Arts

For those who love music, the Christmas season can present a conflicted situation. Often, a favorite carol or album is essential to enjoying the season and to connecting current celebrations to those of years past. Many music lovers seek out and delight in annual performances by dependable ensembles of particular works, such as “The Nutcracker” or Handel’s “Messiah,” or pull out a collection of CDs that only sees the light of day during the portion of the year with the least daylight.

Gabriele Raacke, who grew up in a small village in the Black Forest near Freiburg, Germany, wanted to be a bookseller. To that end she attended the booksellers school in Frankfurt, which offered a three-and-a-half-year program required for anybody who wanted to work in a bookstore or publishing house.

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will hold its fifth Gesture Jam, a theatrical figure drawing event, tomorrow at 6 p.m. Andrea Cote, an artist and educator who conceived the idea for the class while living in Seattle in the 1990s, will lead the program.

Bay Street Theater will throw a holiday party and sing-along with the special guests Don Duga, the animator who helped create “Frosty the Snowman,” and Rick Unterberg, a piano bar entertainer, on Monday at 7 p.m.

Sophia Brous and Carlos Soto, performance artists, will each share works in progress with the public on Saturday at the Watermill Center. Ms. Brous, an Australian performer who will be in residence at the center in January, will be gathering material from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for “Lullaby Movement,” a project exploring lullaby rituals from around the world that she is developing with David Coulter and Leo Abrahams, British musicians.

You can find your artistic gifts at the Small Works show at Ashawagh Hall in Springs on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Carly Haffner of Sag Harbor will show her new work at The Ripe Art Gallery in Huntington.

You begin to see them everywhere this time of year, trees and shrubs bundled in burlap as if they are presents. During the holiday season, they almost look normal, as if nature was saving its gifts for a later time. “Don’t open me until March 31,” the wrappings seem to admonish.

Grace Coddington, author of “Grace: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue,” originally published in 2002 and just reissued by Phaidon Books, will be present for a book signing and sale of the book at the Antique Shop on Main Street in Bridgehampton on Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.

“I’m very uninterested in subject matter,” Eugene Brodsky told a recent visitor to his East Hampton studio, although he has also said that “the sources for my work start from images I come across.” In his artworks, things are what they seem, and yet there’s more than meets the eye.

David Slater will be opening his new show “Dreams, Ghosts, and Blue Moons,” at the Peter Marcelle Project in Southampton with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Don't miss this unique and original artist. The Drawing Room in East Hampton will its “Winter Salon,” an eclectic installation of contemporary works by gallery artists juxtaposed with works on paper from the 18th and 19th centuries on Saturday.

Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor will present “The Vendettas: Rock and Roll Holiday Spectacular” on Saturday at 8 p.m. The band, made up of Jay Janoski, Dave Doscher, and Lenny Brentson, has been together for six years, refining its repertoire of ’50s jukebox hits, rockabilly rarities, and contemporary material.

After opening a second location for his Southampton-based Tripoli Gallery this year in East Hampton, Tripoli Patterson might have been expected to do a larger than usual version of his annual “Thanksgiving Collective.” But few could have foreseen just how large that vision would become.

The East Hampton Library will present “Gods and Monsters,” a 1998 film based on the last days of James Whale, the director of “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein,” tomorrow at 4 p.m. Carter Burwell, who scored the film, will be present at the screening.

The Choral Society of the Hamptons will inaugurate its 70th anniversary season on Sunday at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church with performances at 3 and 5:30 p.m. Ottorino Respighi’s “Laud to the Nativity” will be the centerpiece of the program, which will also include shorter selections, among them medieval English carols, a Venetian polychoral work by Gabrieli, and Christmas music by composers including Vulpius and Praetorius.

The Christian Science church in Southampton will present its annual Christmas concert and carol sing on Saturday at 3 p.m. Ron Meixsell, a baritone, and Julie Ann Meixsell, a soprano, who live in Northport, will be the featured performers.

The Sag Harbor Whaling Museum will hold its second annual holiday cocktail party and fund-raiser on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.

The Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack will deck the halls of the studio and make everything bright at its annual holiday market on Saturday. Featuring fresh-cut greens for wreaths and sprays, and homemade gifts and decorations, the market will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

It’s not too surprising to see that Susan Ecker spent an extra year studying art history after receiving her M.F.A. in drawing and painting. Her subject matter teems with classical, neo-classical, and postmodern references in the show now on view at the Peter Marcelle Project in Southampton.

The Quogue Library will show “Small Treasures,” an exhibition of small and intimate works by nine East End artists. A reception will be held on Dec. 12 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Ille Arts will reopen in the spring at a new location across the street at 171 Main Street.

Bay Street Theater has announced that “Grey Gardens: The Musical,” which played last summer at the Sag Harbor venue, will enjoy a new production next summer at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles.

Every year, South Fork artists garner new and increased attention at the various fairs and events that make up Miami’s Art Basel week. Whether in the grand booths of the Miami Beach Convention Center, in a funky satellite in Wynwood or North Beach, in a family museum in an old warehouse, in a pool cabana, or even in a hotel room, exhibitors from around the corner or around the world bring international exposure to our regional faves and allow us to see how they measure up to the giants of the current and historical marketplace.

Arne Maynard, an internationally renowned garden designer from the U.K., will give a lecture and sign copies of his newest book, “The Gardens of Arne Maynard,” on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Marders Nursery in Bridgehampton.

The Art of Song’s Parlor Jazz series will return to the Bridgehampton Museum’s archive building on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with a performance by Alina Engibaryan, winner of the 2015 Montreaux Jazz Voice Competition.

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will celebrate Thanksgiving weekend with a Hamptons Holiday Party and Market tomorrow and Saturday.

If you are looking for some holiday cheer of the musical variety in the coming weeks, there are quite a few events to put you in the spirit of the season. Concerts and sing-alongs are planned in wineries, restaurants, churches, and theaters.

LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton will open its gates for a holiday gathering on Saturday afternoon from 2 to 4.

The Hamptons International Film Festival is now accepting submissions for its 16th annual Screenwriters Lab, which will take place in East Hampton in April.

ArtSolar will hold a reception and exhibition of work by nine East End artists on Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. at 12 Koala Lane in East Hampton. Take a Thanksgiving ArtWalk on Saturday afternoon from 1 to 5. Twenty-five galleries from Southampton to Montauk will participate in the self-guided tour, and many will accept donations of food and/or money for local food pantries.

Center Stage at the Southampton Cultural Center will present 10 performances of “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” starting tomorrow at 7 p.m. and continuing through Thanksgiving weekend.

“Harvest Harmonies,” a chamber music concert by the Poetica Ensemble, will take place on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church.