Sip Champagne with Sugar Plum Fairies

Explore the set of The Nutcracker while sipping champagne and devouring decadent chocolates at Dance Alive National Ballet’s Chocolate and Champagne Gala this holiday season.

“Last year was the first year we did it onstage, and people seemed to really enjoy that,” says DANB Director Judy Skinner.

Well, it’s back by popular demand along with a silent auction of holiday gifts, music by Gosia and Ali, Blue Water Bay catering and a scavenger hunt that takes you throughout the Phillips Center.
Each participant in the scavenger hunt will receive a passport, and once their passport is all stamped, it will be entered into a grand prize drawing, Judy says.

The gala coincides with The Nutcracker Festival, which features performances of the popular ballet, as well as the family-friendly Sugar Plum Tea. The tea follows each performance and provides the opportunity to meet the Sugar Plum Fairy and her court and have holiday photos taken by Johnston Photography.

“We’ve been doing it for a number of years now, and it’s really, really successful,” Judy says.

The Chocolate and Champagne Gala will be held this Saturday, Dec. 19, at 8pm at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $75 per person or $600 for a table. For more information, visit dancealive.org.

—Kate Ashby

Vintage Christmas Special at the Hipp

What better way to spend the holiday season than by watching a free Christmas movie marathon at the Hippodrome Theatre? On Saturday, Dec, 19th, at 12pm, the Hippodrome is having a repeat showing of its Christmas Triple Feature. An entire afternoon devoted to Christmas nostalgia, the triple feature will showcase the original Babes in Toyland, the camp classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and the heart-warming It Happened on Fifth Avenue. While the screening is free, the Hippodrome is asking for a small donation of five to ten dollars.

The Hippodrome hosted one screening of the Christmas Triple Feature last Saturday. Shown in the main cinema, the triple feature presented an opportunity for the Hippodrome to show off some impressive new equipment. “All these films are digital that are being shown on our brand new digital projector,” says cinema manager Robert Matrone. “It’s very, very beautiful. It’s worth it so you can see these films in essentially the highest quality you can find.”

The Christmas Triple Feature offers something for every taste. Kicking off the movie marathon at noon is the original 1934 version of Babes in Toyland, starring the famous comedy team Laurel and Hardy. “A lot of people know this film from the later version, which stars Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves,” Robert says.

Known as one of the worst films ever made, the 1964 science fiction film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians blasts its way on screen at 1:30pm. In the film, the Martian children become so enthralled by the Santa-themed television that the Martian king launches an expedition to Earth to kidnap Santa Claus and bring him back to the Red Planet. “Sometimes we show movies because they’re really good,” Robert says. “In this case, we’re showing it because it’s really, really bad. But it’s as entertaining as any good film.”

Finally, at 3:30pm, the Academy Award winning comedy It Happened on Fifth Avenue tells the story of a New York City homeless man who squats in the empty mansion of a vacationing millionaire during the winter. “This is a feel-good film, more in the classical tradition of It’s a Wonderful Life,” Robert says.

For those looking for a little nostalgia, classic news reels and old-fashioned holiday cartoons from the forties and fifties will be shown in between the features.

—Allison Griner

Gainesville Date: All that Glitters

December is a time of reunion with family, but often a time of parting for couples. Before you bid farewell, spend some time around a glowing tree of your own—or a whole park full of them—at the Christmas Festival of Lights at the Stephen Foster Folk State Park in White Springs. The festival kicks off Dec. 12 with the Annual Christmas Parade, live music and refreshments. Even if you miss the opening day, other month-long activities like craft demonstrations and cuddle-worthy marshmallow roasts will make the goodbyes sweeter and the post-season’s greetings all the merrier.

The park lights up 5-9pm daily, Dec. 12 to Dec. 31. If you plan to attend Dec. 12, be sure to bring canned goods, new toys or a donation.

You can find the park 52 miles north of Gainesville, off of I-75 North at exit 439. Then, travel east on S.R. 136 for three miles and make a left onto U.S. 41. The park entrance will be on the left. Call 386-397-4331 or visit the Web site for more.

—Mead Bowen

The Weekend Roundup: Stuff to Do

Whether you are staying in town or going to Atlanta for the SEC game, there will be nothing dull about this pre-finals weekend. Just to make sure you don't miss out on your much-deserved kicks, we've compiled of a list of the thunderstorm of entertainment taking over Gainesville this weekend.

First thing is first: have you checked out our Kid Cudi and Common show. Popular among the hip-hop and indie communities you can expect a wild, widely ranged crowd and lots of superstar hype. Did we mention it's free?

We hear Rue Bar is proceeding the show with a Winter Wonderland party complete with a sno-cone machine. Yum. Before Rue Bar and after Common, make your way over to Common Grounds to continue on your live music high. With the Shoddy Beatles and Morningbell rocking CGs its sure to be a good old kickback-to-the-60s time.

Make your rounds around the Gator Stompin' venues for some free/super cheap drinks, and a chance to help Toys for Tots. If you don't have your Gator Stompin' pass, make like Santa and lug around a bag of gifts tonight, many of the venues will offer free cover with the donation of a free unwrapped gift.

Ok, now drink lots of water, take a power nap and prepare for Saturday. Wake up early for the Craft Festival 2009 starting at 10am at the O'Connell Center. With over 300 vendors, it's a great chance to get your holiday shopping out of the way.

The game's at 4pm, so you know your friends are going to start gearing up early. Many of the bars around town will be offering drink specials for the game. We recommend Stubbies and Steins for its dense menu of specialty beers.

If you can pull yourself together after an afternoon of game-cheering and beer drinking, check out the Thomas Center for the annual tree lighting ceremony at 7pm. Before and after the tree lighting, Duckpond will be offering up horse-and-wagon tours of the area's luminaries, a super sweet way to precede a romantic date.

Now it's back to Common Grounds for Umoja Orchestra's first show since April, the latin-infused band of unity is reuniting for a widely awaited and much-appreciated show.

Sunday's the day for rest, so go ahead and sleep in. Try to be up by 3pm for the Bela Fleck and the Flecktones show though. The award-winning "blu-pop" band will bring its Holiday Tour special to the Phillips Center.

The day of cultural reckoning continues with the Acrosstown Repertory Theatre's hosting of "An Evening with William Shakespeare: Or I'm in the Mood for Love," a performance of some of Shakespeare's greatest love scenes at 8pm.

To take the energy back up again, the 90s Omaha, Neb., indie-rock band Cursive is making a stop in Gainesville as part of its tour. With its progressive, instrumental arrangements Common Grounds is in for great show Sunday.

Feel like a Sunday showing? Go the the Reitz Cinema for a free screening of "500 Days of Summer," at 8 and 10:30pm. This quirky romance comedy is much better than Zoey Dechanel's earlier attempt this year at a quirky romance comedy with Jim Carrey in "Yes Man." At least in "500 Days of Summer," her character is not asked to ignore the fact she's having a carefree tryst with a man old enough to be her grandfather.

-Stephanie Granada

Holiday Play season opens at the Hipp

The thespian Christmas season began this weekend with this year’s premieres of A Christmas Carol and A Tuna Christmas at the Hippodrome State Theatre. The former is a classic and a 31-year-old Gainesville tradition, while the latter is a more modern take on the holidays..

On opening day A Christmas Carol was presented first. In slightly more than an hour, Ebenezer Scrooge (longtime Gainesville actor Rusty Salling) was visited by the ghost of his former business partner and the three Christmas spirits who help transform his dark, miserly life into a happy relationship with his community. As familiar as the story is, I couldn't help being moved as I watched Scrooge's transformation.

After the play, much of the cast joined the audience in the lobby for cupcakes and treats provided by Cakes by Jenny Wagner & Co. Some people gathered outside on the steps of the Hippodrome to chat. As night fell, the stately theatre took on a new glow, with holiday lighting illuminating the building’s columns before the evening performance and some nice barbeque from Jim’s Bar-B-Que afterwards.
A Tuna Christmas, which followed later in the evening, is a much darker (and more cynical) comedic view of the holidays. Set in Tuna, Texas, the many characters are played by two actors; as the characters grapple with the disappointments in their lives they attempt to celebrate the Holiday season. Rather than finding redemption, two of the characters find something missing in their lives at the end by “overcoming” their faith.

Both productions present life lessons, although the latter play requires more mature reflection to find the truth. I could see how the characters in both plays were guided in the end to overcome their "shackles"--literal or otherwise.

--Story and photos by John Davisson