As we usher in the holiday season in RVA, festive favorites return, including the Dominion Energy Christmas Parade, the Bizarre Bazaar and a holly jolly Christmas show at The Hippodrome. Plus, join gift wrapping and wreath-making workshops and experience the stage repertoire of a Poe you probably don’t know. Enjoy!
Jingle All the Way
A Shockoe Sessions Live! Christmas! show marks its third year at Jackson Ward’s The Hippodrome on Tuesday, Dec. 2. This celebration of local musicians includes performances by Caroline Scruggs (pictured above), Los Hermanos Alacranes, Ionna, Ant The Symbol and more. The event also serves as a release party for “A Shockoe Sessions Live! Christmas! Vol. 3,” an album of holiday favorites featuring the participating artists and other hometown standouts. Plus, the concert benefits Richmond Triangle Players, who will take the stage with a festive production. The show begins at 7:30 p.m., and tickets start at $25.
—Nicole Cohen, Arts & Entertainment Editor
One-Stop Holiday Shop
For 50 years, The Bizarre Bazaar Christmas Collection has been a beloved RVA tradition, and it returns Dec. 4-7 to the Richmond Raceway Complex. This one-of-a-kind holiday marketplace features more than 500 juried exhibitors from across the country offering unique gifts and decorations, specialty foods, handmade jewelry and accessories, clothes, toys, and much more. The event runs 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Dec. 4-5; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7. Tickets are $11 ($10 if purchased online before midnight on Dec. 3; $2.50 for ages 2-12). Early-bird shopping ($15) is also available from 8 to 10 a.m. Dec. 4-5.
—Chase Wilson, Editorial Intern
Spreading Christmas Cheer for All to Hear
The Dominion Energy Christmas Parade kicks off the holiday season with its 42nd annual event Saturday, Dec. 6, featuring a new and expanded route. See colorful floats, marching bands, giant balloons and even Santa himself, all embarking from the Science Museum of Virginia at 10:15 a.m. and traveling east along Broad to 10th Street, passing by the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. Enjoy the spectacle in person from the sidewalk or via WTVR CBS 6’s live broadcast.
—Annabel Granger, Editorial Intern
Poe’s Mom
When acclaimed English-born and extensively traveled stage actor Elizabeth Arnold “Eliza” Hopkins Poe arrived in Richmond with the Placide-Green Company at 24, she was a performer of 300 roles — and already a widow, mother of three and abandoned by her second husband. She named her youngest Edgar. Living history interpreter Debbie Phillips presents dramatic monologues and song from Eliza’s repertoire during The Musical Life of Eliza Poe at Historic St. John’s Church at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7. Organist Cheryl Van Ornam accompanies. Tickets are $12.
—Harry Kollatz Jr., Senior Writer
All Wrapped Up
Cosentino City celebrates its first Christmas in Richmond on Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 5 to 7:30 p.m., with Wrap & Wonder, a new holiday event to benefit the nonprofit Little Hands of Virginia. The Spanish firm, known for its innovative solid surfaces, is inviting the public to join them and members of the interior design trade for a little holiday inspiration and to help children and families in need. Guests are asked to bring a donation gift to wrap — selected from Little Hands’ wish list — to the Cosentino showroom on Arthur Ashe Boulevard or make a donation to the nonprofit. Get tips on the art of gift presentation at the wrapping workshop, led by Rebecca Wright and Judith+Rolfe paper art studio, where you’ll wrap your gift in the colors of the year, or join folks from The Freckled Flower Farm to help create magical wreaths to give. RSVP by Dec. 2.
—Susan Morgan, R•Home Managing Editor
Other Suggestions
- Broadway in Richmond presents “Les Misérables” at the Altria Theater Dec. 2-7.
- Coalescence Coffee Company hosts an opening reception for “Thermal Cavity” by sculptor Anna Kovina during First Fridays on Dec. 5.
- A Historic Tour from the Coalition of Powhatan Churches grants access to 10 private homes, churches and museums not regularly open to the public, Dec. 6.
- The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen hosts its 27th annual Tree Lighting community event Dec. 6.
- Still Life Ceramics presents its first Holiday Market, featuring handmade gifts and decor, Dec. 6-7.
- Maymont’s Merry Market returns to the Carriage House Lawn Dec. 6-7.
River City Roundup is Richmond magazine’s weekly compilation of the best things to see, do and experience in the region, compiled by our editors. Get each week’s installment directly in your inbox every Monday by subscribing to our e-newsletter.
