See Hear Do: Merry Making

As holiday festivities occur around the valley, let’s not forget about those in Boulder City. For starters, there’s Santa’s Electric Light Parade. Visit Historic Nevada Way to witness the grand entrance of the one-and-only Santa Claus. As the sun goes down, the lights will come on for Saint Nick and his lit-up posse.

Shrek: The Musical has stood the test of time since its 2008 debut, when it first told audiences to “let their freak flags fly.” Based on the earlier, eponymous DreamWorks film, the musical has so many key elements of good theater: complex characters with compelling arcs, a lively plot, an incredibly solid musical score, and (not as crucial, but still nice to have) plenty of snappy one-liners. Consider this your best chance to see Lord Farquaad in real life, kneepads and all.

This recommendation may be less about the art than the bonus that comes with it. Stop by the Corn Creek Visitor Center at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, about 40 minutes northwest of Las Vegas, and you can get a dose of hometown pride. P.S. I Love You is an exhibition of postcards, made by all-ages folks from around the state, drawing what they adore about Nevada. After browsing the exhibit, take half an hour (or day) to stroll around Corn Creek (or drive around DNWR), and you can see for yourself an example of why naturalists and outdoors-people can’t quit the Silver State.

There isn’t much you can throw at author Grace Talusan that she couldn’t catch and then heave in another direction. This is born out in her critically acclaimed memoir, The Body Papers, in which she shares her trials as a young Filipino immigrant in a white Massachusetts town, the horrors she experienced from family members, and cancer diagnoses, to name a few. She comes out of all this at the other end with perspective and resilience. Talusan will read from The Body Papers, as well as talk with Black Mountain Institute Shearing Fellow Monica Macansantos.

The rumor has persisted for centuries that Good Queen Bess commissioned Shakespeare to pen The Merry Wives of Windsor, desiring to see the affable Sir John Falstaff (of Henry IV fame) get his own love story. And love story it sort of is, as the two Windsor wives whom Sir John has set his heart upon decide to out him as a lecher. This is one of the Bard’s less well-known works, so it’s a treat to see it staged by any company, let alone the always-entertaining Nevada Conservatory Theatre.

What makes a “very Vegas Christmas” besides family members stuck working on the Strip Christmas Eve and lit-up palm trees that would make Freud blush? Using locally revered performers to ring in the season. The Las Vegas Philharmonic leans into our musical community for its annual Christmas program, from Strip ventriloquists (Terry Fator) to jazz favorites (Michelle Johnson) to opera stars (UNLV grad Cecilia Violetta Lopez) to Grammy-winning crooners (Clint Holmes, pulling double duty at The Smith Center that weekend with his headlining show next door at Myron’s). There’s a reason Mannheim Steamroller isn’t playing Las Vegas this year — to quote Kendrick Lamar, they not like us.