First Friday events and Cold Spring by Candlelight Tours set
The Cold Spring Area Chamber of Commerce welcomes visitors to Cold Spring the first weekend in December for holiday shopping, strolling and touring of historic sites and homes.
Visitors and locals can kick off the weekend in Cold Spring on Friday, Dec. 6, for the village’s First Friday events. Start off with a stroll between two of the village’s art galleries, Gallery 66 NY at 66 Main St., and Marina Gallery at 153 Main St.
Gallery 66 NY will feature two different exhibits. In Taking Precedence, featuring artists Rick Thurston and Lisa Zukowski, the artists revisit and reflect on images over the passage of time through their travels on land and sea. Thinking Small is an exhibition of art pieces specifically created for the holiday season. Priced from $40, the original works in the central gallery range from signed pieces by famed artist Donald Alter, colorful and textured abstracts by Cynthia McCusker, inspired by a flight of birds, the whimsical miniature felt houses of Rebecca Darlington, Jane Soodalter’s mysterious and seductive macro-photographs, Tarryl Gabel’s elegiac oil representations of Hudson River Valley scenes, and the magnificent landscape photography of Cali Gorevic and Gregory Martin. Gallery 66 NY will also feature live music and refreshments.
A First Friday Family Dance and Fundraiser will be held from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. at Suzi Tortora’s Dancing Dialogue Studio, 26 Main St. Donation proceeds will go toward the Friends of Philipstown Recreation Department’s Philipstown Park Pavilion Project.
World’s End Theater’s (WET) First Friday Reading for December is the timeless classic, The Lion in Winter. The reading is at 8 p.m. at Philipstown.info, 69 Main St. The staged reading is free with first come, first served seating. The play includes a tremendous cast including Philipstown residents Nancy Swann and Donald Kimmel as Eleanor and Henry, respectively. Also featured will be Broadway veteran Aaron Galligan Stierle (Phantom, Ragtime), Kelsey Olsen (WET’s The Seagull, The Way of the World) and Hudson Valley Shakespeare veterans Charlie Murphy, Mark Couchot, and Taylor Walsh.
Activities continue Saturday with the Cold Spring Farmers’ Market at St. Mary’s Church, 1 Chestnut St., at Main Street, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. This Saturday’s market features All You Knead, Amazing Real Live Food Co., Block Factory Tamales, Breezy Hill Orchard & Cider Mill, Knollcrest Farm, Continental Organics, Dutch Desserts, Full Moon Farm, Go-Go Pops, Magic Baking, Madura Farms, Morgiewicz Produce, Pura Vida Fisheries, Perry’s Pickles, Shawangunk Growers, Hudson River Apiaries, Cold Spring Coffee Pantry, Krazy for Kazu’s and Whitecliff Vineyards.
St. Mary’s Church will also host its annual holiday craft fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., showcasing unique handcrafted gifts, seasonal centerpieces, floral items, decorations and elegant gift baskets.
After shopping at the market and craft fair, visitors and villagers are invited to tour historic sites and homes decorated for the holidays during the 11th Annual Cold Spring by Candlelight Holiday Festival & House Tours. The houses and sites will be open from noon to 5 p.m., and festivities include holiday music, caroling, ice carving demonstrations and more. Tickets may be purchased in advance at coldspringbycandlelight.com until 11 a.m. on Dec. 5, or from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, at Cold Spring Village Hall, 85 Main Street.
Finish the evening in Cold Spring with two versions of A Christmas Carol, a dinner theater version of the holiday classic at Hudson House River Inn, 2 Main St., (call 845-265-9355 for reservations) and a staged reading by the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival players at St. Mary’s Church (visit hvshakespeare.org for tickets and information).
