sounds like a dare. It’s actually one of the Candlelight concerts on the Boston calendar between now and Christmas. Each one is a live hour of pop, rock or film music arranged for strings, played in a room lit by candles. Tickets start at $25.50. Here are 14 of them, and where they play. Every show runs about 60 minutes. Late entry isn’t allowed, so give yourself time. Doors open 45 minutes early at Simons Theatre, 45 minutes to an hour early at Old South Church depending on the show, and an hour early at the cathedral. Kids 8 and up can come, and anyone under 16 needs an adult. These are tribute concerts, so none of them is connected to the artists. Concerts happen in three places. One is Simons Theatre at 1 Central Wharf, at the New England Aquarium. Another is the Sanctuary at Old South Church, 645 Boylston Street on Copley Square. The third is the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, 138 Tremont Street across from Boston Common. Simons Theatre is the Aquarium’s own big-screen theater, with a screen nearly five stories high, and on most days it shows nature films in 3D. It has no parking on site, so take the Blue Line to Aquarium, which stops right by Central Wharf. The two churches are worth the ticket on their own. Old South Church was finished in 1873 in the Venetian Gothic style, and its congregation once counted Benjamin Franklin and the poet Phillis Wheatley as members. The church also owns one of the 11 surviving first-edition copies of the Bay Psalm Book, printed in 1640, though it’s kept at the Boston Public Library, not in the sanctuary. The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul was designed in 1819 by Alexander Parris, the architect of Quincy Market. It was the first Greek Revival building in Boston, and it became a National Historic Landmark in 1970. Look up at the front on your way in: the carving planned for the pediment was never made, and the space stayed empty for nearly 200 years, until a nautilus sculpture went up there in 2013. The Taylor Swift tribute plays Simons Theatre on December 11 at 7 p.m., starting at $57, the priciest ticket on this list. Justin Bieber follows at 9 p.m. the same night, from $39.50. ABBA gets a night at Simons Theatre on November 21 at 7 p.m., from $40.50. The Michael Jackson tribute plays Simons Theatre on November 13 at 7 p.m. and December 5 at 9 p.m., from $44. TOOL on strings plays Simons Theatre on November 13 and 21 at 9 p.m., from $39. Coldplay and Imagine Dragons share a program at Old South Church on November 14 at 7 p.m. and on November 28 and December 11 at 9 p.m., starting at $25.50. Queen and the Beatles at Old South Church ties for the cheapest seats on this list, from $25.50, on November 14 and December 4 at 9 p.m. and November 28 at 7 p.m. Fleetwood Mac plays Simons Theatre on December 19 at 7 p.m., from $39. 90s hip-hop on strings plays Simons Theatre on December 5 at 7 p.m., from $39. It’s the one to pick if your friends would never sit through a classical concert. Favorite Anime Themes plays Old South Church on December 4 at 7 p.m., from $35. Dolly Parton’s songs fill the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul on November 15 and December 13 at 6 p.m., from $46. Bach to Beatles, at the same cathedral on November 15 at 8:30 p.m., puts classical pieces and Beatles songs on one program, from $42. Christmas Classics plays Simons Theatre on December 18 at 7 and 9 p.m., and Christmas Carols on Strings follows on December 19 at 9 p.m. Both start at $42.50. -
8 Boston museums you can visit for free
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum charges $25 at the door, unless your name is Isabella. Then you’re in free for the rest of your life. Most of us weren’t named after a Gilded Age art collector, but almost every big museum in Boston has a way in for free or close to it. You just have to know which night, which card or which library pass to use. Here’s how to get into free museums in Boston, museum by museum. At the Gardner, anyone named Isabella gets in free. Reserve through the box office at least 24 hours ahead and bring ID. Everyone 17 and under is free, every day, and college students pay $15. U.S. military members and their families get in free with the code USMIL. If you have a Massachusetts EBT, WIC or ConnectorCare card, it’s $2 off for up to four adults. Some Boston Public Library branches also carry a Gardner pass that gets up to four people in for $5 total. The museum is closed Tuesdays and stays open until 9 p.m. on Thursdays. The ICA on the Seaport waterfront is free for everyone every Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m., and it’s the easiest free night in the city. You still need a ticket, so reserve ahead. Anyone 18 and under gets in free every day, and so do Boston Public Schools students. The ICA is also free on six holidays: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Labor Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day. EBT, WIC and ConnectorCare cardholders get in free with one guest. Regular admission at the MFA is $30. On the third Thursday of every month, after 5 p.m., it’s pay what you wish, with a $5 minimum. Tickets are sold in person that day. The next two are November 19 and December 17. Active-duty military members and veterans get in free with up to five guests. Massachusetts EBT and ConnectorCare cardholders pay $3 per adult for up to four, and kids 7 to 17 come free with them. Kids 6 and under are always free. The Harvard Art Museums in Harvard Square are free for everyone, every day. They’re open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum suggests booking ahead on weekends. The MIT Museum in Kendall Square charges $20 for adults and $10 for college students and kids 6 to 18. Massachusetts EBT cardholders get in free with up to three family members. Military members get in free with up to five family members, and Cambridge residents can sign up for a free membership. If you have a Bank of America, Merrill or Bank of America Private Bank card, Museums on Us gets you one free general admission on the first full weekend of every month. In Boston, that covers the MFA and the ICA. Special exhibitions aren’t included. A Boston Public Library card is the best museum membership in the city, and it’s free. The BPL museum pass program gets up to four people into the Museum of Science and the New England Aquarium free. The same goes for the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture and the Mapparium, the three-story stained-glass globe you walk through at the Mary Baker Eddy Library. The USS Constitution Museum pass covers up to nine. You need a physical BPL card, since an eCard can’t reserve passes. You can book one pass a day, and the same pass once every 30 days. The New England Aquarium sells up to four $5 tickets to Massachusetts EBT and WIC cardholders, on any day it’s open. New England residents get $5 off on weekdays. The Boston Children’s Museum charges $1 for everyone on Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m., with an online reservation. Regular admission is $24. If you have a kid in a Boston school, Boston Family Days gets the whole family into the MFA free on the first and second Sundays of each month. Students get into the Aquarium free with two guests on the same Sundays through December. Register through the City first.