As someone who eagerly puts on Sufjan Stevens’s doleful Christmas covers, come December 1 (or earlier) every year, a kitschy musical evening appreciating the holiday catalog is my kind of event. Durham musician Chessa Rich’s “sometimes-annual” Christmas band lineup includes Isa Burke, Casey Toll, and Joe Westerlund; meanwhile, the stacked list of special guests includes Skylar Gudasz, Joseph Decosimo, Stuart McLamb, Sijal Nasralla, Amelia Riggs, Rachel Kiel, Anne-Claire, Charles Cleaver, and Crowbeat Bob. Word on the street is, in addition to the classics (and the lesser-known classics), the band will perform three original Christmas songs by local bands Hiss Golden Messenger, Trippers & Askers, and The Love Language. Hark this herald and get thyself to the Pinhook. —Sarah Edwards
‘Tis the season for holiday markets and browsing irresistible handmade ornaments. The Up Down Market expands on Durham’s bustling market scene (last week saw this month’s Patchwork Market at the Armory) with artist, food, and small business vendors that include Loco Pops, Folded Poetry, Hyperlocal Durham, Rose’s Noodles and Sweets, and Noir Candle Collection. If you’re looking to make shopping a week-long affair, consider bundling up and hitting the December 11 Durham Holiday Night Market, which takes place under the Lucky Strike tower on the American Tobacco Campus. Bundle up, grab a drink from Fullsteam Brewery, and enjoy live music as you browse goods from more than thirty local vendors. —SE
Ring in the holidays with a performance from the Durham Symphony, one of the Triangle’s first community orchestras. Listen to the long-standing family event that features music to celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanukkah, New Year’s, and Mardi Gras. Award-winning soprano soloist Jemeesa Yarborough—known for her warm, powerful voice—will join the symphony’s festive performance under the baton of Maestro William Henry Curry. The event will also have its traditional sing-along. Before the show, snag photos with Santa at 6 p.m. At intermission, a dessert buffet and hot cocoa bar (with coffee and tea, too) will be available. Tickets are available online starting at $38. –Kennedy Thomason
Get in the holiday spirit (and get your feet tapping) with the North Carolina Jazz Ensemble’s annual holiday concert. Directed by Stanley Baird, the performance will feature vocalist Denise Barnes and special guest vocalist Lenard Rutledge. Take in the traditional big-band sounds of saxophones, trombones, trumpets, and a rhythm section at the “virtually acoustically flawless” performance hall, per the event description. Celebrate the season with the band of talented artists and educators, who have played music in the region since 1980. General admission tickets are $25 but free for children 12 years old and younger. —KT
In the kind of city that boasts Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies and its esteemed, long-running Full Frame Film Festival, the existence of an intimate, thoughtfully curated quarterly doc meetup seems so natural as to have been around forever. But it was only last year that Durham friends and filmmakers Saleem Reshamwala and D.L. Anderson (the latter a former staff photographer for this very publication) created Look Different, a Southern Documentary Fund-sponsored workshop/screening series aimed at addressing a community gap that, somewhat surprisingly, hadn’t already been filled.
The duo’s second event of this season, and sixth installment overall, is co-hosted by Durham filmmakers Maura James McNamara and Daniel Fox—professionally known as Momo + Fox. The duo’s work spans a full-length feature on life after incarceration in Georgia, a short film about Grammy-winning gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama, and a music video featuring a guitar-playing, boa-constrictor-draped guy. It’s a range of material that fittingly mirrors the varied assortment of people you’ll find at a Look Different meetup. At this event, McNamara and Fox plan to screen and discuss several clips that have inspired their work before showing an in-progress teaser of an upcoming short about the Coney Island boardwalk. I’d say the odds that more snakes are involved, and that you’ll enjoy yourself, are both extremely high. –Ryan Cocca
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