Can we just fast forward to Christmas? Please?
Don’t get us wrong, we adore the holidays — especially the hanging out with family and/or friends, the unapologetic post-feast laziness, the brutal honesty that comes with being around acquaintances and alcohol and the pageantry that accompanies the spirit of the holidays. All those parts are just peachy.
But let’s be honest, it’s the shopping that grinds our nerves into a fine powder. It’s fine and almost downright tolerable when you are shopping for younger friends and family who know exactly what they want and you have the means to get it for them. But some of us have people in our lives who pretty much have everything they need and we’re wringing out our tired, eggnog-soaked brains to figure out meaningful gifts that won’t end up collecting dust, alongside growing piles of gadgets and knick-knacks on their shelves and in their closets.
Yeah, you could go the gift-card route, but that is a little too easy. In recent years, the best holiday gifts we’ve been given are those that resulted in us spending more time with our friends and family. Why buy a shiny new trinket or the latest electronic doohickey when you can take someone to a nice dinner or dessert, or maybe out for a night on the town for a concert or a show?
So in the spirit of doing something more creative with our gift giving, we’ve compiled a list of ways we all can eat, drink and be merry this holiday season.
Eat!
We feel sorry for people who can’t do gluten or don’t consume carbs around this time of the year because ’tis the season to go off the dietary rails, whether slightly or with full abandon. We don’t know how some of you resist the endless flow of sugary breads cascading down endless rivers of icings and gravies and meat drippings, but some of us can’t. At least not at this time of year. We’ve got sweaters and a few months to work these gorges off before spring hits. So …
High Street on Market is rolling out a bunch of special breads for the season including a brown rice baguette and a pumpkin harvest bread. Some of their other breads, like the jasmine-scented cherry-almond panettone ($25), are made special just for the holidays and require a three-day preorder. For more information, visit www.highstreetonmarket.com/.
For some decadently sweet holiday treats, swing by Flying Monkey Bakery in Reading Terminal Market. The company’s tasty and oftentimes imaginative selection of whoopie pies, brownies, cookies and cupcakes are baked from scratch in small batches with fresh ingredients. Elizabeth Halen, who opened Flying Monkey in 2010, recently competed on an episode of the Cooking Channel’s “Sugar Showdown.”
To celebrate the season, Flying Monkey is offering eggnog cupcakes ($2.50 each) and oatmeal apple pumpkin-seed cookies ($2 each). But if you really want to go crazy, order up a slice of its Pumple Cake ($8). Think of it as the turducken of cakes: a double-decker monstrosity with an apple pie baked into a vanilla cake on top of a pumpkin pie — all baked into a chocolate cake on the bottom.
Oh, and you can also choose from vegan whoopee pies and cupcakes.
For more information, visit www.flyingmonkeyphilly.com/.
For something just as tasty, but slightly more responsible in the decadence department, NoMoo Cookies, a Bucks County company specializing in all-natural, dairy-free, vegan and certified kosher cookies, is offering Christmas Holiday boxes ($35) containing a dozen cookies and four meringues.
The Christmas Holiday Box contains its vegan Loco for Coco cookies topped with crushed peppermint, “Sugah Sugah” cookies with sprinkles, Cran Merry cookies and raspberry French Meringues.
The Hanukkah Holiday Box contains its vegan Chocolate Chills cookies with Belgian cocoa and mint, ‘”Sugah Sugah” with festive blue holiday sprinkles, apples and honey cookies and citrus French meringues.
For more information, visit www.nomoocookies.com or e-mail email [email protected].
Drink!!
A couple of guys from Minnesota decided to start their own gay-owned and -operated online coffee shop. Rainbow Brew offers high-quality sustainable coffee that has been handled, processed, shipped and roasted with the utmost attention. The company also supports the LGBT community through its Caffeinated-4-A-Cause shop. For more information, visit www.rainbowbrew.com.
Speaking of coffee, Victory Brewing Company has rolled out its latest creation, Java Cask, a coffee-tinged bourbon barrel stout, which is available this holiday season while supplies last. A collaborative effort commemorating the long friendship with the founders of Philadelphia’s popular Standard Tap and Johnny Brenda’s restaurants, this brew is infused with Johnny Brenda’s hand-roasted coffee.
Be Freaking Merry!!!
There are many, many ways to get into the holiday spirit as far as live entertainment goes this season, ranging from the classical and refined to the raucous and debauched.
If a suit or a fancy dress are more your speed, the Kimmel Center has numerous reasons to get dressed up. The Philadelphia Orchestra performs “The Glorious Sounds of Christmas” Dec. 17-20 at Verizon Hall with Grammy-winning conductor Bramwell Tovey and the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. The Philly POPS perform their own “Christmas Spectacular” through Dec. 22 at Verizon Hall with guest vocalist Lisa Vroma and the Philadelphia Boys Choir. For more information or tickets, visit www.kimmelcenter.org.
If you want to see Christmases of your childhood come to life on stage, Broadway Philadelphia is presenting “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical” Dec. 17-20 at Merriam Theater. The live-action show is based on the classic stop-motion animated special that told the classic story of the misfit reindeer who saved Christmas for Santa Claus. For more information, visit www.rudolphthemusical.com.
If your cherished holiday memories involved a Rubik’s Cube, an Atari 2600 or a Wham album, and you want some adventure, check out “Escape The 1980s Pop Up on Passyunk Ave” through Dec. 31 at 1804 E. Passyunk Ave. Steel Owl Room Adventures presents Philly’s biggest room-escape game, with a totally awesome holiday twist: You and your friends are stuck in a 1980s time warp. Your group has 60 minutes to get through four rooms and find clues to unlock doors, open padlocks and hack into computer systems to get back to the future and meet Santa Claus. For more information, email Steel Owl Adventures at [email protected] or call 215-402-7036.
The classic ’80s Christmas film “A Christmas Story” comes to life on stage at Walnut Street Theatre through Jan. 10. Follow Ralphie’s quest for a Red Ryder BB Gun as his quirky family takes on the holidays. Visit www.walnutstreettheatre.org for tickets.
Another stage adaptation of a classic is underway in New Hope with “It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” at Bucks County Playhouse. Running through Dec. 27, the production takes audiences into a “live” 1940s radio broadcast of the seminal Christmas film. Follow the applause signs and enjoy the classic radio jingles as George Bailey sets off on his Christmas Eve journey to find the true meaning of the holidays. For tickets, visit www.bcptheater.org.
If more contemporary sounds are what’s needed for your holiday cheer, The Kimmel Center presents “A Soulful Christmas” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 15, featuring the J. Donald Dumpson Singers and a host of community choirs performing holiday classics, along with spirituals and gospel favorites. For more information, visit www.kimmelcenter.org.
If you want to rock out this season, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra hits town 3 p.m. Dec. 19 for its all-new winter tour featuring the Yuletide tale “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve.” The story follows the journey of a young runaway who, on Christmas Eve, breaks into an abandoned theater seeking shelter from the cold, and encounters ghostly visions from that concert hall’s past. For more information, visit www.trans-siberian.com/tour.
For something a lot more funky, out Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, producer, actor and dancer Everett Bradley is bringing his “Holidelic” concert to town 8 p.m. Dec. 19 at World Cafe Live. Now entering its 13th season, this holiday concert blends the influences of P-Funk, Sly Stone and other 1970s and ’80s funk and soul bands into original songs that celebrate diversity, individuality and a lot of booty shaking in a show for all races, creeds and lifestyles. Let’s hope the Mothership and the Santa Sleigh don’t collide with each other. For more information, visit philly.worldcafelive.com/.
Not to be outdone in the holiday freak-fest, underdressed duo The Skivvies brings its “Naughty or Nice” show to SEI Studio Dec. 17-19. New York’s favorite “undie-rockers” are offering up some wacky holiday cheer and musical comedy as they perform stripped-down mash-ups of show tunes, pop songs and holiday classics. For more information visit www.theskivviesnyc.com/.
Oh, and lastly…
If you going to create something lasting this season, let it be memories instead of debt.
Happy holidays!