SUZY STUMP: DON'T ENJOY GETTING MALLED? >>>

You donââ?¬â?¢t need a Cinnabon to have a positive shopping experience. Consider an alternative, if you will. Saturday, inside the Capitol Theater, Duck The Malls arts and crafts sale will be a gathering place for Olympia punks, hippies, hipsters, youngsters, oldsters, artists, Weekly Volcano-sters, crafters and folks of all kinds as an antidote to everything thatââ?¬â?¢s wrong with the hectic, antiseptic, fluorescent-lighted mall. 

More than 40 of Oly's finest artisans have worked all year to present you with artistic gifts for the holidays: paintings, lamps, hats, purses, dolls, musical instruments, pottery, fused glass and more.
 
There is no admission. Baked goods will be sold, and the movie theater concession will be open also. The Olympia Film Society will be on hand to give details on its membership.

The event also raises money for the Olympia Film Society.

Check it.

[Capitol Theater, Saturday, Dec. 12, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., no cover, 206 E. Fifth Ave., Olympia, 360.754.6670]

MICHAEL SWAN: TUESDAY, DEC. 8, 2009 >>>

1. Zoolights features more than a half-million lights - including the massive flame tree - from 5-9 p.m. at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium.

2. Classical Tuesdays in Old Town presents TangoHeart Quartet, plus wine and empanadas, at 7 p.m. inside Connelly Law Offices.

3. Randal Platt's Book Launch Party for Hellie Jondoe begins at 7 p.m. inside the Mandolin Café.

4. Tacoma Community College's Joy & Laughter Concert featuring the TCC Singers, TCC Voices, TCC Gospel Choir and improv from Taproot Theater begins at 7 p.m.

5. Mary Win and Daniel Adams perform alternative folk rock at 8 p.m. inside the Northern Pacific Coffee Company.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

SUZY STUMP: SANKTA LUCIA CELEBRATION AT PLU FRIDAY >>>

The holidays are here. Oh, yes. The season of cards, yearly newsletters, family parties involving long-lost relatives.

How well can you sum up the past year in two minutes or less (the average attention span of one of your red state relatives)?

Trust us, it’s even more depressing if you can do it. 

So you need a story to make your life seem interesting, or at least strange, so they’ll back away slowly and leave you alone. Just to add some depth to your character, you should go to the Sankta Lucia Celebration Friday at Pacific Lutheran University. The Sankta Lucia ceremony, which marks the beginning of the Christmas season, includes Swedish entertainment such as dancing, children’s choirs, the telling of the Lucia legend and the crowning of Lucia.

A reception will follow inside the Scandinavian Cultural Center on the PLU campus.

RON SWARNER: SWEATERS SO BAD THEY'RE GOOD >>>

Three years ago Doyle’s Public House co-owner Russ Heaton laughed when his Minnesota friend recommended he host an ugly holiday sweater party. After Heaton rolled his eyes for the fifth time, he Googled it. Search results suggested it wasn’t a crazy idea.

Six people dressed for his 2006 Bad Holiday Sweater Party â€" including Heaton and his now wife, Jennifer.

Last year, the number tripled.

Both years the Stadium District bar packed them in due to Tacoma’s desire to tie one on the night before Thanksgiving. However, the few people dressed in red and green with dangling knit ornaments stuck out like sore thumbs, forced to explain they weren’t retarded.

Tonight, hoping three times a charm, Doyle’s opened its doors for folks donning snowmen, Santas and bells in appliqué, yarn and sequins. Thirty minutes into its 8:35 p.m. launch, I counted 60 ugly holiday sweaters â€" not an easy chore in a packed house.

Even with safety in numbers, I still felt a little “special” in my hideous holiday sweater vest. Grabbing cash inside Stadium Thriftway on the way to the party was a poor decision, too.

LINK: More ugly sweater photos from Dolyle’s

SUZY STUMP: YULE BOUTIQUE THIS SATURDAY>>>

Even if you don't personally celebrate a single holiday in winter - even if you say Hanukkah schmanukah and bah humbug in the same breath as you tell the Kwanzaa candle lighters what they can do with their ujamaa - it's still cold and wet outside, and we know somewhere in your desiccated non-denominational soul there is a desire to share something with others in this dark season. Something merry. Perhaps even bright.

Yes, well, festivity doesn't get any more vague than the description for the Yule Boutique: "The Yule Boutique, sponsored by the PLU Women's Association, is a holiday bazaar featuring quality arts and crafts and a variety of food vendors." There's also a Nordic Sweater Exchange (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) that allows you to sell or exchange "gently-used" Nordic clothing. Those who have been before know it's a feakin' festivus of holidayness.

All are welcome Saturday, Nov. 21 at Pacific Lutheran University's Olson auditorium. Happy mid-November.

[Pacific Lutheran University Olson Auditorium, Saturday, Nov. 21, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., $3, 10th Avenue South and 124th Street South, Parkland/Tacoma, 253.531. 7581]

MICHAEL SWAN: DOYLE’S THANKSGIVING EVE TRADITION IS ON >>>

You knew there was a reason to hold on to the Christmas-light-laden and obscenely geometric printed green-and-red sweater. You once thought even the one with reindeer had potential. Now it’s time to explore your closets because, ladies and gentlemen, the bad holiday sweater contest is back at Doyle’s Public House Wednesday, Nov. 25.

“The night before Thanksgiving provides the perfect opportunity to break out the classic bad holiday sweater,” wrote Doyle’s co-owner Russ Heaton on their Facebook page. “Everyone has one that was gifted or re-gifted to them from an aunt or a not so good friend. If you do not have one fear not. Head down to the thrift store and splurge the $5.

Heaton understands that not everyone has a bad holiday sweater, so he will allow bad Cosby sweaters, too.

Prizes will be awarded for individual, couple and group.

[Doyle’s Public House, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 8:35-11:35 p.m., no cover, 208 Saint Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.7468]

MICHAEL SWAN: IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE ... >>>

Sunday I noticed the wood fencing for the annual Christmas tree lot next to Walmart on Sixth Avenue. This morning the Gig Harbor Visitor Information Center sent its first round of holiday events notices. Just a few minutes ago this popped in our e-mail.

Ready or not. ...

MICHAEL SWAN: FRIDAY, OCT. 30 >>>

1. Arsenic and Old Lace - Joseph Kesselring's dark comedy about crazy aunts and poison starring Cary Grant - screens at 7:30 p.m. inside the Theatre on the Square.

2. Walk behind the scenes in an old ballet studio and see what kind of chills, thrills, and arabesques lurk as Tacoma City Ballet dancers are joined by the Bare Foot Collective - and maybe a couple of ghouls and goblins - in an interactive experience titled The Haunted Theatre: Backstage Tour and Eerie Dances at 5:30 and 7 p.m. at The Merlino Art Center.

3. Bring your kindergarten through sixth-grade kids out for Metro Parks Tacoma's Boo Bash, a safe night of trick-or-treating, from 6-8 p.m. at the South End Neighborhood Resource Center.

4. Vinum Coffee and Wine Lounge in downtown Tacoma throws a Halloween Party with games, prizes, costume contest and Brotherhood Of The Black Squirrel at 8 p.m.
 
5. Many Halloween parties in the clubs start tonight.

CONCERTS: On sale today

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

WEEKLY VOLCANO: FRIGHT NIGHT GUIDE >>>

The weekend of frights is upon us once again, and there are, as always, plenty of ways to spend the Devil's holiday. Below we list the links - it's up to you to decide where you'll go, and, of course, what you'll wear. Boo, South Sound.

LINK: Halloween Events

LINK: Friday Night Halloween Parties

LINK: Saturday Halloween Parties

MICHAEL SWAN: WEDNESDAY, OCT. 21, 2009 >>>

Sleeve facing - the international trend in which a person covers a part of their body with a record sleeve and takes a photo - will be taught in the Olympic Room at the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch from 4-6 p.m.

2. The Tacoma Dome opens its doors at 10 a.m. so you can buy It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas Tree fragrance at the Tacoma Holiday Food & Gift Festival.

3. Uncle Sam's American Bar & Grill in Spanaway hosts "Harmonica Dave" aka David Brian Erwin at 7 p.m.

4. Maia Santell & House Blend perform before dancers at Studio 6 Ballroom from 8-11 p.m.

5. It's Masa's College Night with "Your Girlfriend's Favorite DJ" spinning at 9 p.m.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide