Calendar

Takes place December 6 to 10. Book Festival Hours - Sunday through Thursday: 10am to 8:30pm; Friday: 10am to 1:30pm; and Saturday: 6 to 8pm. Join the Calgary JCC as they celebrate Canada’s 150th! For more information, visit the website.

Calgary Unplugged is an annual family-friendly Earth Hour event. Date: Saturday, March 23, 2024 Time: 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Location: Central Library (800 3 Street SE) Join us for music, entertainment, and opportunities to experience what environmental actions you can take in Calgary. Pedal power midway games and experience how our natural world affects our daily lives. Bring personal lighting and dance to the DJ when the lights go down for the Earth Hour party! Calgary Unplugged is hosted by The Arusha Centre's Climate Program, with support from The City of Calgary and community agencies. If you can't make it to the event, turning off nonessential lights, "unplug" from electronics at 8:30 and reconnect with people, games or hobbies! After Earth Hour, share your participation with #EarthHour and #EarthHourYYC. Email programs@arusha.org with questions.

November 23 to December 24. Theatre Calgary Presents, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Let Tiny Tim and the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future melt your heart with kindness and rejoice in the music of the season. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the website.

Charlotte's Web runs until December 31; check website for show times. Back by popular demand, ATP brings E.B. White’s classic children’s book about the unlikely friendship between a pig named Wilbur and a spider called Charlotte to the stage this holiday season! The music-filled adaptation follows Wilbur from his beginnings as a scrawny piglet who’s spared from becoming pork chops by a young girl named Fern. But as he grows and begins to cost his owners a fortune in feed, it will take help from all his new farmyard friends to save his life again, including the miraculous talents of a very special gray spider. Audience Considerations: Suggested for ages 5+. Contains use of a brief strobe lighting effect. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the website.

Come and enjoy an afternoon listening to stories and some of Canada’s finest musicians. Storyteller/Musician Samantha Whelan Kotkas and her friends will entertain you and your children with musical interactive tales of child-accessible hikes in the Rocky Mountains. Teach your child about courage, unity, joyfulness, and caring in an afternoon of fun and adventure. An event for the whole family that you will want to be a part of. Recommended for children aged 5 to 12, but created with the entire family in mind. Come one hour before the show & enjoy family friendly activities. Stay after to meet the performers. Created and Narrated by Samantha Whelan Kotkas Music by Tyler Hornby Puppets by Green Fools Theatre Video by Joel Goundry Tyler Hornby - Drums, Chris Andrew - Piano, Pat Belliveau - Saxophones, Aaron Shore - Guitar, Stephen Shepard - Bass

November 12 to December 24. Santa is Coming to Bass Pro Shops! Santa will be available daily for free photos with the whole family! Your family can also enjoy free crafts and games, or explore the store while you wait to meet the big man himself! Check the website for hours of operation and contact the store for sensitive Santa appointments.

November 16 to December 23 (Thursdays to Sundays). The Calgary Farmers' Market is continuing their holiday tradition and will be transforming into the premiere destination to find everything for on the table and under the tree this upcoming holiday season. Dine with friends as live holiday entertainment fills the market, indulge in treats while you find the perfect gift, and create memories with special activities. There will be plenty of activities from Santa and cookie decorating, Tea with Mrs. Claus, live ice carving, a Canadian Maple Shack, and more! Plus, there is no admission fee and free parking! For more info on daily activities and festivities the whole family can enjoy, like Tea with Mrs. Claus*, when the jolly ol’ elf himself will be visiting, cookie decorating, and more, visit the website.

Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays, November 17 to December 23, 9:30am to 5:30pm. Alpaca Christmas at Granary Road. Get your photo taken with a debonair scarf-sporting alpaca, mingle through the market and shop for the holidays, sit on Santa’s lap and tell him how good you were this year, go for a sleigh or hay ride, skate on the pond, take part in snowman-building contests, throw snow balls at funny frigid targets, visit the North Pole Frozen Funland, and more! For hours of operation and for alpaca and Santa appearance times: granaryroad.com

Weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) from November 25 to December 23, 9:30am to 4pm. Once Upon A Christmas at Heritage Park. Enjoy a festive horse-drawn wagon ride, cookie decorating, crafts, shopping, and more! Tour the decorated homes, sing carols, and visit with Santa and his reindeer! For more information, visit the website.

Runs November 22 to January 7. Lougheed House, an 1891 Victorian mansion in the Beltline, is decorated with thousands of Christmas lights, ornaments, wreaths, trees, and seasonal magic! There will be seasonal family programs, including visits from Victorian Santa and Victorian games and crafts happening until December 23.

30+ local indigenous artists will be selling their wears; everything from artwork, leather work, bead work, and much more! There will also be a Kids Zone where they can make a craft to take home, there will also be raffle baskets, and a surprise visit from Santa to get a free picture taken with!

The Calgary Christmas Market is one of Santa’s favorite places to find everything for on the table and under the tree during the holidays. The Calgary Farmers' Market is very excited to host Santa from 11am to 2pm on December 1st, 2nd, 8th, and 9th. There will be cookie decorating too! * As this is the season of giving, the Farmers' Market will be accepting cash or food donations for the Calgary Food Bank to snap a photo with the jolly ol’ elf and to ensure no one goes hungry this Christmas. All festivities will take place on the stage in the food court area. *While supplies last.

Winter is here. Embrace this magical time of year with a fun-filled day at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise on December 9! On behalf of Canada Beef and the Fairmont, join at the Skate the Lake community fundraiser party. Grab your ice skates, take a scenic spin around the lake, warm up around the fire as you roast marshmallows with friends and family, and grab a delicious meal for a good cause. The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise will be serving their housemade Beef Chili at the event with all proceeds going to communities affected by the wildfires in western provinces this past summer. Come out to enjoy this gourmet comfort dish, prepared by the Fairmont's Chef Jean-Francois Fortin's team, while celebrating the season in one of Canada's most scenic spots. Bring your own skates or skate rentals available on-site. Skating optional and weather conditions permitting. #skatethelake

The fastest athletes on ice will slide into Calgary for the Viessmann Luge World Cup and the Viessmann Team Relay World Cup. WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park will play host to the fourth stop on the World Cup luge circuit as more than 120 athletes representing more than 20 countries will blast down the Olympic Track at speeds of up to 130 km/h in men and women singles, and doubles races. Come cheer on Canada and our Olympians on the road to the Olympics in 2018 in PyeongChang, Korea. Schedule: December 7: 4pm. December 8: Doubles - 3 to 5:10pm. Men: 5:40 to 8:20pm. Then Awards. December 9: Women - 9:40 to 11:50am. Team Relay - 12:50 to 1:50pm. Then Awards. And there will also be Christmas at the Track Activities for the whole family! Takes place from 10am to 3pm.

The Airdrie Festival of Lights will glow nightly from December 1 to 31 from 6 to 9pm. Admission is by cash donation. There will be 3 brightly-colored Toy Soldier Guard Houses situated around the park for you to donate. Or if you see the Jingle Jugs roaming, you can drop your donation with them, too.

Legacy's 3rd Annual Christmas Light Parade is back! With over 100,000 lights, Legacy will be lit up with lights for you and your family to enjoy. Drive or walk through the decorated parks in the community or visit the skating rink on Legacy View! It is free for anyone to come drive through the community or come out and walk through the tunnels of lights. The public parks as well as the 28 show homes in the community have been decorated for Christmas! While walking through, feel free to stop by any of the showhomes for a free hot drink as you look at the displays! Or visit any Calbridge Show Home to make a Toy Mountain donation. Starting in December for a second year, the Legacy Residents Association is holding a Christmas light competition for house decoration. Stay tuned for more details! Follow @CalgaryLegacy on Facebook for all of the details or visit www.legacylife.ca

November 24 to January 6 (excluding December 25) from 6 to 9pm. ZOOLIGHTS at the Calgary Zoo! Experience over 1.5 million lights, 200 displays, crackling fire pits, steamy hot chocolate, and 4 fun-filled activity zones (with many new additions!), transforming the Zoo into a magical winter wonderland! For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the website.

Join the Calgary Multicultural Choir as they welcome this festive season with music that celebrates Winter, Christmas, and Lullabies. Traditional and contemporary arrangements alike will warm your hearts and have you humming, and perhaps even singing along! The concert also features special guests, the Midnight Taiko Kai, performing authentic Japanese Taiko drumming. And because Christmas is a time for generosity and sharing, the Calgary Multicultural Choir will be collecting donations for the Calgary Food Bank! Admission is free for kids 12 and under.