✦Weekender✦ Global holidaze | Western expo | Nevada beerfest | Get handsy | Fancy ball | Korean feast 🍜
FROM 'ROUND-THE-WORLD holiday parties to rodeo shopfests to cookie cartel meetups, here's what made The List this weekend. Cheers! – Andrew Kiraly 🤍
☃️ Friday Dec 6
- There's probably no better way to lock in positive holiday vibes for the season than at a family-friendly event that celebrates diversity, creativity, and curiosity – and the December to Remember reception is just that. Grok insights about holiday traditions around the world and meet the makers behind the displays. Also includes Santa photos and a chance to toy around with quite-possibly-madcap "winter-based science experiments." 430p, Las Vegas Natural History Museum
- Ensconced in the second floor of Neonopolis, The Nerd is a spot that just marinates in its own delightful weirdness, perhaps most emphatically manifested in their you-just-have-to-see-it World Famous Gyrating Johnson Mechanical Member Bull Ride. No less weird is tonight's entertainment, a "boutique not-so-secret wrestling show" dubbed Pinche Loco with a five-match mystery card. 10p, The Nerd
- Hailing from Brooklyn, Huntertones is one of those jazzy, funky, jammy ensembles, but it's not just any jazzy, funky, jammy ensemble. There's a spry joy, athletic lightness, and sense of late-show mischief to their chops that put them in the must-hear tier. 7p, Myron's
- A looong-ish time ago, the Sand Dollar on Spring Mountain was a charmingly sketchy biker bar that also happened to be the epicenter of the Vegas blues scene. It's power-washed the biker sketch away, but tonight's open jam hosted by the Vegas Strip Kings harkens back to the bad ol' days. Don't forget to knock back a Christmas cocktail as part of the bar's Miracle on Spring Mountain seasonal pop-up. 10p, Sand Dollar
- Ska is the jazzercise of reggae, or something. Skank off those fast-piling holiday pounds when two-tone legends The Toasters celebrate 43 years (!) of pickitup pickitup pickitup. 8p, Backstage Bar & Grill
- What's in a name? In the case of Thunderpussy, it's a dynamite stick of strutting, hungry, psychedelia-fringed Southern rock from ... Seattle? Okay! 8p, Swan Dive
🥊 Punch that weekend dance card or whatever one does with a dance card with more fun stuff here:
🫔 Tamale storm | Bathtub gin party | Beaver mania | Blingy crooners | 10,000 Santas | Brutal toys | Feast on lolz
The coolest things to do in Las Vegas this week, ever.
Andrew Kiraly
🍪 Saturday Dec 7
- A holly jolly shout-out to premium member Kathleen Kahr D'Esposito for whipping up this feelgood community hang: Santa in the Circle & Cookie Exchange. Gingerbread-as-currency is an economic system we all knead. Bring cookies, a cup for hot cocoa, and a few bucks for the animal rescue charity. 10a, Baker Park
- Every year, the Las Vegas Great Santa Run raises money for worthy charities. This year, it's marking the 70th anniversary of Opportunity Village with free swag for every 70th run registrant. 9a, DLVEC
- The daredevil riders of Gladius are literally horsing around for the holidays with a series of weekend shows at their ranch dubbed A Very Viking Christmas. 3p, Centennial Hills
- Hearing the soaring voice of popera sensation Andrea Bocelli is nothing less than a modern holiday tradition. Fave nerdy fun fact about Bocelli: He's also an avid chess player. 8p, MGM Grand Garden Arena
✂️
Makin' it: Stressed out by holiday bustle or the daily headlines? Get handsy with seasonal angst at these crafty events coming up: Learn advanced wrapping and bow-making methods while getting toasty at F The Bar's Holiday Workshop Gift Wrapping Workshop Dec. 6 ✦ Your green thumb levels will spike when you make cozy cacti homes at Voodoo Brewing Co's Plants & Pints Dec. 6 ✦ Zen out while hand-crafting beadwork holiday ornaments at SoulCrafters Sacred Strings Dec. 7 ✦ Spend a lei-zy Saturday at The Gift of Aloha Lei-Making Workshop Dec. 7 and learn about the history of this indigenous craft ✦ Chill out while painting snowman figurines at Arttherapy Cafe's Season of Serenity Dec. 8 maker meetup ✦ Branch out with a cocktail-fueled wreath-making session at Park on Fremont's Deck the Halls Dec. 8.
- I momentarily became disproportionately excited when I read this event as Fancy-Ass F*ck Ball, but Fancy As F*ck Ball works too. LGBTQ party spot Phoenix is getting ritzy as it turns the bar into an intimate ballroom. 9p, Phoenix Bar and Lounge
- Don't call it Korean sushi: Kimbap kinda looks like a sushi roll, but we're talking about an entirely different, explosively savory sector of the flavor zone. There'll be kimbap – as well as bulgogi, kimchi, and more – by the ton at Taste of Korea. 11a, Lied Memorial Boys & Girls Club of Southern Nevada
▼ Saturday cont'd
- Here's an early Christmas present from me to you: Being subjected to my menacingly evangelistic fervor over the deliriously madcap Hundreds of Beavers. Pairs perfectly with a double-fist nunchuk of twin Toblerones from The Beverly's rad concessions shop. 7p, The Beverly Theater
- Classic cars, arts and crafts, a bounce house, a plausible Santa, all amid the mild-weathered bucolic splendor of Floyd Lamb Park? A hearty yeehaw to Ward 6 Cowboy Christmas! 10a, Floyd Lamb Park
- Oh, I see right through your game, Tivoli: Getting people toasty and pliable on yumzy bubbles and then, wham, grabbing 'em right by their loosened heartstrings with pooches for adoption. Puppies & Prosecco is evil genius! 12p, Tivoli Village
- Here's a chance to be a hero both literally and figuratively: at The Heroes & Villains Ball. It's a full-on elegant soirée and all that except everyone's cosplayed up as their favorite hero (or villain). The heroic part: The ball raises money for Critical Care Comics, which brings smiles to hospitalized kids with costumed character visits. 7p, The Space
🦣 Sunday Dec 8
- There'll be hella VGK swag on sale at the (deep breath) Ladies of the Knight Holiday Sip and Shop Vendor Fair, but plenty else besides. Nearly 100 vendors swarming the entire Milan Ballroom! 10a, M Resort
- Sure, you can gaze upon the metal-clad steampunk glory of the Monumental Mammoth sculpture any old weekend, but only this weekend can you do it with a ranger downloading all kinda interesting bonus intel into your curious-ass brain. 1p, Ice Age Fossils State Park
- A richly scented shout-out to Enchanted Forest's extensive incense selection for keeping my home smelling like a dreamy sandalwood hippie forest. The placid crystal shop is gonna liven up considerably when it hosts the Sin City Witches Witchmas Shopping Social. 12p, Enchanted Forest
- The season of doorbuster sales and shopping insanity can bring out the beast in the best of us. I always propose an Rx for a generous helping of weed gummies I mean classical music to soothe any savage impulses. Consider A Very POPera Holiday by Vegas City Opera (3p, West Charleston Library) or go for Baroque at an evening show by the suspiciously specific UNLV Early Music Ensemble. 530p, UNLV
- Not only does the Rock & Roll Church Sunday Jam sound like a great time, but the descriptive blurb's commitment to really working the church/worship metaphor is wholly admirable. 730p, The Composers Room
🙏 Hope you have the raddest weekend. Thanks for your support! – Andrew Kiraly 🤍
