Skip to content

Arts

Read More ›

Must List: Santa’s Lights Tour, May the Course Be with You 5K, Spectrum Dance

Your weekly guide to Seattle's hottest events.

Colorful abstract background with bokeh light
Colorful abstract background with bokeh light

Love the Must List? Get it right in your inbox. Subscribe.

MUST BUS

Santa’s Lights Tour
(12/8) MEHVA, the Metro Employees Historic Vehicle Association, hosts a handful of excursions each year using its fleet of historic trolleys and motorbuses. Only one trip, however, includes Santa Claus, who joins riders for a 3-hour tour of the city’s best Christmas lights this Saturday. We promise this tour is much more magical than your average commute. Buses depart 7 p.m. $5. Pioneer Square, 2nd Ave. S. and S. Main St.; 206.477.0460; mehva.org

WALK, JOG OR RUN, YOU MUST

May the Course Be with You 5K
(12/9) Although this December marks the first without a new Star Wars film since 2014, you can still get your fix of your favorite galaxy far, far away at the second edition of this 5K run/walk. Light sabers and costumes encouraged, and nonperishable food donations will be accepted for a local food bank. Last year’s course record: 12 parsecs. 9 a.m. $25. Green Lake, 7201 East Green Lake Drive N; 425.610.9311; run2befit.com

MUST MOVE

Spectrum Dance
(12/6–12/8) Spectrum borrows from itself for its Occurrence performance series, combining excerpts from works in its repertory with new creations according to the collage-making aesthetic of choreographer (and Cornish alumnus) Merce Cunningham. Also this month, there is a workshop production (12/13–12/16) of Spectrum director Donald Byrd’s Iolanta, a metaphor-rich fairy tale about a secluded blind princess. Times vary. $20. Spectrum Dance Theater, Madrona, 800 Lake Washington Blvd.; 206.325.4161; spectrumdance.org


Photo by Truman Buffett

MUST YIPPEE-KAI-YAY

A Very Die Hard Christmas
(12/1–12/23) Sketch comedy troupe The Habit and Seattle Public Theater take on perhaps the most contentious “holiday” film of all: Die Hard. This musical parody features original music performed by a live band, action, jokes, and, we assume, plenty of heating duct crawling. Times and prices vary. Bathhouse Theatre on Green Lake, 7312 West Green Lake Dr. N; seattlepublictheater.org

MUST VIEW

Light in the Attic: A Visual Archive
(12/8–February) This touring photo exhibition shows rare and unseen prints of Light in the Attic artists (such as Glen Danzig, Townes Van Zandt and Karen Dalton), as well as images by some of the most renowned rock photographers of the 20th century, and commemorates the 16-year anniversary of beloved Seattle reissue record label, Light in the Attic. Times vary. Free. KEXP Gathering space, Queen Anne, 472 1st Ave. N; 323.661.5482; kexp.org

Rearview Mirror: Godzilla, Cork, and a New Sushi Spot

Rearview Mirror: Godzilla, Cork, and a New Sushi Spot

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

POPPING OUR SENSES I don’t think I’ve ever given much thought to a wine cork beyond the satisfying pop it makes when opening a bottle, but after spending a morning at DeLille Cellars in Woodinville with about 50 other people, I have a new appreciation for it. The occasion was “(Pop) Open Your Senses,” a…

Best Bookstore: Beguiled Books

Best Bookstore: Beguiled Books

This Pioneer Square darling is easy to spot: pink doors and candy-striped details mark its home near Occidental Square. Beguiled Books started in 2024 as a mobile bookstore, making its way from table to tent to trailer, and finally to its current brick-and-mortar space. Labelling itself as “Seattle’s Original Romance Bookstore,” Beguiled specializes in just…

Best Art Gallery: Foster/White Gallery

Best Art Gallery: Foster/White Gallery

A pillar in Pioneer Square’s arts ecosystem, Foster/White Gallery opened in 1966 (then called Richard White Gallery) as the first space of its kind in the neighborhood. It soon gained notoriety for showing preeminent Northwest artists such as Morris Graves, William Morris, George Tsutakawa, and Dale Chihuly. In the decades after founding the gallery, its…

Best Museum: Seattle Art Museum

Best Museum: Seattle Art Museum

A vote for Seattle Art Museum is really a vote for three different art outings. The downtown museum pairs ambitious exhibitions with a global collection; the Seattle Asian Art Museum occupies SAM’s original 1933 Art Deco home amid the 43 acres of Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park; and the Olympic Sculpture Park puts art out in…