Lisa Denton and Barry CourterBARRY COURTER: Lisa, there are only 17 more shopping days until you give me my gifts.
That sounded selfish, didn’t it? What I should have said was “until Christmas.”
Anyway, we shouldn’t wish the days away since there is a lot to do this week. One of those fun and cool things is the Santa Pub Crawl on Saturday. You get to dress up like Santa, Mrs. Claus or an elf and bring a new, unwrapped toy for a needy child. What could be better than that?
LISA DENTON: Dressing up like Santa, Mrs. Claus or an elf is just another December day for me, but I will have to lay hands on a toy first.
Do you think they’d turn us away if we went dressed as other Christmas characters? Maybe the Sugar Plum Fairy or the Mouse King? I ask because there are at least three local productions of “The Nutcracker” coming up – Chattanooga Ballet and Civic Ballet this weekend, then Ballet Tennessee next weekend. Is it possible to twerk in a tutu?
And continuing on the Christmas character riff, there’s always Tiny Tim – the Dickens character, not the ukulele player.
BARRY: They won’t turn you away, unless you show up as Billy Bob Thornton’s “Bad Santa” character and start throwing attitude around. But I know you are on good behavior for at least the next 17 days, so no worries.
Moving on to Christmas music, the Roueché Chorale’s Chattanooga Candlelight Service of Lessons & Carols is Thursday and Friday at Ridgedale Baptist Church. Southern Adventist University will be presenting Handel’s “Messiah” on Sunday.
LISA: Beautiful music. Kinda makes me think I should be listening to something besides “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” on the stereo.
BARRY: And for something non-Christmas-y, Hard Working Americans with Todd Snider on vocals and Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools on bass will play Track 29 on Friday. They are really good. Snider told me he wanted to learn how to play music that touches your heart – and dancing bones – more than your brain. It’s good stuff.
LISA: Oh, I got dancing bones – if I could only get them synchronized.
Get event details every Thursday in ChattanoogaNow or online anytime at www.ChattanoogaNow.com.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.