Weekend Planner: Holiday Stroll and Gingerbread Decorating

Gingerbread decorating at 75 Chestnut last year

If you’re not in the spirit yet, listen up: head to Newton Highlands on Friday evening, December 14, for the 1st Annual Holiday Stroll & Sing-a-Long, where you can wine, dine, shop and share in the fun.  Along with crafts for the children (inside Green Planet Kids) and boutique shopping, you’ll get hot mulled cider from 51 Lincoln and mini hot chocolates for the kids from Lincoln Street Coffee. Also be  sure to check out the wine and beer tasting at Walnut Street Market starting at 6 PM (the first 50 households will receive a free bottle of wine!); and snag a 99-cent slice of pizza from Newton Pizza House.

Bring five canned goods (for the food pantry) to Bread & Chocolate Bakery Café on Friday and get a grilled cheese and tomato soup supper for free, or pay $5 if you bring one can (617-243-0500). Oh, and join in on the carol sing, and when you’re done, slip your server at O’Hara’s Food & Spirits a song sheet and you’ll get a free appetizer when you order two entrees, after 9 PM (617-965-6785). Most of the festivities go from 5-9 PM.

If you’re in the market for making a gingerbread house, here are two places you can go. On Saturday, December 15 or December 22, head to Sportello in Fort Point Channel to the gingerbread workshop, where all you have to do is decorate the house. You can also get a gingerbread decorating kit to take home ($15 per kit, in-house and to takeout; 617-737-1234)!

On Sunday, 75 Chestnut in Beacon Hill and 75 on Liberty Wharf in the Seaport will host Gingerbread Bliss, an evening of gingerbread house decorating married with a special menu of dishes including gingerbread Swiss chocolate soup ($9); a sweet and savory gingerbread duck salad ($21); and a gingerbread martini ($12). Stop in, decorate a house, stay for dinner. A portion of the gingerbread-decorating ticket sales will go toward a local charity (5 PM-12 AM; $25 per ticket for decorating; 617-227-0754).