By some metrics, the average Thanksgiving dinner party — including seasonal accoutrements and boozy beverages — ran about $300. Projections for holiday spending on gifts and decorations exist upwards of $1000. Listen, the holidays may be about family and signature cocktails and being grateful for what you’ve got, but the numbers don’t lie. And the numbers say November and December are asking you to pay what you owe. And yet! You need some time to entertain yourself. It’s integral to your emotional and mental well-being. So that’s why we’ve made this — a list of things to do in and around Boston that will ideally bring you some joy without further cratering your bank account.
The Flaneteria Pop-Up
A flan-centric pop-up run by Vanessa Yip returns to Buenas, the South American provisions and empanadas joint that makes its home in Bow Market. Yip’s flan is good, and in this case “good” reads as “completely sold out on pre-order, so you’re going to have to try your luck at a walk-up slice.” The primary method of flan acquisition remains a Google Form available through her shop’s Instagram profile, but until she reveals the details of the January drop you’ll have to saunter up to Bow, where Yip will sling the goods on Wednesdays in December beginning at 5pm.
Wednesdays in December beginning at 5pm. Located in Buenas at Bow Street Market.
Boston Rescue Mission Sunday Community Meal
The holidays are allegedly about giving, but in many cases “giving” translates into “the exchange of physical objects” and that simply needn’t be the case. Every Sunday, Boston Rescue Mission seeks a group of five volunteers to step up and create a meal for 175 people. Volunteers are in charge of every aspect, from menu planning to serving to clean up, over the course of about five hours. Signups get snapped up quick, and groups larger than five cannot be accommodated. Throw your name down on the Google Form, and put your skills to use at their Downtown kitchen.
Sowa First Friday Art Walk + Winter Festival
Holiday artsiness is well-abounded in the SoWa Art + Design district. This December, the monthly Art Walk — a bow-wrapped reason to meander among the free, open galleries and shops that inspire the South End district’s name — coincides with the return of the SoWa Winter Festival. For a little over a week, wander the festival locations to pick out a Christmas tree, brood beside a fire pit, drink wine, eat French stuff, drink beer, eat food truck stuff, philosophize art, wax nostalgic at the sight of holiday lights, etc. Five bucks. Detailed pricing and hours of operation are available on their corner of the internet.
December 3 First Friday Art Walks have free admission. The Winter Festival, running from December 3-12, offers free admission Monday-Thursday, and $5 advance/$10 door admission Friday-Sunday. Tickets only required for the Power Station.
Sure, Donal Fox is a jazz pianist. But he’s no less familiar with the classical repertoire, to the point that one must ask what it means to be a jazz pianist who has a tryst on the classical corner of the music matrix, or to be a classical pianist who has fallen into the embrace of America’s Music. You could find out for yourself though. On Friday Dec. 3, Jazz Boston and GBH are collaborating to bring him into GBH’s Fraser Performance Studio where he’ll canvas ears with sounds from such composers as Chopin and Coltrane and Scarlatti and Silver. The performance will also be broadcast for online streaming. Hosted by GBH’s Eric Jackson and CRB’s Cathy Fuller.
December 3. In person attendance at GBH Fraser Performance Studio, $20. Online registration is free.
Let’s get sushi and listen to jazz.
No, really. For three consecutive Fridays, pianist (and Berklee associate professor) Yoko Miwa is pulling up with her trio at Mad Monkfish. If any selects from her most recent album are on the musical menu, it’s safe to say you’ll be treated to her resonant and carrilonic — yet never overpowering — brand of chord-threading. Pairs well with a poke bowl or fairy tale sushi. Oh, and the music is free when you buy a meal. Got it?
Sets at 7pm and 8:45pm; December 3, 10, and 17 at Mad Monkfish.
Wu-Tang Clan’s Inspectah Deck and Boston duo 7L and Esoteric have been together as Czarface since 2013, and have been aggressively prolific during that time (nine live albums with a tenth on the way; two EPs). With imagery bathed in the aesthetic of the silver age of comic books, the trio steps to Paradise Rock Club to perform a set for which I am personally devastated I will not be present.
Paradise Rock Club on December 16, 8pm. $25.
The Hong Kong director has over three dozen feature films to his name, not to mention a string of shorts. That’s a lot of material to work with, and was no doubt a challenge to the film specialists at the Brattle Theatre who had to pick out a select number of his works for The World of Wong Kar Wai, a series featuring seven of his acclaimed movies over a five day period: The Hand, In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express, As Tears Go By, Fallen Angels, Days of Being Wild, and Happy Together.
December 25-29 at the Brattle Theatre. $15.50/ticket.
