5 Things To Do This Weekend In Birmingham

BIRMINGHAM, MI — Want to show your visiting family and friends some metro Detroit adventures? Below are a few ideas to get you out of the house and into the holiday spirit.

1. Celebrate Small Business Saturday in downtown Birmingham on Nov. 26. There will be carriage rides from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Santa House from 12:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., and carolers on the scene all day. This will really get you in the holiday spirit: free parking on streets and parking decks and free valet parking at Old Woodward/north of Maple and Henrietta/Maple.

2. Your next stop after Small Business Saturday could be the Baldwin Library, which will have wrapping paper, ribbons, bows and tags for shoppers to beautifully wrap their parcels between 12:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Put these workshops on your radar: At 2:00 p.m. calligrapher Leah Moss will demonstrate how to make calligraphy tags and at 3:00 p.m. Maria Williams will demonstrate how to make beautiful hand-made bows.

3. Want to skate off your Thanksgiving second helpings? Head to the ice skating rink at Campus Martius. It's $8 for adults to skate, $7 for kids 12 and under, $7 for seniors. Skate rental: $3. Below is the weekend schedule:

Thursday, Nov. 24 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 25 11:00 a.m. – Midnight
Saturday, Nov. 26 10:00 a.m. – Midnight
Sunday, Nov. 27 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

4. Come nighttime, hit the wildly festive Big, Bright Light Show in downtown Rochester. Store fronts are lit up in a merry cascade of colors from 5 p.m. to midnight nightly.

5. Detroit is home to the hippest nutcracker of all! The Hip Hop Nutcracker, a magical performance by dancers, a DJ and a violinist, will be at the Fox Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 27 at 6:30 p.m. "Through the spells cast by the mysterious Drosselmeyer, Maria-Clara and her Nutcracker prince, travel back in time to the moment when her parents first meet in a nightclub," reads the performance description on the Fox Theatre website.

Photo by Ayana T. Miller via Flickr