November 30-December 3
Festival of Trees, back in person
Festival of Trees, the Christmas craft celebration, is back in person for the first time since 2019, Wednesday through Saturday at Mountain America Expo Center, 9575 S. State St., Sandy. The event features some 500 Christmas trees, plus wreaths and gingerbread houses — all decorated and donated by volunteers, and put up for silent auction (which runs Monday through Wednesday). Proceeds benefit Primary Children’s Hospital and Intermountain Healthcare’s Primary Promise (a program to establish a nationwide health system for children). Tickets, online or in person, are $8 for adults, $5 for children (ages 2-11), free for babies under 2, and $7 for those 65 and older. To buy tickets online, or to bid in the silent auction, go to FestivalofTreesUtah.org.
December 1
Day With(out) Art
Thursday, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day — when art museums and galleries traditionally close their doors or shroud artworks, to illustrate the toll HIV/AIDS has taken in the art world and to remind people that the disease hasn’t gone away. The Utah Museum of Fine Arts will mark the occasion by covering Paul Manship’s “The Moods of Time: Morning” (1938), on the museum’s sculpture terrace. UMFA will also promote “Being & Belonging,” an online program, organized by the nonprofit Visual AIDS, featuring seven short videos by artists living with HIV around the world. Go to umfa.utah.edu for more information.
December 2
‘The Nutcracker’ is back
One of Utah’s most beloved Christmas traditions, Ballet West’s production of “The Nutcracker,” starts its run on Friday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m., at the Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City. The combination of Willam Christensen’s cinematography and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s music has been performed in Utah since 1955. This year’s production runs through Dec. 24. For tickets and details, go to balletwest.org.
