December Events

A three-day post-Thanksgiving comedy festival in in seven central Portland venues with 90 performers. Featured headliners are Dave Hill, Lizzy Cooperman, Adam Cayton-Holland, Janae Burris, Ron Lynch and Nathan Brannon. The venues for this festival are: Kelly’s OlympianOutrageSiren TheaterWhite Owl Social ClubVelvet LoungeKickstandShanghai Tunnel

Join Santa Claus and his elves for a magical ride behind Portland’s famous steam locomotives. Vintage rail cars transport you along the Willamette River in the heart of the city.

PDX Pop-Up Shops return to downtown Portland ever winter, making it easy to find locally made gifts for your holiday shopping list.

Oregon Ballet Theatre enriches the community with beautiful, exhilarating and athletic dance. This exhibit celebrates Oregon Ballet Theatre’s (OBT) first 30 years with vibrant film footage and photographs, costumes and theatrical artifacts that highlight the Company’s excellent performances, school and education outreach programs. For those who love OBT and the art of dance, the exhibit…

During Oregon’s premier tasting and cellar-stocking event, more than 150 wineries open their doors to the public, offering samples of favori

As you walk around the zoo, you’ll see a dazzling display of more than 1.5 million lights and experience the zoo in a whole new way. In addition to visiting elephants, mountain goats and other wildlife, you can ride the popular lighted train and carousel, and enjoy hot drinks and local food carts. Photos with…

From children’s classics to modern-day mysteries, this year’s Pittock Mansion Christmas explores the wonderful world of books. Experience the literary visions of local decorators as they transform the Mansion’s rooms into magical storybook settings.

The Christmas Bazaar has 1000 booths, with half of those being handcrafted vendors. The other half of the show consists of selected commercial items geared towards holiday shopping. The Christmas Bazaar started in 1982, and to this day remains small and local, with three employees. During its 38 years the show has kept pace with…

Portland Japanese Garden presents the art of Noritaka Tatehana in his first-ever North American solo exhibition. Installed in the Pavilion and Tanabe Galleries located within the manicured grounds of the renowned Gardens, Tatehana enchants through his use of traditional symbols of sophistication and beauty with the inclusion of new, never-before-seen artworks created especially for this…

Find unique handmade bikey gifts for your whole crew at this year’s BikeCraft Holiday Gift Fair. When you’ve checked off your list, stick around for food, drinks, music and a comfy place to hang on a winter day. BikeCraft brings together the area’s best and brightest designers, artists, authors and crafters in a fun and…

Portland’s Singing Christmas Tree is back for a spectacular new holiday extravaganza with special guest artists Katie Harman and Georgene Rice and all-new show-stopping numbers. This is a Christmas celebration you will not want to miss.

By Langston Hughes. The show was originally first performed off-Broadway on December 11, 1961 and the first play written by an African American to be staged there. Traditional holiday carols are sung in gospel style with a few additional songs selected for the show. This powerful holiday musical will appeal to everyone regardless of their…

Come and enjoy the magic of Scrooge during the Christmas Holiday. This kid-friendly show will have you laughing, crying and fully interacting with the characters on stage. There’s dancing and singing, along with some very fun audience participation. Don’t miss the opportunity to see this show on its 13th year.

Presenting the sights, sounds and sensations of the season, The Grotto’s Christmas Festival of Lights is the largest Christmas choral festival in the world. The festival features nearly 160 indoor holiday concerts performed by many of the region’s finest school, church and civic choirs. Offering a family-oriented blend of traditional celebration and serene reflection, the…

Recognized throughout the Pacific Northwest as the “Largest Holiday Light Show West of the Mississippi”, the 26th annual Winter Wonderland will grab your attention with glimmers and glows around every corner. Since 1993, a journey through Winter Wonderland has become a holiday tradition for many families, friends, and social organizations to celebrate the spirit of…

The Holiday Ale Festival, set beneath the region’s largest decorated holiday tree, returns every year with more than 50 big, bold beers designed to keep revelers warm on cold winter nights.

White Album Xmas has become a tradition – a way to keep Portland weird during the holiday season. The Nowhere Band – a full 15-piece Beatles orchestra plays the White Album in its entirety, while the jugglers, aerialists, clowns and acrobats of the Portland Circus Allstars present feats of remarkable strength, focus and dexterity. Guaranteed…

The Portland Night Market showcases many unique businesses that call Portland home. Blending food, culture, music, drinks and retail together for an adventurous evening in the Central Eastside. Come meet some of Portland’s best makers and creators! The Portland Night Market is a bimonthly, free event and open to all ages.

The Christmas Ship Parade started in 1954 with one lone sailboat from Portland Yacht Club. Bows of green with some ribbon where tied along the rails and it paraded on the rivers. The next year the parade started to grow Today, the Christmas Ship Fleet averages about 55 to 60 boats between the Columbia and…

ADX and Portland Made invite you to celebrate the holidays at Gifted: A Holiday Night Market. Local artists and makers include Ayumi Angel, Animal.Plant.Mineral, Sticker Ninja, Blendily, Clay Factor Ceramics, Otter Wax, Just Joey Rose, High Society Collection, Bitter Housewife, Sweet Body Laboratories, Mad Sass Soap, New Deal Distillery, Renee Staeck, Cat Odell, Midnight Pacific,…

First Caturday is a day to reclaim the glory of the outdoors for our feline friends. It is a day for delightful outdoor cat-napping and socializing, and where cat owners can freely exchange information, friendship and joy to help make their cats happy and healthy. Some cats actually like leash walks; others like stroller walks…

OMSI offers a Guided Tech Tour on the second and fourth Sunday of every month. This special tour guided by an actual submarine veteran is for those who would like to learn more about the technical workings of the Blueback. The maximum tour size is eight people, so plan ahead and reserve your spot. Tech…

Portland’s biannual art and craft fair boasts unique handmade wares from 225+ local vendors.

Together, Pioneer Courthouse Square and Portland Mall Management, Inc. are hosting the Sixth Annual Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition that was originally held throughout Downtown in the early ’90s. The Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition is a fun and festive event that will bring caroling groups of all ages to the heart of downtown.

Downtown will pulse with the melodic sounds of big brass as nearly 300 tubas play in unison for the 29th Annual Tuba Christmas Concert in the heart of downtown. This event is free and open to the public.

Tender Table, a monthly event series started in Portland in 2017, gathers people together around food, stories, and community. The series features stories by women, trans, and nonbinary folks who are black, indigenous, or people of color. Tender Table creates spaces that increase the visibility of our community and provides a platform for these individuals’…

Each house in this quaint Southeast neighborhood has been decorating for Christmas for decades. Mostly Tudors, the houses are adorned with not only beautiful sparkling lights, but also nativity scenes, rotating Christmas trees and stunningly life-like replicas of Santa and Frosty. Come see the lights on Peacock Lane and you’ll find nothing but good, old-fashioned…

No time to check everyone off your “nice” list? No problem! ‘Tis the season for the Festival of the Last-Minute. With any welcome holiday tradition, Portland Saturday Market returns with its one-stop event for all those who’ve delayed starting their shopping — and those who simply don’t want to stop. Open daily from December 19…

Starting at 2 p.m. at Ankeny Alley and Candy Ultra Lounge, Stumptown SantaCon spans 30 venues, a dance party in the street and three channels from Heartbeat Silent Disco at Santa’s Playground brought to you by the Barrel Room. 100% net proceeds go to support local charities. Last year, over $20,000 was raised. Costumes required….

Up to 20,000 gray whales migrate along Oregon’s coast every winter and spring. Spot them from these four locations.

Being Present: Revisiting, Somewhat Unfaithfully, Portland’s Most Experimental Art Experiment, PCVA From 1972 to 1987, the Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA) was a major force in the Pacific Northwest, introducing progressive forms of contemporary art from around the country to Portland audiences. Temporary site-specific installations by major, mostly New York-based sculptors, announced its…

At the International Exposition of 1900 in Paris, American sociologist, historian, and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois put together “The American Negro Exhibit,” a remarkable collection of more than 300 photographs of African-American men and women, homes, churches, businesses and universities. These photographs were paired with a series of charts and graphs designed by…

Offered by Wildwood Adventures. Upon departure from downtown Portland, the Gateway to the Gorge is where the real beauty begins. From earth-shaking landslides to enormous glacial flooding, the formation of the area has left us with breathtaking sights to behold. As you traverse from a temperate rainforest in the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area to…

Offered by Wildwood Adventures. Species seen nowhere else in the world, dramatic basalt lava flows nearly a mile deep and some of the world’s most beautiful waterfalls are a few of the sights that await you on this tour. Come experience the grandeur of the Columbia River Gorge, one of the United States’ most photographed…

Retiring Curator of Asian Art Maribeth Graybill presents her personal favorites from among more than 600 Japanese prints acquired during her tenure at the Museum. The exhibition includes works by leading masters of the 18th and 19th centuries, chosen for their exceptional condition; warrior prints, a genre previously neglected in the collection; and prints by…

Exquisite Creatures, an artistic experience that unravels humanity’s intimate relationship with the natural world, makes its Oregon debut at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) on Oct. 5, 2019. Artist, naturalist and New York Times bestselling author Christopher Marley reveals the obscure beauty in nature through his three-dimensional work with animal, mineral and…

In the years leading up to World War II, racial segregation and discrimination were part of daily life for many in the United States. For most African Americans, even the most basic rights and services were fragmented or denied altogether. To be black was to know the limits of freedom — excluded from the opportunity,…

Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal … is the first major survey of the work of one of America’s most important conceptual artists. Throughout his career, Hank Willis Thomas (American, born 1976) has fearlessly addressed racism, inequality and bias in bold, skillfully crafted works. Through photographs, sculpture, video, audience-activated digital animation and collaborative public…

Isaka Shamsud-Din: Rock of Ages is an intimate exhibition celebrating the Portland artist’s masterful paintings, rich in a narrative combining personal stories and folklore. Shamsud-Din’s paintings also celebrate and honor individuals by capturing portraits. Tightly composed and with a vibrancy of color, the works invite viewers to be among these individuals and warm settings. The…

Leonard Bernstein at 100 celebrates the life and work of Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), the great Jewish American composer and conductor who dedicated his life to making classical music a vibrant part of American culture. The exhibition features photographs, personal items, papers, scores, correspondence, costumes, furniture and audio and video recordings. A vocal booth gives visitors…

Norma Bassett Hall was born in Halsey, Oregon, in 1888. Just 18 years later, she entered the School of the Portland Art Association in its first year and by 1929, she had achieved national recognition for her art. Yet, with her local roots and strong ties to Oregon art, her work has never been the…

Offered by Wildwood Adventures. With the Willamette River down the center and the Columbia River above, Portland is often more wildly known by its nicknames such as “Bridgetown,” “Brewtopia,” and “City of Roses.” Nestled at the base of a volcano and bundled snugly by old growth forests, this city boasts a landscape beyond a basic…

In the rich tradition of portraiture reflected in Northwest art, there is an exemplary range of individuals and styles of depiction. For this exhibition, the artist Storm Tharp was invited to help select works from the collection through his keen eyes as a fellow portraitist. As he combed through the collection, some themes in portraiture…

Presented in conjunction with Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal…, on view in the Main Building, Question Bridge: Black Males is a project of Cause Collective, a long-term project-based collaboration between Thomas and a team of artists, designers and ethnographers who create innovative forms of public art that spark cross-cultural conversations. Question Bridge: Black…

For generations, the All American Toy Company has captured the interest of children and adults alike. Beginning in 1947 with its first release of the Timber Toter, a logging truck, the company’s lineup included a series of vehicles that represented expanding industries in Oregon, including dump trucks used in construction, cattle liners that transported the…

The artistic poster first flourished in the United States in the 1890s. Initially following design trends pioneered in Europe, American artists soon created their own unique style. Magazines were among the first to adopt this new form of advertising, employing outstanding designers such as Will Bradley, Edward Penfield and Maxfield Parrish to advertise periodicals including…

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During the early 20th century, Pictorialist photographer Anne Brigman regularly hiked and camped in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, photographing the rugged landscape with her 4×5-inch view camera. She later recalled, “I slowly found my power with the camera among the junipers and tamarack pines of the high, storm-swept altitudes.” Toughened to Wind and Sun…

Offered by Wildwood Adventures. World-famous Pinot Noirs, crisp Chardonnays and sweet Rieslings are just a taste of the dozens of wines that Oregon has to offer. On this adventure through the rolling hills of the Willamette Valley, you’ll visit three carefully selected vineyards. Guests will partake in tasting flights and experience a behind-the-scenes view of…

A rich variety of renowned cafes and pioneering micro-roasters can be found in each of Portland’s diverse neighborhoods, but there’s no better way to explore the delicious coffee scene than by jumping on the streetcar. On this three-hour walking tour, you’ll sip your way through Portland’s coffee scene in downtown, the Pearl District and the…