Your guide to holiday happenings around the 518 🎄

In partnership with

Hey Capital Region, happy Tuesday evening! We’re keeping things short and sweet today with a quick roundup of must-see events for the holiday week. We’re also skipping Thursday’s Top Five Weekend roundup because even content creators need to unplug for the holidays.

From all of us at The 518, we wish you the most wonderful week filled with good eats and good cheer!

—Phat X. Chiem & Karley Sullivan

🙏 Thank you to everyone who’s pledged to the Americana/ble Pop-up Art Salon on our Kickstarter. Today, we want to send out a special thank you to Sam Fein, our neighbor and incoming Albany City Auditor, who pledged $50 in support, bringing our campaign to 75% funded!

⭐️ We're fundraising because good shows cost money to produce. Funding is all or nothing with Kickstarter — which means if we don't reach our goal of $2,000 by noon on Dec. 31, we won’t receive any of the funds. Thankfully, we’re on track to reach our goal, but there’s still $500 more to go! We’re in the homestretch; please consider making a pledge to support Albany’s most intimate art venue.

🖼️ Pledge $35 and get a signed 8×10” print from the show.

✨ Pledge $50 and join Sam on our Contributor Wall on the big night.

🍜 Pledge $100+ and join us for a special Patrons Dinner featuring Phat’s famous Vietnamese cooking—yum!

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TUESDAY

🎬️ It’s VCR Vortex VHS Night at No Fun in Troy, with a Bob Clark horror double feature of Black Christmas (1974) and Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1972).

🎭️ “Murder for Two: Holiday Edition” continues at theREP in Albany. Billed as a “madcap musical mystery,” the production features one actor playing all 10 suspects. Through Sunday.

WEDNESDAY

🎅 Santa’s Playland at Quick Response in Round Lake is a lighted holiday display that’s become an annual Capital Region tradition. Open on select days until Jan. 4, including Christmas Eve!

THURSDAY

🎅 It's Christmas! There's nowhere else to be but home, surrounded by the people who matter most. Cue the football games, movie marathons, and all that’s merry & bright.

FRIDAY

🕯️ The Annual Capital Kwanzaa Celebration at the NYS Museum features an African marketplace, live drumming, engaging activities for all ages.

🍪 The Albany Pine Bush Preserve hosts a Cookie Burner Stroll to get you out of your post-Christmas food coma. It’s free to join this 2.6-mile hike, but registration required. All ages.

🙋 Wolf Hollow Brewing Co. hosts an After-Christmas Trivia Night.

SATURDAY

⛸️ This weekend, the Empire “Skate” Plaza features food trucks and live DJs. Skating is always free and skate rentals are just $5. Sat & Sun.

🐠 Winter Extravaganza at Via Aquarium is designed for all of those kids on winter break (and their parents) who just need something to distract them from their devices.

😂 Comedy Night at the Van Dyck Music Club brings back some homegrown comedians who have gone to raise the roof in bigger cities.

🎸 Jam band fans are flocking to Albany’s Palace Theatre this weekend to catch Moe with special guests Eastbound Jesus.

💀 Ophelia’s on Broadway hosts the Ghosts of Hardcore, featuring a full lineup of hardcore cover bands.

🐻 Thacher State Park hosts a Wildlife Slumber Party. Enjoy hot chocolate and a campfire, try a snow experiment, and learn how wildlife gets ready for the winter. No registration required.

SUNDAY

🦉 Get the kiddos to It Got Cold: Winter Animal Adaptations with Utica Zoo at the NYS Museum to see live animals and hear from a zoo educator. While you’re there, be sure to check out the Barbie exhibition.

🍿 The Palace Theatre hosts a free screening of “A Minecraft Movie” as part of its Family Fun Day series.

MONDAY

🎷 The Dave Kitchen Quintet plays at the Moon & River Cafe in Schenectady.

ART ON VIEW

• Last Day is Dec. 31st! Liberation and For Life celebrates 50 years of Black Dimensions in Art, showcasing 90+ artists and 100+ works that will blow your mind at the Albany Institute of History & Art.

• Don’t miss the delightful Nina Katchadourian: Fake Plants and Other Curiosities at the Hyde Museum.

• Family Forms at the Tang Teaching Museum presents art and archival photographs from the Tang collection that highlight themes of kinship and care and offer an expansive vision of family.

• Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence and Romare Bearden & Ralph Ellison: From the Archive | UAlbany Art Museum

GET TIX

🍸️ The beloved Larkin HiFi comes back from the dead (at least for a night) to usher in 2026 at the NYE party w/ Groop Lab. Not to be missed.

🪩 All the best NYE parties around the Capital Region!

🥚 The Egg, Albany’s beloved Brutalist performing arts center, is hatching from its historic $19.5 million makeover and celebrating with a free evening show and tours on Thursday, Jan. 8. RSVP now.

Our music listings are now published separately on The 518 website. Click here.

GET YOUR EVENT ON THE LIST 🎸

Our rolling deadline is the Saturday before your event!

 💌 GET IN TOUCH!

Got an awesome business, event or personality we should feature? Let us know! Contact: [email protected]