It's In Queens! Events from December 5th to December 11th

Holiday season magic is in the air. So are classic concerts, Irish ballads, the Marimba, doo woop and the Boston Pops. In addition to the wonderful sounds, Queens hosts a brand new play, various throwback movies, tree lightings and the opportunity to edit Wikipedia entries about the borough. After the jump, we break down all your Queens events into dedicated sections for food, arts, music, education, and the holidays. Would you like to include your event in our weekly “It’s In Queens!” post? Send them to emily@brownstoner.com.

FOOD
Dec. 7, Taste of Rockaway Beach, 9 am to 11 pm. Ten restaurants — Irish Circle, 101 Deli, Playland Motel & Pizza, Veggie Island, Surfside Bagels, UMA’s, Elegante Pizza, Sayra’s Wine Bar, Thai Rock and Bungalow Bar — participate. $10, Rockaway Beach.

Weekdays, Food Box at Falchi, 6:30 am to 4:00 pm. The Food Box at Falchi is a pop-up food concept in a vacant retail space in the Jamestown property. A variety of food vendors serve every weekdays from 6:30am until 4:00 pm. 31-00 47th Avenue, LIC.

MUISC
Dec. 6, The Dublin City Ramblers, 7:30 pm. This Irish band has thrilled audiences worldwide with ballads, folk, humor and foot-tapping music for over 35 years. $15 to $27. New York Irish Center, 10-40 Jackson Ave., LIC.

Dec. 6, Boogie Woogie, Ragtime & Stride Piano, 8 pm. Multi-instrumentalist Ayodele Maakheru & The Windsong String Ensemble perform an ode to Ragtime, Boogie Woogie and Stride. $15/$10 students. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing.

Dec. 6, Bach & Brew, 6 pm. Pianist Dongsok Shin performs on King Manor’s fortepiano with accompaniment by violinist Leah Nelson. The program includes Johann Christian Bach and Muzio Clementi. Sample craft beer similar to what would have been enjoyed during Rufus King’s lifetime. KM, King Manor Park, Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica.

Dec. 7, Making Music with the Marimba, 7:30 pm. International percussion virtuoso and Queens resident Makoto Nakura plays with violinist Jesse Mills and pianist Barbara Podgurski. The program includes Nakura’s own transcriptions of Bach’s Solo Partita in E major and Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso; the pyrotechnic display of Paganini’s Caprice no. 24 and Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka; and more recent works by Japanese composers Toshi Ichiyanagi and Toshio Mashima. $20 adults/$15 seniors/$10 students/free children under 12. The Church-in-the-Gardens, 50 Ascan Ave., Forest Hills.

Dec. 8, Holiday Pops with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, 7:30 pm. Conductor Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops perform their signature Sleigh Ride, other classics and new arrangements of seasonal favorites. Santa Claus makes a guest appearance during the finale followed by the traditional sing-a-long. Kupferberg Center for the Arts, Colden Auditorium, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing.

ARTS
Dec. 6, Oliver! 7:30 pm. The creative team and cast has been announced for Oliver!, which begins its limited holiday run December 6 at The Secret Theatre in Long Island City, NY. Performances run through December 22, 2013. The Secret Theatre, 4402 23rd St., Long Island City.

Dec. 6, Performances by Judith Sloan and Warren Lehrer, 7 pm. Famous for their award-winning book on Queens Crossing the Boulevard, Sloan and Lehrer’s performance fuses theatre, radio and poetry. A Q&A follows. $5. Queens Council on the Arts, 37-11 35th Ave., Astoria.

Dec. 6, The Re-Gift of the Magi (Opening), 8 pm. This comedic play reveals why the Wise Men made their perilous journey. Balthazar, Melchior and Gaspar give Joshua an education in the shul of real life. Shows run until Dec. 21. $10. The Chain Theatre, 21-28 45th Rd., LIC.

Dec. 6, Sweet Smell of Success, 7 pm. Museum of the Moving Image’s ongoing series See It Big! presents 22 films on a huge screen. One of the great New York movies of the 1950s, Sweet Smell of Success, pits Burt Lancaster’s ruthless columnist J. J. Hunsecker against Tony Curtis’s desperate publicist Sidney Falco in a noirish morality play. MMI, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria.

Dec. 7, Jay & the Americans, 8 pm. A nostalgic evening with the icons of the 1950s and 1960s, starring Jay & the Americans, The Brooklyn Bridge, Vito Picone & the Elegants and the Del Satins. $35, $45 and $55. Queens College Colden Center, Kissena Boulevard and Horace Harding Expressway, Flushing.

Dec. 7, Cabaret Night, 8 pm. Community theater and indy film actress and singer Jean Ann Kump and singer, impressionist and actor Barry Feterman mix charm, wit and velvet tunes in an intimate cabaret club-like setting. $22 to $25. Bay Terrace Jewish Center, 13-00 209th St., Bayside.

Dec. 7, Queens World Film Festival Goes to Queens Museum, 6 pm. Two films — Way by Elizabeth Pasieczny and Welcome to Nowhere (Bullet Hole Road) by William Cusick (Founder’s Choice QWFF 2013). QM, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Dec. 7, La Collectionneuse, 1:30 pm; My Night at Maud’s (Ma Nuit Chez Maud), 3:30 pm; The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 6 pm. Museum of the Moving Image’s ongoing series See It Big! presents 22 films on a huge screen. La Collectionneuse mixes the ethical and erotic dilemmas of two male friends from the avant-garde art world who try to resist the charms of a bikini-clad young “collector” of men in St. Tropez. In My Night at Maud’s, a pious Catholic finds his beliefs challenged when a beautiful divorcee invites him to spend a platonic night in her apartment. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a reinvention of the Western genre with Casey Affleck as an awkward young acolyte whose life becomes dramatically intertwined with a charismatic criminal played by Brad Pitt. MMI, 36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria.

Dec. 7, Gifted 2013. The Rockaway Artists Alliance’s final show of 2013 is a juried exhibition including drawing, mixed media, photography, painting, watercolor, video, textile work and sculpture. Show runs until Jan. 19, 2014. Fort Tilden.

Dec. 8, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas and Tribute to “Faz” Fazakas and Diana Birkenfield, 1 pm. Screening of TV special about Ma Otter and her son, Emmet, who secretly enter a talent contest to win money for each other’s Christmas presents. This program includes Kermit the Frog segments, rare outtakes, behind-the-scenes footage and tributes to two Jim Henson colleagues who died in the past year: puppeteer and special effects designer Franz “Faz” Fazakas; and Diana Birkenfield, whose work with Henson dates to The Jimmy Dean Show. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria.

Dec. 8, The Marriage of Maria Braun, 4pm; The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 7 pm. Museum of the Moving Image’s ongoing series See It Big! presents 22 films on a huge screen. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a reinvention of the Western genre with Casey Affleck as an awkward young acolyte whose life becomes dramatically intertwined with a charismatic criminal played by Brad Pitt. The Marriage of Maria Braun stars the commanding Hannah Schygulla in her signature performance as an ambitious woman in devastated postwar Germany. MMI, 36-01 35th Ave, Astoria.

HOLIDAY
Dec. 5, LIC Partnership’s Holiday Party & 2nd Annual Celebrate LIC, 5:30 pm. Join LIC Partnership and Modern Spaces for the Second Annual Celebrate LIC, a holiday event and preview LIC Flea’s Winter Market. A selection of favorite Flea vendors will be at the event selling food and gift items. Special benefits for LIC Partnership Members. 5-25 46th Avenue, LIC.

Dec. 6, Maspeth’s Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony, 6 pm. A huge tree, a visit from Santa, entertainment by local musicians and a free raffle for a bicycle. Free. Maspeth Memorial Plaza, 69th Street and Grand Avenue, Maspeth.

Dec. 7, Nowell! The Christmas Story in Song, 3 pm. On Saturday, December 7, and Sunday, December 8, at 3 p.m., the Gingerbread Players of Saint Luke’s Church offer a holiday treat for the community — a family-friendly concert in pageant form, featuring original music and traditional carol arrangements by local composer William Ryden. The two-performance run, presented in the beautiful, historic sanctuary of Saint Luke’s, uses the story of Christmas, told through spoken excerpts from the medieval mystery play “The Pageant of the Shearmen and Taylors,” as a visual framework for a concert of glorious music, ranging from Ryden’s original carol settings, to his arrangements of such perennial favorites as “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” “Angels from the Realms of Glory” and “Ding, Dong Merrily on High.” St. Luke’s Church, 85 Greenway South.

Dec. 8, Holiday Market, 9 am to 4 pm. Local food artisans and crafters sell their products. Plus, the organizers participate in the Sandy Claus Project, collecting new, unwrapped toys for children affected by Hurricane Sandy. St. Francis of Assisi School, 46th Street and Ditmars Boulevard, Astoria.

Dec. 8, Winter Solstice Celebration, 12:30 pm to 5 pm. Live musical performances, botanical craft workshops, photos with Santa, seasonal refreshments, a garden tour, special sales and a tree lighting. Free. Queens Botanical Garden, 43-50 Main St., Flushing.

EDUCATION
Dec. 6, Help Queens Library Enrich Topics on Wikipedia, 10 am to 7 pm. Drop in at any time to write and edit Wiki entries about Queens for accuracy and style. Free. Queens Library-Central, 89-11 Merrick Blvd., Jamaica.

Dec. 8, Writing Locally and Globally: From Queens to the World, 2pm to 4pm. Queens residents Richard Jeffrey Newman and Nancy Agabian read and discuss their work, which crosses borders—literally and figuratively. Both writers deal with issues of the body, exile, diaspora, and translation, and during this interactive and intimate literary salon event, they will explore how the borough provides creative inspiration for social engagement in their writing, including their support of Newtown Literary. Location: A Jackson Heights living room (exact location will be given to ticket holders).

Dec. 11, Come Learn About the Queens Paideia School, 9:15 am. Come learn about this unique, parent- and educator-built school, with a 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio, individualized learning plans, academic rigor, affordable tuition, and emphasis on community-building, the arts, environmental awareness, and healthful living. To attend, contact info@queenspaideiaschool.org or call 718-361-0070.

The “It’s In Queens” column is produced by the Queens Tourism Council with the hope that readers will enjoy the borough’s wonderful attractions.