With Thanksgiving kicking things off, we are officially in the holiday season, which will run through New Year’s Day. And that means a lot of special events, from a basketful of Nutcrackers to Tuba Christmas (Saturday, Dec. 13, in downtown Portland’s Pioneer Square), a ghostly gathering of A Christmas Carols, PassinArt: A Theatre Company’s sparkling annual Black Nativity (Nov. 28-Dec. 7), and much more: See Jamie Hale’s rundown for The Oregonian/Oregon Live of holiday happenings around the state.

One to keep an eye on in Salem and Portland is Ukrainian Winterfest, a celebration of Ukrainian music, dance, food, art & handicrafts, culture, and demonstrations of traditional crafts including straw angel-making and Petrykivka decorative folk painting. It’s sponsored by DAWN, a Portland-based nonprofit that provides life-saving funding to Ukraine as the nation remains under constant assault by Russia.

One of the festival’s main attractions is Inna Kovtun, a singer and leading authority on traditional Ukrainian folk music who has dived deeply into the nation’s long cultural traditions and collected more than 1,000 traditional songs, some of which she’ll perform at the festival.

A prominent folkloric musician in Ukraine, shortly after the start of the war she and her daughter came to the United States, where she performs, teaches, and organizes events and master classes on Ukrainian arts and culture. Now based in Portland, she’s an artist on the roster of the Oregon Folklife Network. “The Ukrainian spirit, even in the midst of war, is unbreakable, and my mission is to convey this message to others through my performances and teaching,” she told the Taproot Artists & Community Trust, where she has a fellowship.

The Salem festival is 1-6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at 2615 Portland Road N.E., Salem. The Portland festival is 1-9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 3131 N.E. Glisan St., Portland. Admission to both is free, and donations are encouraged.

Arts & Agriculture Holiday Market

In the Pacific Northwest, arts and environmental concerns are frequent partners. Food and drink, too — which makes the coming Oregon Arts & Agriculture Holiday Market something of a cover-all-the-bases get-together. It’s sponsored by 1000 Friends of Oregon, established in 1974 to promote healthy land use planning across the state, and features food from a variety of family farms, wine from Est Winery, a variety of ceramic and other craft arts, information from a variety of environmental groups, and more.

The market, which bridges the gap between urban and rural Oregon, is one day only — from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, at the single-level, accessibility-friendly Art Design Xchange (ADX), 417 S.E. 11th St., Portland. It’s free, and you can reserve a spot through Eventbrite, here.

Sponsor