Filled with the spirit

All good little boys and girls know this is the season for cookies, cotton candy, monkeys, nutcrackers and that jolly old elf

December is when Santa Claus makes so many trips that Santa Claus Lane is torn up for widening to four lanes. But the Jolly Old Elf comes through in spite of highway construction, thanks to a back-way detour onto Candy Cane Boulevard.

1 Write a Friend Month, BINGO Month. Letter to Santa? Bingo! POLICE PINCH GRINCH FOR STEALING CHRISTMAS

Benton County Crime

Stories law enforcement exhibit, through Dec. 30 at Rogers Historical Museum, Rogers. Details at rogershistoricalmuseum.org. Call (479) 621-1154.

O’ CHRISTMAS THREE

Greater Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce Parade of

Lights, 6 p.m. through downtown Eureka Springs. Details at eurekaspringschamber. com. Call (479) 253-8737.

Arkansas Craft Guild Christmas

Showcase through Dec. 3 at Statehouse Convention Center, Little Rock. Details at arkansascraftguild.org. Call (870) 2694120.

Chamber musical The Gift of the Magi through Dec. 24 at Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Little Rock. Details at therep.org. Call (501) 378-0405.

CHEERS FOR CHAIRS

The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design chair exhibit through Dec. 31 at Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock. Details at arkansasartscenter.org. Call (501) 372-4000.

GOOSE REPORT

Mother Goose Christmas through Dec. 17 at Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theater, Little Rock. Details at arkansasartscenter.org. Call (501) 3724000.

ONE STAGE AND ANOTHER

Harvey through Dec. 31 at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, Little Rock. Details at murrysdp.com. Call (501) 562-3131.

Almost Maine through Dec. 2 and weekends through Dec. 16 at The Weekend Theater, Little Rock. Details at weekendtheater.org. Call (501) 374-3761.

LOOK AT FROSTY GO

2 Big Jingle Jubilee Holiday Parade, 3 p.m. from downtown Little Rock to the state Capitol. Details at holidaysinlittlerock.com. Call (501) 835-3399.

REINDEER ON THE RUN

Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis, 11 a.m. from Clinton Presidential Center Park, Little Rock. Details at jbr.org. Call (501) 664-4591.

GUESS THAT’S WHY THEY CALL HIM THE BLUES

Joe Bonamassa, 8 p.m. at Verizon Arena, North Little Rock. Details at verizonarena.com. Call (800) 745-3000.

LEAN YOUR EAR THIS WAY

Fort Smith Symphony and Western Arkansas Ballet performance, An

Epic Christmas, 7:30 p.m. at ArcBest Performing Arts Center, Fort Smith. Details at fortsmithsymphony.org. Call (479) 4527575.

OVER THE RIVER

3 North Little Rock Sertoma Christmas Parade, 2 p.m., Argenta Arts District. Details at northlittlerock.org. Call (501) 758-1424.

CAPITOL GREETINGS

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s 67th birthday.

READY OREO NOT

4 How to celebrate Cookie Exchange Week: with a chip, chip hooray.

THIS SUDS FOR YOU

5 Bathtub Party Day — when everything’s just rubber ducky.

GRANDFATHER CLAUS

6 Saint Nicholas Day sets out a cookie plate for the skinny but saintly ancestor of today’s Santa Claus.

THE MOUSE KING STIRS

7 Ballet Arkansas performance, The Nutcracker, through Dec. 10 at Robinson Center Performance Hall, Little Rock. Details at balletarkansas.org. Call (501) 223-5150.

FLUFF GUY, EH?

Cotton Candy Day celebrates the stuff that Santa’s beard is made of.

BY THE LIGHT OF RUDOLPH’S NOSE

8 Lost and Found Day goes in search of Christmas spirit.

SANTA KNOWS HO-HOS

David Sedaris’ comedy The Santaland Diaries through Dec. 24 at Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Little Rock. Details at therep.org. Call (501) 378-0405.

CUP, CUP AND AWAY

Thirteenth Ever Nog-Off eggnog contest, 5-8 p.m. at Historic Arkansas Museum, Little Rock. Details at historicarkansas.org. Call (501) 324-9351.

CHRISTMAS NEIGH-SAYERS GIDDY-YAP, JINGLE HORSE

Bentonville Christmas Parade,

11 a.m at Bentonville Square. Details at downtownbentonville.org. Call (479) 2540254.

NOEL, NOBEL

10 Nobel Prize ceremonies in Norway and Sweden. If scratch-off entry number matches 157XN93, you may have won the Nobel Peace Prize, a gumball or a goldfish.

MAKING LIST, CHECKING TWICE

11 Tanzanite, zircon and turquoise

are: (A) Names of reindeer, (B) December’s birthstones, or (C) Santa’s three elves in charge of stuffing socks with the rock most associated with December, coal.

Answer at Dec. 27.

FA-LA-LA-LA-ARGGH!

12 Scream painter Edvard Munch’s

birthday, 1863. Scream shows how it feels to receive an unexpected load of Christmas cards that all of a sudden have to be reciprocated.

LIGHTS AND LATKE

Start of Hanukkah.

HO-HO, OOO!-OOO!

13 Day before International Monkey Day: less fun than a barrel of monkeys.

ACCORDING TO LATEST POLES

14 Sir Roald Amundsen goes the wrong way to find Santa, 1911, and winds up discovering the South Pole. OSCAR THE CHRISTMAS GROUCH Sesame Street Live, 2 and 6 p.m. at Verizon Arena, North Little Rock. Details at verizonarena.com. Call (800) 7453000.

HARK THE HERALDS

15 Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

concert, “Home for the Holidays,”

7 p.m. Dec. 15 and 16 and 3 pm. Dec. 17 at Robinson Center Performance Hall, Little Rock. Details at arkansassymphony.org. Call (501) 666-1761. Arkansas Chamber Singers concert, “Christmas at the Old State

House,” 7 p.m. Dec. 15 and 16 and 3 p.m. Dec. 17 at the Old State House, Little Rock, and 7 p.m. Dec. 19 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, North Little Rock. Details at archambersingers.org. Call (501) 377-1121.

THROUGH THE WOODS

16 Caroling in the Forest, 7 p.m. at Pinnacle Mountain State Park near Little Rock. Details at arkansas.com. Call (501) 868-5806.

THEY COTTON TO SANTA

Holiday Crafts Open House, nibbles and hot mulled apple cider, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Plantation Agriculture Museum, Scott. Details at arkansas.com. Call (501) 9611409.

ROMAN HOLIDAY

17 Saturnalia: ancient celebration so old that the only thing older is fruitcake.

MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS

Holiday Music at the Arsenal, 2 p.m. at MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, Little Rock. Details at arkmilitaryheritage.com. Call (501) 3764602.

KEEP CALM AND MERRY ON

18 A quiet time to the ancient Greeks, but easy for them — they didn’t have 24-hour cable news. Halcyon Days.

GOOGLE MAP INDICATES SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT

19 Finding Neverland through Dec. 23 at Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville. Details at waltonartscenter.org. Call (479) 443-5600.

BELL RINGER

20 Film premiere of It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946. “Merry Christmas, movie

house!” — George Bailey.

COLD, HARD TRUTH

21 First Day of Winter, the year’s miserably shortest.

FEELING DOWN — AND ACROSS

Crossword Puzzle Day. New York World publishes the first crossword puzzle, 1913.

HE WAS RIGHT: WINTER CAME

22 CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Is today your baa-baa birthday? If so, forget the ram who knocked a hole in the dam, and instead hold the wall with Jon Snow on Game of Thrones actor Kit Harrington’s 31st birthday, Dec. 26.

URP ON THE HOUSETOP

23 Mexico’s Feast of the Radishes.

REINDEER PAUSE

24 Christmas Eve, National Eggnog Day. If you had an eggnog mustache, would you want to know?

OUT JUMPS DEAR OLD SANTA’S BARTENDER

25 Christmas Day, Jimmy Buffett’s 71st birthday. Weighted a sleigh in Margaritaville.

STRUCK BY AN IDEA

Sir Isaac Newton’s birthday, 1642. The scientist discovers gravity when a fallen Christmas tree ornament boinks him on the head.

GOURD NEWS

26 Day after National Pumpkin Pie Day and who bit the point off the last half-a-slice?

TRY THIS ON FOR SYNTHESIZER

Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, 7:30 p.m. at Robinson Center Performance Hall, Little Rock. Details at celebrityattractions.com. Call (501) 2448800.

CHRISTMAS CLARABELLS

27 Television premiere of the Howdy Doody puppet show, 1947.

ZIR CON: A GATHERING OF ZIRCON FANS

Rock-’em-sock-’em quiz answer: (B) birthstones.

PINOCHLE, UNCLE?

28 Card Playing Day — the inevitable follow-up to Christmas Blues Day, Last of the Left-Overs Day, and Enough of Daytime Television to Last a Lifetime Day.

TEXAS HOLD ’EM

29 Texas admission day, 1845. Texas admits it’s hard to shop for a state that claims to have everything. But Santa knew just what to bring: the beans they keep leaving out of some otherwise edible chili.

TAILGATE BAIT 30 Bacon Day — the celebration that beats even Christmas for sizzle. TRY, TRY AGAIN

31 New Year’s Eve.

Coming next month: January! Write to Ron Wolfe at

by Dec. 15 to suggest January calendar entries or how to celebrate January as National Oatmeal Month, such as: Glop! — in the name of love.All entries require a web address and/ or phone number that is answered during business hours.