Holiday Events 2022: A Month's Worth (And More) Of Ways To Celebrate And Shop
Here's a roundup of the festive traditions, performances and markets that make your holiday season bright.
Holiday in the Depot, Washington, CT
It’s getting to be time for list checking and entertaining guests, so we’ve compiled a region-wide schedule of events to make things easier this holiday season. If you need to do some gift shopping, or just like browsing holiday markets, this guide's for you. The Rural Intelligence region is full of places and performances imbued with the holiday spirit.
Williamstown Holiday Walk
Town Traditions And Holiday Walks
Through Jan. 1 NightWood At The Mount, Lenox With two years under its belt, the outdoor sound and light experience is back at Edith Wharton’s The Mount in Lenox. An ethereal winter landscape inspired by The Mount’s unique architecture and history, NightWood combines music, lighting, and theatrical elements to create unique scenes (including three new installations this year) that evoke feelings of wonder, mystery, and magic.
Noc. 25 - Dec. 25 The Wonderland of Lights, Rhinebeck The family-friendly drive-through experience at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck features dozens of dazzling displays, from tunnels to towering structures and whimsical designs.
Nov. 25 - Dec. 31 A Gilded Age Christmas at Staatsburgh Staatsburgh State Historic Site will present A Gilded Age Christmas, featuring lavish decorations in a Gilded Age mansion. The decorations create a stunning and festive touring experience in the Beaux-Arts country home. It's one of the great estates of the Hudson Valley — the country home of Ruth Livingston Mills, a prominent figure in New York Society, and her husband, financier and philanthropist Ogden Mill.
Dec. 1-31 Hancock Holiday Nights For 20 nights in December, Hancock Shaker Village presents a multi-sensory outdoor experience. Enjoy five stunning art light projections while strolling through the 19th-century village transformed with festive decorations. Say goodnight to donkeys, sheep, and other animals, then gather for holiday cocktails by the fire.
Dec. 2 Celebration of Lights Holiday Village Festival, Downtown Poughkeepsie While the traditional parade will not be happening this year, the pageantry event (named the “Best Event” of the holiday season by Dutchess County Tourism) features a "Renewable Holiday Village" that quickly evolves into a holiday event that highlights recyclables and renewables in a festival mood of community celebration. All this with a brass band, dancers, carolers, a tree lighting, Santa Claus, and a fireworks finale...plus food trucks on the premises.
Dec. 2-4 Stockbridge Main Street At Christmas Norman Rockwell's painting of the village comes alive as the town decorates itself with holiday wreaths and festival lights. Live performances, historic property tours, shops and restaurants, and Santa show off the New England town. Capping off the weekend on Sunday, the town reenacts the spirit of Norman Rockwell’s famous holiday scene "Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas", complete with vintage automobiles parked in the spots occupied in the painting.
Dec. 2-4 Williamstown Holiday Walk Three days and evenings of activities kick off with a jazz band concert, the Lao Tizer Quartet at The Clark. Other events include a "Run with the Reindeer" 5K fun run, Breakfast with Santa, craftmaking for kids, recycled t-shirt wreath making, gingerbread house exhibition, live music, and more.
Winter Walk, Hudson
Dec. 3 Hudson Hall’s Winter Walk, Hudson Returning for its 26th year, it's the town’s largest, liveliest and most colorful event. Warren Street will be closed off so spectators can enjoy storefront displays, roaming carolers and street performers, art installations, a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus, a magical fireworks display from the Hudson River, and much more.
Dec. 3 Tivoli Village Winterfest A coming together of local organizations, business owners, restaurateurs, arts groups and more, Winterfest is a family-friendly, community-driven event featuring such holiday favorites as Santa Claus touring the village on a firetruck, a light-up of one of Tivoli’s large firetrucks (in lieu of a tree), horse-drawn wagon through the village, kids arts and crafts and cookie decorating, and open houses of its businesses, shops, restaurants and artisan studios.
Dec. 3 Sinterklaas Festival Day, Rhinebeck An Old Dutch tradition in the Hudson Valley, Sinterklaas is a day-long celebration for all ages, taking place throughout the Village of Rhinebeck, with children’s workshops, dance, theater and music, and The Children’s Starlight Parade.
Dec. 3-4 Merry & Bright, Salisbury Hometown Holidays Enjoy a weekend full of holiday activities in downtown Salisbury. Events include a Christmas market, music performances, wreath making workshop, holiday cocktails at The White Hart, the Festival of Trees Gala, Christmas parade, tree lighting on the Green, and more.
Dec. 9 Holiday In The Depot Washington Depot's holiday tradiiton will begin with the lighting of the town tree followed by Santa arriving by horse and wagon. Enjoy carolers around town, hay rides around the Depot, and holiday shopping.
Dec. 10-11 Candlelight Night, Kinderhook Three nights of holiday fun, food, shopping and festivities for all ages in and around the Village Square. There will be a hay wagon and ponies, makers in the square, pop-up food vendors, free wine tasting, music performances (including strolling carolers, celtic harp and a jazz trio), and much more.
Dec. 10 Holiday Shop, Sip & Stroll, Great Barrington Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce sponsors "store-to-store holiday hospitality" with activities for kids, a holiday market, holiday bonfire and music, fireworks, and a performance from Vocalis Youth Choir at Saint James Place.
Dec. 21 Herman Melville's Arrowhead Virtual Holiday Tour You don't need to leave home to enjoy a look at how Herman Melville may have celebrated Christmas. This special tour recreates some of this splendor with a special virtual evening tour of Arrowhead decorated as it might have been during the Melville family’s residence. The evening includes season readings, 19th-century holiday recipes and a look at objects from the Berkshire County Historical Society collection that are not often on view.
Performances
Nov. 30-Dec. 1 Gerald Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol at Ventfort Hall, Lenox The great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens, British actor Gerald Charles Dickens, will present a one-man theatrical performance of his ancestor’s classic work. Working his own adaptation of the Christmas tale, Gerald plays 26 characters using vocal and physical talents to bring each scene to life. An elegant Victorian tea will follow.
Dec. 3 The Nutcracker, A Symphonic Performance, Fisher Center, Annandale-on-Hudson Bard's Conservatory Orchestra performs a symphonic concert of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker," conducted by Leon Botstein. Also featured on this program is the Carpathian Rhapsody. Composed by Ukranian composer and teacher Myroslav Skoryk, the piece will be performed by violinist and Bard Conservatory faculty member, Luosha Fang ’11.
Dec. 3 "Rest Oh Weary Traveler," With Nick Petrone, Washington, CT Join Merryall Center for a joyous evening, singalong with holiday standards, gospel and soul, pop and folk, and dance to Christmas Disco, at the Frist Congregational Church in Washington, CT.
Dec. 4 Christmas At Trinity , Lenox The Cantilena Chamber Choir will present Christmas at Trinity at Trinity Episcopal Church in Lenox. The concert will include many beloved carols by William Byrd, Edvard Grieg and Vaughan Williams, plus new settings by others. Also featured, Natalia Shevchuk, piano.
"A Christmas Carol" at Fisher Center
Dec. 9 Phil Kline’s Unsilent Nigh, North Adams This event relies on participants to join together and bring the four tracks of Phil Kline’s composition to life, filling the night with music and wonderment. Bring a boombox, phone, Bluetooth speaker or other amplied sound device to take walk with the group in the co-creation of this holiday landscape. Check the website for time, plus start and end locations.
Dec. 10-11 The Kent Singers: Welcome, Yule! A Holiday Retrospective The Kent Singers present Wlecome, Yule! A Holiday Retrospective with a festival concert featuring favorite selections from its repertoire over the years. The concerts will feature piano, organ and brass accompaniment and will be conducted by Music Dirctor James Knox Sutterfield, at St. Andrew's Church in Kent.
Dec. 16-18 Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Lenox Shakespeare & Company presents a costumed, staged reading of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, featuring the many familiar characters of Jane Austen’s beloved characters.
Dec. 16-18 Fisher Center: "A Christmas Carol" World Premiere This fresh version of the Charles Dickens seasonal tale of hope and redemption comes from the SITI Company, one of this country’s most lauded theater ensembles. Steeped in the intimacy and alchemy of Dickens’s magical words, this wondrous adaptation conjures the world of Scrooge and his adventure with the ghosts of the past, present, and future from a bare stage and the magic of shared imagination.
Dec. 17 Hudson Valley Philharmonic: Handel’s Messiah Poughkeepsie. For the 7th year, the HVP presents a celebration of Handel’s master work, featuring soloists and Cappella Festiva Chamber Choir at Bardavon. You'll be invited to sing along for the Hallelujah chorus. Guest conductor is Christine Howlett.
Markets And Other Shopping Opps
Holiday Market at Institute for American Indian Studies
Nov. 26-27 Basilica Farm & Flea Holiday Market, Hudson Basilica Hudson hosts the 10th Basilica Farm & Flea Holiday Market, its annual Thanksgiving weekend marketplace of local, handmade and vintage goods. Connect with designers and makers in person at the event billed as the antidote to big box Black Friday.
Nov. 25-27 Hudson Valley Art Market, Poughkeepsie The eighth year of the Hudson Valley Art Market at Locust Grove Estate in Poughkeepsie is the place to find the best in fine art, handmade and small batch products from the region
Nov. 26-Dec. 5 Holiday Show at the Merwinsville Hotel, Gaylordsville, CT Step back into the charm of the past at the former train stop’s annual holiday show.The transformation is complete, turning a historic building into a holiday wonderland featuring a miniature Dickens Village with a model train traveling through and a miniature moving World’s Fair, as well as collections of Santas and nutcrackers. Baked goods will be available. The festivities begin Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 26 to 28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and continue the following weekend, Dec. 3 to 5.
Nov. 26-27, Dec. 3-4, Dec. 10-11 Holiday Market at Institute for American Indian Studies, Washington, CT One-of-a-kind gifts from local and Native American vendors selling crafts and jewelry: gourds, pottery, rattles, artworks, flutes and more. Speak with artists while learning about contemporary Native American art and cultures.
Dec. 3-4 Berkshire Botanical Garden Holiday Marketplace, Stockbridge The annual tradition features the legendary Gallery of Wreaths, a collection of 100 unique, one-of-a-kind designer wreaths as well as an assortment of holiday-blooming amaryllis and paperwhites in decorative and clay containers, succulent arrangements, garlands, hanging terrariums and gift items by regional artisan vendors. Plus live music and s’mores around a campfire.
Dec. 10 Holiday Shindy, Pittsfield Known as one of the most spectacular handmade craft fairs in the region, the Holiday Shindy has boasted all sorts of artisans in the past decade, including woodworkers, toymakers, printers, jewelers, ceramicists, apothecaries, clothing designers, upcyclers, farmers and more. Held at the Common Room at Zion Church in Pittsfield..
