64 things to do in Metro Vancouver on Sunday, December 3

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      Looking for something to do on Sunday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 64 events happening in or around Vancouver on Sunday, December 3.

       

      CONCERTS

      Vintage jazz band Black Gardenia celebrates the release its second album Lucky Star at the ANZA Club.

      Vancouver-based jazz-pop singer-songwriter Katherine Penfold performs tunes from her new Christmas album at Frankie's jazz.

      The 20-member Mighty Fraser Big Band performs Christmas music at Surrey's Northwood United Church, with guest soloists Amanda Wood and Steve Maddock.

       

      BENEFITS

      See more than 30 gingerbread creations designed by students, professionals, and amateur culinary artists at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, with proceeds to Make-A-Wish B.C. and Yukon.

       

      ETCETERA

      The Retro Design and Antiques Fair at the Croatian Cultural Centre features more than 150 tables of retro glam accessories, pop-culture classics, mid-century Modernist decor, memorabilia, vintage and estate jewellery, holiday ornaments, textiles, and linens.

       

      CHRISTMAS

      See thousands of lights adorning the Capilano Suspension Bridge, canyon, Treetops Adventure, and Cliffwalk at Canyon Lights.

      Van Dusen Botanical Garden's Festival of Lights features outdoor light displays, dancing light shows, stories with Santa, live entertainment, a fireside lounge, the Make-A-Wish candle grotto, and sing-alongs.

      Annual Lights of Hope display at St. Paul's Hospital features over 100,000 sparkling lights and raises funds for the St. Paul's Foundation.

      Bright Nights in Stanley Park features a train ride through the forest decorated with lights, displays, and performers, with proceeds to the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters' Burn Fund.

      The Vancouver Christmas Market at Jack Poole Plaza features more than 75 vendor huts, authentic German food and drink, a carousel, a 30-foot-tall walk-in Christmas tree, live entertainment, and family-friendly activities.

      The Peak of Christmas at Grouse Mountain features holiday light installations around Blue Grouse Lake, Christmas movies, crafts, sleigh rides, skating, a gingerbread village, reindeer, storytime, and breakfast with Santa.

      Lights at Lafarge features outdoor light displays, live entertainment, roving performers, hot chocolate and cookies, photos with Santa, family-friendly crafts, a holiday market, and choirs at Coquitlam's Town Centre Park.

      Join Santa on a flight across Canada and on to the North Pole as he searches for his missing elves at Christmas at Flyover Canada.

      Shop local from over 50 Vancouver vendors and enjoy food trucks, a DJ, artisan showrooms, seasonal drink specials, and pinball at the Ellis Building's Eastside Flea Holiday Market.

      The two-day Deck the Hall Fair at Heritage Hall features 50 local artisans selling jewellery, pottery, body care, woodcraft, photography, handknits, toys, upcycled items, preserves, gourmet sauces, and candy.

      The two-day Burnaby Christmas Craft Fair at Bonsor Recreation Centre features an array of artisans offering housewares, clothing, artwork, and seasonal décor, with proceeds at the door to Burnaby Central Secondary School's music department.

      The two-day North Vancouver Holiday Bazaar at Carson Graham Secondary School features over 100 local vendors selling handmade goods and food trucks.

      The Local Love Holiday Pop-Up at Port Moody's Old Mill Boathouse features West Coast-inspired jewellery, gourmet edibles, candles, kids' clothing, and accessories, with proceeds to the Share Family and Community Services food bank.

      The ESBS Pop Up Holiday Market at the Russian Hall features works from a collective of East Vancouver-based artisans who create their own soaps, syrups, canned goods, artwork, and vintage clothing.

      The Vancouver Santa Claus Parade features marching bands, dance troupes, festive floats, and community groups in downtown Vancouver.

      Brighten Up! at the Mackin Heritage Home and Toy Museum features festive crafts, hot cocoa, homemade baking, and traditional caroling by Amy Newman and the Christmas Revelers.

        

      COMEDY

      Instant Theatre presents a battle between two improv-comedy troupes at Havana Theatre.

       

      ARTS ETCETERA

      Cirque du Soleil presents Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities, a new production that takes you into the curio cabinet of an ambitious inventor who defies the laws of time, space, and dimension, at Concord Pacific Place. 

      Fight for Beauty at Fairmont Pacific Rim features public art projects undertaken with world-class creatives, architecture from architects who are artists in their own right, and fashion by some of the greatest designers in recent history.

      A Lantern Affair at Coquitlam's Place des Arts offers lantern-making workshops inspired by European, Korean, Iranian, and Chinese cultural groups.

       

      LITERARY

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

       

      MUSIC

      The Elektra Women's Choir presents its annual holiday concert, featuring a performance of Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, with harpist Vivian Chen (above), at Highlands United Church.

      A professional orchestra, the Choirs of Capilano University, and guest soloists perform selections from Bach's Christmas Oratorio at the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts.

        

      THEATRE

      Theatre Replacement's East Van Panto: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is a kid-friendly production at the York Theatre that sees the title character flee the wicked Queen of North Vancouver across the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, landing at the PNE.

      Rumble Theatre presents the final performance of The Society for the Destitute presents Titus Bouffonius--a play about what happens when five performers on the edge of civilization decide to put on a contemporary version of Titus Andronicus--at the Cultch.

      Studio 58 presents the final performance at Studio 58 of Wilderness, Seth Bockley and Anne Hamburger's play about six troubled teens who are kidnapped by desperate parents and sent to a remote wilderness therapy camp as a last resort.

      The Arts Club Theatre Company presents a performance at Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre of The Day Before Christmas, Stacey Kaser and Alison Kelly's play about a perfectionist who's desperately holding fast to her Christmas traditions.

      The Vagabond Players present a traditional holiday pantomime based on the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty at New Westminster's Bernie Legge Theatre.

      The White Rock Players Club presents a performance of director Alex Lowe's kid-friendly pantomime The Hunchback of Notre PANTO at Coast Capital Playhouse.

      The North Vancouver Community Players present director Miles Lavkulich's version of Linda Sharp's play The Doctor of Oz: A Self-Help Panto, about a girl who travels to a magical land of self-help, at the Theatre at Hendry Hall.

      Delta Youth Theatre presents the final performances of musical-theatre classic Annie Jr. at Ladner's Genesis Theatre.

      Applause Musicals presents the final performance of the classic musical comedy written by P.G. Wodehouse, Oh, Boy, at The Red Gate Revue Stage.

      Final performance at Burnaby's ECBC Church of the family-friendly Christmas musical The Plan about a pair of soon-to-be parents who redefine what it means to follow the perfect plan.

       

      GALLERIES

      Bill Reid Creative Journeys at Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art celebrates the three phases of the artist's creative journey, Pre-Haida (1948-1951), Haida (1951-1968) and Beyond Haida (1968-1998).

      Portrait of the Artist: An Exhibition from the Royal Collection at the Vancouver Art Gallery features more than 90 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculpture highlighting both the richness of the Royal Collection and the complex relationship that the British monarchy has had with artists for the last three and half centuries

      Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting at the Vancouver Art Gallery offers insight into two distinctly different modes of painting that have come to dominate contemporary painting in Canada.

      Polygon Gallery's inaugural exhibition, N. Vancouver, explores how a specific locale can be reflected through existing and newly commissioned artworks by artists from Vancouver and beyond.

      Intangible at Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art exhibition spotlights six Coast Salish artists influenced by tradition as well as contemporary inspiration.

      Carol Sawyer: The Natalie Brettschneider Archive at the Vancouver Art Gallery presents the latest findings of Vancouver-based artist Sawyer's ongoing research project that deftly reconstructs the life and work of the genre-defying, fictional artist Brettschneider.

      Emily Carr: Into the Forest at the Vancouver Art Gallery is a collection of Emily Carr's forest paintings that highlight her continued exploration of the natural environment.

       

      MUSEUMS

      In a Different Light: Reflecting on Northwest Coast Art at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC features more than 110 historical indigenous artworks and explores what we can learn from these works and how they relate to indigenous peoples’ relationships to their lands.

      Amazonia: The Rights of Nature at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC features Amazonian basketry, textiles, carvings, feather works, and ceramics both of everyday and of ceremonial use, representing indigenous, Maroon, and white settler communities.

      The Fabric of Our Land: Salish Weaving at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC takes visitors on a journey through the past 200 years of Salish wool weaving.

      The Lost Fleet at the Vancouver Maritime Museum investigates the unjust 1941 seizure of 1,200 Japanese-Canadian fishing vessels following the bombing of Pearl Harbour through a collection of historic photographs, models of Japanese-Canadian-built fishing boats, fishermen’s tools, and replica documents.

       

      ATTRACTIONS

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

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

      Celebrate winter with free skating in the heart of downtown Vancouver at Robson Square Ice Rink.

      North Vancouver's Grouse Mountain features a Skyride to the peak with views of the city and the Pacific Ocean, as well as ziplines, a wildlife refuge, helicopter tours, paragliding, dining, and the Grouse Grind.

      The new Parq Vancouver features two luxury hotels, a 24-hour casino with 600 slot machines and 75 table games, eight restaurants and lounges, and the sixth-floor outdoor Parq.

      Take a ride in an exterior glass elevator and get a 360° view of Metro Vancouver and the North Shore mountains at Vancouver Lookout.

      Stanley Park features 400 hectares of trails, gardens, beaches, and West Coast rain forest, with scenic walking and biking along the 8.8 kilometre seawall.

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

      Lighthouse Park features 10 kilometres of hiking trails, picnic areas, guided walks provided by the Lighthouse Park Preservation Society, and the historical 1912 Point Atkinson Lighthouse.

      Science World features hundreds of interactive exhibits in five permanent galleries, live science demonstrations and workshops, and giant movies in the Omnimax Theatre.

       

      MOVIES

      Screening at Vancity Theatre of Blade of the Immortal, Takashi Miike's film about a samurai who's cursed with immortality by a mysterious old crone who injects him with blood worms.

      Vancouver premiere at the Cinematheque of the documentary In The Name of Peace: John Hume in America, about the only person to win all three major global peace prizes.

      Explore the representation of disability in film with a two hour program of short films and conversation at New Westminster's Anvil Centre.

      Screening at Vancity Theatre of Better Watch Out, Chris Peckover's home-invasion flick about a babysitter forced to defend her young charges when intruders break into the house.

      Screenings at the Cinematheque of Latvia's Mellow Mud, Croatia's All the Best, and Spain's Barcelona Christmas Night as part of the 20th Annual European Union Film Festival.

      Screening at Vancity Theatre of  c̓əsnaʔəm: the city before the city, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers' documentary about the history and prehistory of the Lower Mainland and its first people.

       

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

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