37 things to do in Metro Vancouver on Monday, December 5

Looking for something to do on Monday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 37 events happening in or around Vancouver on Monday, December 5.

CONCERTS

Seattle indie-folk band the Head and the Heart plays the Orpheum Theatre, touring in support of latest album Signs of Light.

Composer-clarinetist James Danderfer presents his take on the New Orleans brass band tradition at Frankie's.

The second night of the 31st annual Blues for Christmas benefit concert at the Fairview Pub features performances by David Gogo, Jason Buie, Dalannah and Owen, Mike Machado Band, Steve Kozak Band, Cannery Row, Steve Sainas, and the Bobcats. Proceeds support the Drew Burns Commodore Musicians' Fund.

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.

ETCETERA

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.

FOOD AND DRINK

Learn how to make home-cured beef jerky out of large cuts of meat, and out of ground beef, at a workshop at Homestead Junction.

FORUMS

At a forum at Vancouver Public Library, learn how to protect your online identity by managing your online activities and content in a safe and responsible way.

SFU Philosophers’ Café on supporting people with chronic pain at Vancouver Public Library's Kitsilano Branch.

KIDS' STUFF

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.

COMEDY

Stacked Comedy at Yagger's Kitsilano features headliner Simon King, with support from Dave Harris, Amber Harper Young, Steev Leets, Travis Watters, Shane Clark, Mark Nesbitt, John Beuhler, Gavin Matts, and Devin Alexander.

LITERARY

Authors Herb Auerbach and Ira Nadel discuss their new book Placemakers--which celebrates the legacy of great political leaders who put their stamp on history--at Vancouver Public Library.

GALLERIES

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.

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

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.

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

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.

THEATRE

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.

ATTRACTIONS

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

Robson Square Ice Rink offers free ice-skating in downtown Vancouver, with skate rental available.

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.

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.

Check out the Vancouver Christmas Tree at Robson Square.

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

In celebration of the life and legacy of Leonard Cohen, the Rio Theatre presents screenings of Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man and McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

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.

Screening at Vancity Theatre of The Handmaiden, Park Chan-Wook's film about a Korean pickpocket who is hired by a con-man to play the role of maid for a Japanese heiress, whose fortune he plans to steal.

The Cinematheque celebrates the late visionary Polish director Andrzej Żuławski with a screening of his unruly 1988 sci-fi epic On the Silver Globe.

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.