Even though tickets are sold out for the Bainbridge Performing Arts production of “Matilda The Musical” there is still plenty of fun to be found on the Rock this weekend.
Here are our Best Bets.
The Bainbridge High School Concert Choir will present its Winter Concert at 7 p.m. Friday in the BHS Commons.
The concert feature a night of festive song; cocoa and cookies will be available after the performance.
Winter Wonderland returns to Waterfront Park and the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District is inviting the community to come celebrate the holiday season.
The annual event is planned for 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday and promises fun for the whole family.
Winter Wonderland will include a tree lighting beginning at 5 p.m., plus food trucks, lighted boats, face painting, Santa Claus, holiday-themed crafts, a luminaries walk, balloon clowns, and more.
Performances by Kids in Concert, The Bainbridge Youth Orchestra and more will start at 4:10 p.m.
Winter Wonderland is sponsored by Puget Sound Energy and HomeStreet Bank, and is a partnership between the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District, the city of Bainbridge Island, the Bainbridge Island Senior Center, and the Bainbridge Island Police Department.
For more information on parks, trails, programs, facility rentals, and special events, visit the park district website at www.biparks.org.
Also for those seeking something seasonally appropriate: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will host a Walking Tour Nativity from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Boundy Farm.
Islanders may recall the beloved live Nativity presented each Christmas season by Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church, but hasn’t been held in the past few years.
Some of Rolling Bay’s vast collection of costumes and props, however, will be incorporated into a Walking Tour Nativity hosted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Organizers said the live nativity event is free and family friendly, and will be hosted at the Boundy Farm, the large farm on Fletcher Bay Road at the western end of High School Road.
Refreshments will be served in the barn after a quiet, chilly walk around the farm led by guides.
For a little DIY-style holiday cheer, consider paying a visit to Wiley Jones Irwin over in Rolling Bay.
The display outside his home on Hyla Avenue NE boasts, by his own conservative estimate, more than 100 figurines and roughly 40,000 total lights — and it’s all for a good cause.
Visitors to Irwin’s Christmastime wonderland will depart informed, if they choose to inquire, about the good works being done by Rescue Every Dog, a support group for animal shelter workers and animals currently in public shelters in need of special care.
He is accepting donations for the nonprofit and handing out informational flyers during his display’s official visiting hours: 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday through Christmas – including a special celebratory event Saturday.
Irwin has partnered with the Bainbridge Island Fire Department’s beloved Holiday Music Truck for a special celebration. The truck will be supplying the tunes — but that’s not all that’s on the menu.
Refreshments will be available — candy canes, hot chocolate and more — as well as a visit from the Man in Red himself.
“We’re also having a Santa Claus come that night and a Mrs. Claus,” Irwin said. “I have a full Santa throne, a photographer.”
The address is 11002 Hyla Ave. NE, and visitors are asked to follow the established traffic route: Enter Hyla Avenue NE from NE Valley Road, then follow the display around NE Albertson Road to Sunrise Drive NE to exit.
Minimal parking is available nearby, and further arrangements are being made with nearby facilities.
Search “A Rolling Bay Christmas” on Facebook for more information.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on Saturday, U.S. Army airborne veteran, corporate attorney, social activist and eclectic singer-songwriter Paula Boggs and her six-piece band traverse jazz, world, folk, rock and Americana music, and are bringing that melding — what they call “Seattle-Brewed Soul-grass” — back to the Treehouse Café at 8 p.m.
Tickets for reserved table seating are $20. Visit www.treehousebainbridge.com to purchase and/or learn more.
Boggs served eight years as an officer in the Army, earned airborne wings and a Congressional appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy – among America’s first women to do so.
She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law and earned a bachelor’s degree in International Studies (economics, energy policy) from Johns Hopkins University. She was also an adjunct professor at the University of Washington School of Law.
Boggs served as executive vice president and general counsel at Starbucks Corporation from 2002 to 2012.
Since leaving Starbucks, Boggs has volunteered for a presidential campaign as a national surrogate, serves on for-profit and nonprofit boards, and raises or gives money in support of causes she champions.
Boggs, the founder of Boggs Media, is also a philanthropist, fundraiser and public speaker.
She had a 14-year career in public service, including as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and in various capacities as an attorney for the Army, the Department of Defense and the White House Office of Legal Counsel.
In 2013, President Obama appointed her to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, where she served before stepping down in 2017.
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