83 things to do in Metro Vancouver on Saturday, December 3

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      Looking for something to do on Saturday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 83 events happening in or around Vancouver on Saturday, December 3.

       

      CONCERTS

      Brooklyn ska band the Slackers plays the Rickshaw Theatre, with guests the Sentiments, the Valuables, and Space Chimp.

      Jazz pianist Spike Wilner leads his trio, including bassist Tyler Mitchell and drummer Anthony Pincotti, at Frankie's.

      Edmonton indie-rock band the Velveteins plays the Astoria Pub, with Wishkicker, the Bridal Party, and Illacuda.

      Regina-based four-piece acoustic ensemble the Dead South plays the Biltmore, with guests Rodney DeCroo & the Wise Blood and Stetson Road.

       

      BENEFITS

      The ongoing Lights of Hope Christmas lights display at St. Paul's Hospital raises funds for the St. Paul's Foundation.

      Vote on your favourite gingerbread creation and get your photo with Santa at Grouse Mountain, with proceeds to SOS Children’s Village B.C.'s programs and homes for local foster children and homeless youth.

      Run in your favourite ugly Christmas sweater in Port Moody and help raise money for the Children's Wish Foundation of Canada.

       

      ETCETERA

      Morton Park and Jim Deva Plaza come alive with a series of light art installations, performances, and community-building initiatives for Lumiere.

      The Festival of Lights at VanDusen Botanical Garden features over one-million twinkling lights, a carousel, a dancing-lights show, the Make-A-Wish candle grotto, and photos with Santa.

      Heritage Christmas at Burnaby Village Museum features light displays, vintage shop-window displays, a visit with Father Christmas, live entertainment, fresh heritage baking, kids' crafts, a sing along, and a scavenger hunt.

      The Vancouver Christmas Market continues at Jack Poole Plaza, featuring traditional German cuisine, mulled wine, gingerbread, German beer, a Christmas pyramid, a large heated tent overlooking the North Shore, entertainment, a carousel, and vendors selling gifts and treasures.

      Check out the Vancouver Christmas Tree at Robson Square.

      The Western Front’s annual Toque fundraiser and craft fair showcases over 25 local artists and designers specializing in textiles, ceramics, jewellery, books, bags, and candles.

      Two-day Christmas market at the WISE Hall features crafts by local artisans, as well as food trucks.

      Shop for holiday gifts while enjoying smoked salmon and bannock at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre's two-day Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Fair.

      Browse curated design and handcrafted goods made by over 80 local makers and artisans at the Pipe Shop's two-day Etsy Vancouver Winter Market.

      The two-day Deck the Hall Fair at Heritage Hall features jewellery, pottery, body care, woodcraft, knitwear, original artwork, unique up-cycled items, preserves, and candy.

      The Kitsilano Winter Market at Kits Neighbourhood House features live music, food and craft vendors, free workshops on green initiatives, a clothing pop-up shop, and photos with Santa.

      Shop for jewellery, gifts, poinsettias, and baking at a Christmas Fair at St. Anselm's Anglican Church.

      Christmas Bazaar at the Russian Community Centre features authentic Russian food and entertainment.

      Local artists and artisans sell their crafts at Collingwood Neighbourhood House.

       

      FORUMS

      Talk at Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre by David R. Mitsui, grandson of First World War veteran Sergeant Masumi Mitsui, on Japanese Canadians' fight to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in WWI.

      Author, filmmaker, and professor David Brady discusses how to overcome adversity, find peace of mind, and discover your purpose in life at Unity of Vancouver.

      Learn how to narrow down social-media options and select the channels and content that are right for your brand at Brainstation Vancouver.

      A team of health experts provides the latest information on how to prevent falls, improve diet and sleep, and manage medications at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture.

       

      KIDS' STUFF

      Celebrate the season at Wesbrook Village with a balloon winter wonderland, a holiday craft fair, photos with santa, a balloon contest draw,  festive music, face painting, and a kids' craft and colouring station.

      Children of all ages are invited to visit the Sea-To-Sky Gondola's Summit Lodge for a family-style pancake breakfast followed by an opportunity to take photos with Santa.

      Help Santa search for his missing elves during an exhilarating simulated flight-ride experience across Canada and on to the North Pole at Flyover Canada.

       

      SPORTS

      The Vancouver Canucks take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in National Hockey League action at Rogers Arena.

      Night of wrestling at the WISE Hall features Japanese pro-wrestling stars and top tag-team Roppongi Vice.

       

      COMEDY

      Brooklyn-based comedian Hari Kondabolu performs at the Rio Theatre, touring in support of his recent album Mainstream American Comic.

      American actor, standup comedian, and TV host Greg Proops performs the third of three nights at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club.

      Los Angeles-based standup comedian Beth Stelling performs the third of three nights at the Comedy Mix.

      Kahlil Ashanti recounts his experience as a member of the military entertainment troupe called Tops In Blue at Havana Theatre.

       

      ARTS ETCETERA

      An evening of music, art, and dance at UBC's C.K. Choi Building showcases Sri Lanka's diversity and culture.

       

      DANCE

      Goh Ballet presents a preview performance of the beloved holiday tradition The Nutcracker at Oakridge Centre.

      Playful Parameters student series dance show at SFU Woodwards' Studio D uses contemporary dance as a way into the lackadaisical luminosity that is a child's mind.

      Coastal City Ballet opens is sixth season with a mixed-repertoire program at Langley's Chief Sepass Theatre.

       

      GALLERIES

      Fear, Hope, and Longing III, an exhibition of David A. Haughton's paintings of Vancouver Island's western coast, is showing at Visual Space Gallery.

      Walker Evans: Depth of Field at the Vancouver Art Gallery features more than 200 black and white and colour prints from the 1920s through to the 1970s.

      Stare exhibition at Vancouver Art Gallery features photographic works that evoke a fixed and concentrated gaze on the part of artist and viewer.

      Collage works by Jessie McNeil at Elissa Cristall Gallery addresses themes of place, collective and personal memory, language, landscape, and value.

      Juxtapoz x Superflat exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery offers a unique insight into contemporary art and its place in cultural life.

       

      LITERARY

      Local author C.L. Lynch launches her debut novel Chemistry--which pokes fun at paranormal romance while celebrating strong female role models--at Maple Ridge's Bean Around Books.

      Readings at Vancouver Public Library by aboriginal authors Michael Calvert, Mary-Ann Chevrier, Maryann Dick, Kevin Henry, Spencer Sheehan-Kalina, Kris Skinner, Jerry Smaaslet, and Joe Starr.

      Former Vancouver disc jockey Red Robinson signs the new book Red Robinson: The Last Deejay at Book Warehouse on Broadway.

      Find thousands of gently used children's and adult books, DVDs, and CDs at the Vancouver Public Library's Christmas Used Book Sale.

       

      MUSEUMS

      Layers of Influence: Unfolding Cloth Across Cultures at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC features more than 130 diverse cultural garments, from Japanese kimonos, to colourful Indian saris, to the elaborate feather cloaks of the Maori people of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

      The Museum of Anthropology at UBC hosts an exhibition that features the carvings of Papua New Guinea's Iatmul people.

      At the Museum of Vancouver, you can explore the cultural power and significance of collecting through wall-to-wall displays of unconventional objects.

       

      MUSIC

      Mikhail Agrest conducts the Vancouver Symphony and violinist Simone Porter in a performance at the Orpheum of Dvorak's Othello Overture, Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, and Tchaikovsky's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in G Major.

      Pandora's Vox and Espiritu Vocal Ensembles, with guests Pro Arte, present a holiday concert at West Vancouver's Kay Meek Centre.

      The UBC Symphony Orchestra performs Arvo Pärt's Sequentia, Glière's Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra, and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition at the Chan Shun Concert Hall.

      The City Soul Choir and music director Brian Tate present an evening of songs designed to move and inspire at Burnaby's Michael J. Fox Theatre.

      The Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra presents a concert of music by Estacio, Zhang, Prokofiev, and Dvorak at Shaughnessy Heights United Church.

      The Notomotion mechanized percussion apparatus and Modulatron robotic marimba-player perform at Djavad Mowafaghian World Arts Centre.

      Dunbar Heights Pneuma Voices and Chamber Orchestra presents Handel's Messiah, with soloists Shane Hanson, Clinton Stoffberg, and Kamy Pazandeh, at Dunbar Heights United Church.

      The Rainbow Concert Band and Ms. Whoopsie Daisy present a bell-themed Christmas concert at VCC Broadway featuring holiday favourites such as "Silver Bells" and "Jingle Bells".

       

      THEATRE

      The Arts Club Theatre Company presents The Day Before Christmas--about a perfectionist who is desperately juggling family and work as she attempts to create the perfect Christmas--at the Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre.

      Performance at the York Theatre of East Van Panto: Little Red Riding Hood, Theatre Replacement's pantomime that sees Little Red Riding Hood battling bike thieves, distracted drivers, and the Big Bad Wolf.

      The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Avenue Q--the musical story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college graduate who arrives in New York City looking for love, a job, and his purpose in life--at Granville Island Stage.

      Realwheels Theatre presents a performance at the Cultch of Creeps, David E. Freeman's dark comedy about four disabled men who rebel against the way they've been treated and barricade themselves in a washroom.

      Pacific Theatre presents a performance of Holy Mo! A Christmas Show!, director Kerry van der Griend's irreverent re-imagining of the Nativity story.

      The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Mary Poppins--a musical based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film--at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage.

      Performance at Studio 58 of Troilus and Cressida, in which director Kevin Bennett puts a modern spin on Shakespeare's drama that sees lovers yearn to be true and warriors strive to be brave.

      Performance at Presentation House of Baking Time, a play for kids 3-and-up about a pair of bakers who encounter mischievous doughy characters and venture through forests of breadstick trees and magical floury storms.

      Seven Tyrants Theatre presents the Western Canadian premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks's darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity, Tapdog/Underdog, at Studio 1398.

      In Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, four actors bring to life the characters of Charles Dickens's classic Christmas tale at Jericho Arts Centre. Appropriate for ages five and up.

      Carousel Theatre for Young People presents A Charlie Brown Christmas at the Waterfront Theatre.

       

      ATTRACTIONS

      Grouse Mountain resort features a Skyride to the peak with views of Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean, as well as skiing and snowboarding, snowshoeing, ice skating, mountain ziplines, and the Peak of Christmas.

      Edgewater Casino offers 24-hour gaming, over 60 table games, a poker room, a high-limit section, 500 slot machines, restaurants and lounges, and live entertainment, including concerts and televised UFC events.

      Mount Seymour features skiing and snowboarding lessons from the Mt. Seymour Ski and Snowboard School, tubing and tobogganing, and snowshoe trails.

      At the Bloedel Conservatory you can take in more than 200 free-flying exotic birds and 500 exotic plants and flowers.

      Cypress Mountain features skiing and snowboarding lessons, snowtubing park, cross-country ski trails, downhill skiing and snowboarding trails, and snowshoeing tours.

      The VanDusen Botanical Garden features over 255,000 plants from around the world and almost two dozen sculptures.

      The Capilano Suspension Bridge features seven suspended footbridges offering views 110 feet above the forest floor.

      The Vancouver Aquarium features almost 800 animal species in galleries ranging from Canada's Arctic to the Amazon rainforest.

       

      MOVIES

      Screening at Vancity Theatre of When Elephants Were Young, Patricia Sims's drama about a boy and his young elephant who street beg in gritty Bangkok amid the controversial elephant business that threatens their survival.

      Screening at Vancity Theatre of Aim for the Roses, John Bolton's musical docudrama about Canadian stuntman Ken Carter's 1976 attempt to launch a rocket car over the St. Lawrence Seaway and land it in a bed of roses in the U.S.

      Screenings at the Cinematheque celebrate the late visionary Polish director Andrzej Żuławski with screenings of 1972's The Devil and 1981's Possession.

      Screening at Vancity Theatre of The Apology, Tiffany Hsiung's documentary about three former "comfort women” who were among the 200,000 girls and young women kidnapped and forced into military sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

      Films from the 41st annual Banff Mountain Film Festival are screened at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts.

      Screening at Vancity Theatre of writer-director Nettie Wild's documentary KONELINE: our land beautiful.

      Screening at the Vancity Theatre of Christine, Antonio Campos's drama about Christine Chubbuck, who briefly found national fame in an act of on-air desperation in 1974.

       

      For all the latest Metro Vancouver event announcements and updates follow @VanHappenings.

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