All Ages

Celebrate the shortest day of the year and welcome the lengthening days ahead with a candlelit evening walk on the trails of the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. The evening will begin by making your own mason jar lantern in our cozy, heated barn while sanctuary naturalists share the science of the solstice. With your own lantern in hand, we'll light up the night with a stroll through the forest and perhaps catch sights or sounds of animal activity during the winter season.

In this culinary workshop, participants will learn to make bakery quality bread with local flour in their home oven. Culinary Program Manager Jess Porter will demonstrate mixing, folding, shaping, proofing, scoring and baking Appleton’s flagship Farmstead Sourdough. Class ends with fresh bread and a seasonal accompaniment to enjoy.

The tree is lit up and the stockings are hung and Clara’s Christmas is perfect…except for her Uncle Drosselmeyer sitting up on that clock and the sudden rat infestation…sounds like panto time!Edward Speck and Joshua Shack return to direct another cracking holiday panto, this time seizing on Tchaikovsky’s classic holiday tale to do what panto does best: make a favorite old story new and particular to our place and time again. What does Clara’s magical journey have to teach us? How many nuts would a nutcracker crack if a nutcracker could crack nuts? Let’s find out! Come with us as panto and ballet collide in a delicious mix of sugar plums and pies-in-the-face, dance and comedy, fairies and snowballs, in A Nutcracker Panto!

Join Salem Main Streets and the City of Salem as we combine two of our most beloved annual traditions – Greet Santa at the Hawthorne Hotel and the lighting of Salem’s Holiday Tree – into one evening. Santa Claus will arrive at the top of the Hawthorne Hotel (18 Washington Square W) promptly at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, November 28, 2025, with assistance from the Salem Fire Department, of course. Bring the whole family out for carols, festivities, and fun!