Holiday Festivities
Celebrate the holidays in one of the world's Christmas capitals!
“For all the beauty Portsmouth offers during the summer, the holiday season just may be its finest time of year. The Christmas spirit you find here isn’t garish or overblown. It’s tasteful and subtle, more vintage than big-box store.” — Yankee Magazine
The holidays in New England are cozy and beautiful, and Portsmouth is no exception. Take a holiday tour around town, or drive through Portsmouth and its neighboring towns for Christmas lights sight-seeing and wintertime fun. See below for some of our recommendations of places to see and things to do!
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Please continue to check back for more details on Holiday activities.
Latkepalooza Community Hanukkah Celebration
Please join Temple Israel for a community-wide Hanukkah lighting, crafts, music, dancing, and of course latkes and donuts! Bring your family’s favorite Hanukkah and nosh with us as we celebrate the festival of lights.
Details to come
Players' Ring - Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
Adapted by Tom Frey in cooperation with Ensemble Players.
This timeless tale has been produced at the Ring for 29 consecutive years, surprising you Christmas after Christmas with an interesting adaptation, a different director, a new design… This coming Holiday Season, Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” will come to life onto the intimate Ring’s stage in the adaptation of Tom Frey, a Maine-based Dickens’ scholar who extensively researched the author’s own notes from his live readings in the UK and the US! True to the original and very dynamic, this production is made extra special by the punctuation of uplifting a cappella music, as Madrigal singers act as narrators who help Scrooge in his journey to redemption, together with all of your favorite characters and ghosts from the original novella.
- Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm
- Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30pm
- Select Mondays, Wednesdays & Thursdays at 7pm
Evening Lights
This special fundraising event invites audiences to step into the perfect holiday atmosphere – complete with refreshments, live music and performances from some of New Hampshire Theatre Project’s most talented and beloved artists. Join us for music and merriment, story and song, laughter and warmth, and the shared experience of celebrating the spirit of all the holidays we cherish so much.
WED – DEC 11 | 7:30PM
THU – DEC 12 | 7:30PM
The Dance Hall - The Bang Group’s Nut/Cracked
It’s The Nutcracker, but definitely not as we know it. The Bang Group has taken every little girls favorite Christmas show and torn it limb from limb. Mixing Tchaikovsky’s original score with music by Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller and others, the company turns the sugar coated ballet into a percussive piece of dance theatre. Expect tap dancing, singing and some unusual pointe shoe activity. Nothing is sacred as Nut/Cracked twists and melds various dance traditions into an ode to American eclecticism which honors the power of the human urge to dance while riding Tchaikovsky’s voluptuous waves of rhythm.
David Parker’s Bang Group first brought the house down with their performance of Nut/Cracked at The Dance Hall in 2016. This hilarious rendition of the storied holiday production is performed to perfection by a company of exquisitely trained artists.
The Bang Group, a rhythm based, theatrical dance company based in New York City, tours extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe.
$25 advance | $30 day-of | Student $15
Art 'Round Town Gallery Walk
The FIRST FRIDAY of every month, year round, downtown Portsmouth celebrates its inspired art community with big city style by presenting its Art ‘Round Town gallery walk.
As a thriving creative community rich in history, Portsmouth retains and honors its past while continuously cultivating an exciting contemporary art scene. Within its early-nineteenth century brick facades, cobblestone sidewalks, and streetscapes, the collective Portsmouth art galleries represent the work of international and national artists from as distant as Europe, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and as near as down the street.
Friday, December 6th from 5 PM to 8 PM.
Wentworth by the Sea - Illumination 2024
First Night
Tuesday, December 31st from 2 PM to 8 PM.
History of First Night Portsmouth:
Pro Portsmouth became a member of the First Night Alliance in 1986 when it produced First Night Portsmouth on the Seacoast.
This celebration gives our Community the opportunity to come together as one, reflecting on the year that has passed and looking forward with hope and great anticipation to the year ahead. (And the date – never changes: December 31st)
Eat
Please continue to check back for more details on Holiday dinner offerings.
STAY
Portsmouth has many warm & inviting lodging properties to enjoy during your holiday getaway. Please check back for more details.
