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The holiday season shifts into high gear this weekend with craft markets, Santa visits, outdoor concerts, decorated boats and fireworks across Falls Church and the wider Washington region. Theater, dance, film and museum programs add even more options for Dec. 5-7 and the weeks ahead.

Falls Church festivities

The Annual Holiday Gift and Craft Show takes over the Falls Church City Community Center, 223 Little Falls St., from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, and 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7. Admission is free.

More than 50 crafters and merchants will offer handmade goods and gifts. Falls Church City Public Schools musicians and singers will perform, while raffles, children’s crafts and treats will be available both days.

The Friends of Cherry Hill’s Children’s Holiday Shoppe runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday only. Volunteers will help children choose gifts priced at $6 or less, with free wrapping available. Shoppe purchases require cash or check.

The Falls Church Farmers Market will also operate Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. Free parking is available at the Kaiser Permanente garage, 201 N. Washington St., with its entrance on Park Avenue.

The Falls Church Volunteer Fire Department’s Santamobile returns nightly from Dec. 5-14. Routes will be posted through the department’s website and social media accounts. Organizers ask residents to email the coordinator with questions rather than call the fire station, and private drive-by requests cannot be accommodated.

Worthy Dog Rescue will sponsor Pictures with Santa from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, at Solace Outpost Brewery, 444 W. Broad St. The volunteer nonprofit rescues and rehabilitates dogs and works to address neglect and animal overpopulation.

Falls Church Arts’ “Kinship,” an all-media exhibition about bonds among families, cultures and communities, remains on view at 700-B W. Broad St. through Jan. 4.

Lisa Green’s “Wild Spaces,” featuring colorful oils and black-and-white ink washes inspired by meadows, mountains and coastlines, continues through Jan. 11 at Rare Bird Coffee Roasters, 230 W. Broad St.

Markets, lights and outdoor celebrations

Downtown Fairfax’s ninth annual Holiday Market runs Dec. 5-7 and Dec. 12-14 with rotating groups of craft vendors and live entertainment. The first weekend’s hours are 5-8 p.m. Friday, noon-6 p.m. Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.

Fairfax’s Festival of Lights and Carols follows from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday at Old Town Square, 10415 North St. The event includes music, s’mores, cider, crafts and activities. Santa photos are scheduled from 3-5 p.m., followed by a 5:30 p.m. tree lighting and caroling.

Performers include the Daniels Run Singers and Fairfax Choral Society Youth Choir at noon; George Mason University’s Tuba Euphonium Ensemble at 1 p.m.; the UUCF Handbell Choir at 2 p.m.; Girl Scouts of Fairfax City at 3 p.m.; the Metropolitan Follies at 4 p.m.; and the Vienna-Falls Chorus at 5 p.m.

The Rosslyn Holiday Market will bring small businesses and one-of-a-kind gifts to Central Place Plaza, 1800 N. Lynn St., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

At Ukraine House, 2134 Kalorama Road NW, a ticketed St. Nicholas Day celebration runs from 4-6 p.m. Saturday. The program includes workshops, games, quizzes, a short Christmas movie, children’s performances, a raffle and a meeting with St. Nicholas. Adult admission includes mulled wine, while children’s admission includes a gift.

Glen Echo Park’s Holiday Art Show and Sale continues through Jan. 4 in the Partnership Galleries. The free show features glass, ceramics, photography, paintings, jewelry, ornaments and other work by resident artists, instructors and guests.

ZooLights continues at the National Zoo through Jan. 3 with glowing animal lanterns, entertainment, seasonal food and one million LED lights. General admission is $9 for visitors age 2 and older, with $30 parking. Hours are 5-9:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 5-8:30 p.m. Sunday.

Music across the region

The second Georgetown Jingle will feature 15 performances at 11 outdoor locations from 1-4 p.m. Saturday. The lineup spans soul, jazz, pop, a cappella and DJ sets, while more than 45 businesses offer refreshments, discounts and other specials.

The Embassy of Sweden’s holiday market runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., followed by a candlelit St. Lucia Choir performance near the Georgetown waterfront from 5-6 p.m.

Bronze Unlimited presents “A Christmas Kaleidoscope of Bronze” from 8-9:15 p.m. Saturday at the Stacy C. Sherwood Center, 3740 Blenheim Blvd. in Fairfax. The handbell program draws on carols, lullabies and seasonal music from around the world.

Musicians from the Northern Virginia Dulcimer Group will perform 19th-century music on dulcimers, banjo and upright bass from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center, 11710 MacArthur Blvd. in Potomac. The Music on the Canal program is free.

Johnnyswim, the folk-pop duo of Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano Ramirez, brings its Christmas show to the Barns at Wolf Trap at 8 p.m. Friday. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and tickets start at $60 including fees.

The Virginia Chamber Orchestra Brass Quintet performs holiday music at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Vault at Capital One Hall, 7750 Capital One Tower Road in Tysons. Doors open at 3 p.m., and every attendee needs a ticket.

Creative Cauldron’s Holiday Cabaret Series runs Dec. 8-18 at 127 E. Broad St., with performances at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $25 to $30, livestream access costs $15, and table packages with wine are available.

Spanish pianist and composer Laura Ballestrino performs at the Kreeger Museum, 2401 Foxhall Road NW, on Thursday, Dec. 11. Doors open at 6 p.m. for gallery access and wine before the 7 p.m. concert. Tickets are $30, with a discounted member option.

Santa, boats and fireworks at The Wharf

More than 60 decorated vessels are expected to cruise the Washington Channel during the free Holiday Boat Parade and Party at The Wharf on Saturday.

Activities run from 5-8 p.m. and include live bands and DJs, ornament decorating, karaoke, s’mores, Santa photos, a miniature holiday market, seasonal drinks, ice skating and pet activities. The boats arrive at 7 p.m., with Tommy McFly serving as parade emcee.

Fireworks will close the parade at 8 p.m. An after-party featuring My Hero Zero begins on District Pier at 8:15 p.m.

Author talk, film and history

Cartoonist Sophia Glock discusses her young-adult graphic memoir, “Passport,” from 2-3 p.m. Saturday at Mary Riley Styles Public Library. The book recounts her childhood overseas and her discovery that her parents worked for the CIA.

Glock will discuss developing personal stories, writing and drawing long-form comics and producing shorter cartoons. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, BuzzFeed, Narratively and Time Out New York. A signing follows the talk, which is intended for ninth graders through adults.

GALA Hispanic Theatre’s Latin American Innovation Film Fest continues through Dec. 7 at 3333 14th St. NW. The program includes six contemporary films and Luis Buñuel’s 1953 Mexican film “Él.” Screenings are in Spanish with English subtitles.

Weekend selections include Mexico’s “Quite Like Paradise” at 7 p.m. Friday; “Valentina or the Serenity” at 2 p.m. Saturday; Colombia’s “Rains Over Babel” at 5 p.m. Saturday; “Él” at 2 p.m. Sunday; and the U.S.-Mexico documentary “The In Between” at 5 p.m. Sunday. Individual films cost $10, while a seven-film pass is $35.

“Founding Frenemies” enters its final weekend at the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center, 10209 Main St. The traveling exhibition examines how Alexander Hamilton’s Virginia allies and enemies influenced the country’s institutions and political discourse. It closes Dec. 8.

Ballet and dance

Centre Company presents its full-length “The Nutcracker” at noon Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday in Capital One Hall’s Main Theater. American Ballet Theatre principal dancers Cory Stearns and Hee Seo appear as the Cavalier and Sugar Plum Fairy. Doors open one hour before each performance.

The Washington Ballet’s locally styled “Nutcracker” continues at the Warner Theatre through Dec. 28. The production, performed by more than 380 student and professional dancers, relocates the familiar story to historic Georgetown and features George Washington as the Nutcracker and a cherry-blossom scene.

Holiday plays and major stage productions

“Birthday Candles” runs through Dec. 21 at 1st Stage, 1524 Spring Hill Road in Tysons. Noah Haidle’s 90-minute play follows Ernestine Ashworth across birthdays from age 17 to 101, tracing the heartbreaks and extraordinary moments of an outwardly ordinary life.

The Little Theatre of Alexandria stages “A Christmas Carol” from Dec. 5-20 at 600 Wolfe St. The 75-minute production presents Dickens’ story through a grandchild’s imagination as a grandparent reads it aloud. Performances are generally at 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and 2 and 5 p.m. weekends, although there is no 2 p.m. show Saturday, Dec. 6.

Vienna Theatre Company presents “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live Radio Play” at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Vienna Community Center and 4 p.m. Sunday at Emmaus United Church of Christ. Tickets are sold at the door for $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for children younger than 8.

Theater J’s “Chanukah in the Dark” plays Dec. 6-7 and Dec. 13-14 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. When a family loses power during Chanukah, its members turn to stories, music and traditions. The one-hour production is recommended for ages 5 and older.

At Olney Theatre Centre, Michael Russotto portrays nearly 50 characters in the solo production “A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas,” running through Dec. 28. An audio-described performance is scheduled for Dec. 17 and an ASL-interpreted show for Dec. 18.

Ford’s Theatre offers its music-filled annual “A Christmas Carol” through Dec. 31, with Craig Wallace returning as Ebenezer Scrooge. The two-hour production is recommended for ages 5 and older.

“Some Like It Hot” closes Sunday at the National Theatre. The Tony-winning musical follows two musicians fleeing Chicago after witnessing a mob killing during Prohibition.

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s “Guys and Dolls” runs through Jan. 4 at Harman Hall. Francesca Zambello directs the musical about gambler Nathan Detroit, high roller Sky Masterson and missionary Sarah Brown. The production lasts about two hours and 30 minutes, including intermission.

Nova Nightsky Theatre’s “Sylvia,” a comedy about the turmoil unleashed when a husband brings home a stray dog, continues at Falls Church Presbyterian Church’s Memorial Hall through Feb. 6.

Signature Theatre presents “Fiddler on the Roof” in the round through Jan. 26. The production follows Tevye, his family and their community as tradition collides with social change and rising antisemitism in Czarist Russia.

Estonian clown Julia Masli’s improvised holiday show, “ho ho ho ha ha ha ha,” runs through Dec. 21 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. An audio-described performance is scheduled for Dec. 6, with a childcare matinee Dec. 7 and an ASL-interpreted performance Dec. 12.

Mosaic Theater’s “A Case for the Existence of God” closes Dec. 7. Samuel D. Hunter’s play brings together two fathers in a small Idaho office, where a complicated mortgage discussion develops into an unlikely friendship.

“Hello, Dolly!” continues through Jan. 4 at Olney Theatre Centre, with Nova Y. Payton starring as matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi. Tickets range from $42 to $133.

Arena Stage’s world-premiere production of “Fremont Ave.” also closes Dec. 7. Reggie D. White’s dramatic comedy follows three generations of Black men confronting love, masculinity, resentment and family history around a game of Spades.

Art exhibitions and museum programs

“Power & Light: Russell Lee’s Coal Survey” closes Sunday at the National Archives Museum. More than 200 photographs document miners, their families and the living and working conditions found during a 1946 federal survey of bituminous coal communities. Admission is free.

The Fred Schnider Gallery of Art hosts an artists’ talk for “Subtle Energy” from 4-6 p.m. Saturday at 888 N. Quincy St. in Arlington.

The National Gallery of Art offers a virtual discussion of George Bellows’ New York scenes from 1-2 p.m. Friday. Its in-person “Finding Awe” workshops examine Giovanni Paolo Panini’s images of St. Peter’s Basilica and the Pantheon on Friday and Saturday.

Also at the National Gallery, “The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art” brings together nearly 200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander works spanning the late 1800s to the present. The free exhibition continues through March 1, 2026.

“The Mirage of Ancient Egypt” runs Dec. 5 through Feb. 13 at George Mason University’s Fenwick Gallery in Fairfax. The exhibition considers how colonial-era Orientalism, consumer culture and Western media have distorted perceptions of ancient Egypt.

At the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Joey Enríquez’s “as i look towards what could have been mine” uses prose, prints, sculpture and found objects to explore the American Southwest, ancestry, memory and the desert. It continues through Jan. 25.

“Water’s Edge: The Art of Truman Lowe” remains at the National Museum of the American Indian through Jan. 1. The retrospective includes 50 sculptures, drawings and paintings by the Ho-Chunk artist, whose work evokes Wisconsin waterways and cultural ties to place.

“Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work” continues through July 12 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Built around 33 works, the free exhibition reconsiders Anna Mary Robertson Moses’ art, labor, memories and complicated celebrity.

“Colorburst,” a show centered on bold color across artistic styles and materials, remains at Fairfax’s Sherwood Center through Dec. 19.

“Material Acts of Resistance: Michèle Colburn” runs through Feb. 6 at Mason Square in Arlington. Colburn uses gunpowder, wire, thread and burned paper to transform materials associated with conflict into reflections on vulnerability, endurance and dissent.

The Phillips Collection’s “Out of Many” examines American identity and history through works from the early 20th century to today. The exhibition, which includes loans from Howard University Gallery of Art and the David C. Driskell Center, continues through Feb. 15.

A retrospective of pioneering photojournalist Bernie Boston remains at the McLean Project for the Arts through Feb. 24. Boston was the first Black member of the White House press corps and photographed presidents from Harry Truman through Bill Clinton.

“Imagining Together: Share Your Memories and Dreams” runs through Dec. 13 at the PARC Gallery in Tysons. The intergenerational community show features work by artists ages 7 and older exploring memories, dreams and connection.

At Phillips@THEARC, Rik Freeman’s “Wade in the Waters” traces the African diaspora through paintings of places including Bahia and the Anacostia River. The free exhibition continues through Feb. 19.

The Rubell Museum’s “Material Witness,” on view through fall 2026, presents 30 artists using unconventional substances including squid ink, Coca-Cola, ostrich eggs, lipstick, oil, discarded metal and animal hides.

Also at the Rubell, “Basil Kincaid: Spirit in the Gift” fills the museum’s largest gallery with four monumental quilts examining identity, ancestry, place and community.

Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art presents “A Land and 河/River” through Dec. 20. Kimberly M. Becoat considers displacement and New York’s demolished Seneca Village, while Hong Hong explores water through personal history, migration and literature.

“Wild Spaces,” “Kinship” and these regional exhibitions offer quieter alternatives to a weekend otherwise crowded with lights, music, markets and holiday spectacle.