Top Picks: Big Events Happening This December and Beyond

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Things Happening Around Seattle in December 2024

Leslie Odom Jr poses in front of a tan building, his finger hooks on the collar of his cream, sleeveless shirt.

DEC 3

Sponsored

Leslie Odom Jr.: The Christmas Tour @ Benaroya Hall

A silky set of pipes 🎙️

Holiday Live Music

A performer in an ornate orange and brown patterned robe and matching orange head wrap sings passionately against a purple backdrop, with stained glass visible in the soft focus background. Their eyes are closed and face is expressive, captured mid-performance.

THRU DEC 29

Black Nativity 2024 @ Broadway Performance Hall

Raise your voice with 30+ local artists ✊🏾

Community Holiday Live Music

A Christmas Village in Puyallup, Washington.

DEC 5–8

A Victorian Country Christmas Festival @ Washington State Fair Events Center (Puyallup)

Victorian holiday time machine 🕰

Holiday Kids & Family Shopping

DEC 6–8

Punk Rock Flea Market @ Old 15th Ave QFC

Alternative holiday shopping for the anti-corporate soul 🕷

Holiday Shopping

Two people playfully peek through large holiday wreaths made of fresh evergreen branches and pinecones, posed in front of a wall covered with colorful event posters at the Phinney Center. Their faces are partially obscured by the wreaths, creating a cheerful, candid moment.

DEC 7–8

PhinneyWood Winter Festival @ Phinney Center

A neighborhood holiday tradition 🎄

Holiday Kids & Family Shopping

James Stewart and Donna Reed share an intimate moment in It's a Wonderful Life, filmed in dramatic black and white against a starlit sky.

DEC 6–26

It’s a Wonderful Life @ Grand Illusion Cinema

The final time at this location 👼

Film Holiday

DEC 6–10

Holiday Horror Double Feature @ Grand Illusion Cinema

Slay bells ring 🔪

Film Holiday

DEC 7

Winter Solstice Holiday Night Market @ Magnuson Park Hangar 30

A boozy night market for the darkest days 🧋

Holiday Shopping

DEC 10

Indigenous Peoples Night @ Climate Pledge Arena

Culture meets ice 🏒

Community Sports & Leisure

Paper lanterns illuminate a walking path along Green Lake at dusk, with bare winter trees silhouetted against a deep blue sky and city lights reflecting on the water.

DEC 14

Pathway of Lights @ Green Lake

A luminous winter tradition 🔆

Community Festival Holiday Kids & Family

DEC 14

Sponsored

Lighted Tractor Parade 2024 @ Downtown Centralia

With bedazzled lawnmowers ✨

Community Holiday Kids & Family Shopping

Night installation at Pacific Bonsai Museum with two bonsai trees in display alcoves, one illuminated by white light, the other framed by geometric blue neon rods that cast a dramatic glow.

DEC 14

Winter Bonsai Solstice 2024 @ Pacific Bonsai Museum

Illuminated garden after dark 🧚‍♀️

Holiday Kids & Family

An stylized illustration of a blue spirit holding a martini glass and dressed in 1920s garb rises out of a gramophone against a royal purple background.

THRU DEC 22

Sponsored

Blithe Spirit @ Seattle Rep

Supernatural love triangle 👻

Theatre

THRU DEC 27

A Christmas Carol 2024 @ ACT Theatre’s Allen Theatre

An annual tradition 🎄

Holiday Kids & Family Theatre

A dramatic scene from Phantom of the Paradise showing the title character in a torn red costume against a glittering blue backdrop, his face contorted in a theatrical expression.

DEC 28

Phantom of the Paradise @ Grand Illusion Cinema

De Palma’s phantasmagorical rock opera 🎭

Film

A close-up photo of a purple LED butterfly light display against a dark background, with blurred green and orange lights visible in the background. The butterfly is intricately crafted from small LED lights that outline its wings and body in a vibrant blue-purple hue.

THRU DEC 31

Garden d’Lights 2024 @ Bellevue Botanical Garden

Let the season shine 🌟

Gardens Holiday Kids & Family Outdoors

A lavish scene from Moulin Rouge! showing the main characters Christian and Satine in an intimate dance pose, surrounded by performers in white and gold costumes. Behind them is an ornate heart-shaped archway decorated with pink lights and red drapery, creating a theatrical, romantic atmosphere.

DEC 31

Moulin Rouge! New Year’s Eve Screening @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

Spectacular singing, spectacular night 💃

Community Film Holiday

Two giant peacock lanterns glow in the dark. One is purple and the other is blue with wings outstretched.

THRU JAN 19, 2025

Sponsored

WildLanterns 2024 @ Woodland Park Zoo

Bright nights 🌟

Attractions Holiday Kids & Family Outdoors

Baltimore-born artist Joyce J. Scott sits for an interview inside her colorful installation at the Seattle Art Museum.

THRU JAN 19, 2025

Sponsored

Joyce J Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams @ Seattle Art Museum

All hail the queen of Baltimore 👑

Museums Visual Art

Art installation detail showing fantastical glass flowers with pink-tinged translucent petals, amber globes, and delicate stems against a black background, part of Fischersund's Faux Flora exhibit at the Nordic Museum.

THRU JAN 26

Fischersund: Faux Flora @ National Nordic Museum

A multisensory garden of invented blooms 🌸

Visual Art

Black and white promotional photo showing seven cast members of Almost Live! standing neck-deep in rippling water, arranged in a group composition with serious expressions, capturing the show's irreverent style.

THRU FEB 23

Almost Live! (Almost an Exhibit) @ MOHAI

Seattle’s comedy time capsule 😆

Comedy Film History

A triptych of passport-themed artworks: Left shows a blue paper document emerging from a black cover with 'TORY' visible, center features a whimsical sculptural bird with a red pinata-like head and blue-gold body displayed alongside a colorful accordion-style book with decorative borders, and right shows a corner of a dark blue passport with gold emblem visible.

THRU FEB 23

Crossing the Line: The Passport Re-Imagined @ BIMA

Art that reimagines identity & borders 🛂

Visual Art

A tour provider shows a guide to different flavors within chocolate during a Seattle Chocolate Tour at Pike Place Market.

ONGOING

Seattle Chocolate Tour @ Pike Place Market

Treats in downtown Seattle 🍫

Community Food & Drink Kids & Family

An aerial drone view of Stadium High School Tacoma Washington covered in snow

EVERY MONTH

How to Tour the High School from 10 Things I Hate About You

It’s basically a castle 🏰

Film History Tour

THRU JAN 2025

Sponsored

Stonehenge @ Royal BC Museum

Uncover the mystery 🧐

History Museums

Two women, one an elder and one younger, walk side by side, smiling inside a community center

THRU FEB 2025

Sponsored

Hello Auntie, Hello Uncle @ Wing Luke Museum

Illuminating the lives of elders 💡

Community Museums

THRU MAR 2025

Keith Haring: A Radiant Legacy @ MoPOP

An icon 👯

Visual Art

A shot of two cars from the Shinka exhibit against a nightime Japanese cityscape.

THRU MAR 2025

Sponsored

Shinka @ LeMay – America’s Car Museum

Celebrating Japanese car culture 🇯🇵

Community Museums Visual Art

“Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (Edition 4 of 8)” is part of a black-and-white photograph triptych by Ai Weiwei.

MAR 12 – SEP 7, 2025

Ai Weiwei @ Seattle Art Museum

A legendary show ⚱️💥