Holiday favorites return this month, as welcome as Christmas cookies fresh out of the oven. Start with Theatre Group New Mexico's annual holiday show, this year entitled Just Be Christmas Inside. It's based on the play by Winifred Bell Fletcher, adapted and directed by Ginger Masoner. Performances are Dec. 7-9 at the WNMU Fine Arts Center Theater. Dec. 7 is also the first of two holiday concerts and sing-alongs by the Hi Lo Silvers (the second is Dec. 9), both at First Presbyterian Church in Silver City. And Dec. 7-23 will see performances of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas by the Las Cruces Community Theater, based on the classic film and featuring 17 of Berlin's songs. In Truth or Consequences, Dec. 7 brings the 5th Annual Old-Fashioned Christmas, with a tree lighting at Evelyn Renfro Park, carolers, wagon rides and even a live nativity scene.
The next day, Dec. 8, a new holiday tradition returns to downtown Silver City with the renamed Tamale Fiesta y Mas. Vendors will be set up along Broadway, between Bullard and Texas Streets, where you'll also enjoy mariachi music, traditional dancing and a street party. Other events will be held at the Silver City Museum. Also at the museum, on Dec. 13, it’s the 28th annual Victorian Christmas Open House.
The Mimbres Region Arts Council's annual fundraiser, the Black Tie Benefit Ball, will attract dancing feet to the elegantly restored Murray Hotel in downtown Silver City on Dec. 15. Music will be by Rhythm Mystic and Brandon Perrault.
All the fun's not done once the packages are unwrapped. Next comes New Year's Eve, which you can celebrate in Pinos Altos at the Buckhorn Saloon Musical Convergence. Music is by Melanie Zipin and the Sugar Leafs and Rodney Henderson and the Roadrunners.