🎄🤑 If it’s under our tree, it’s FREE

🛍️🎄 Start making your lists and checking them twice. We’re teaming up with Select Markets this weekend for a holiday market at MGM Fenway! Shop local small businesses and donate non-perishables to our food drive. B-Side Members get $5 off early bird tickets!

🥳 And happy birthday to B-Sider Celia! We’re not saying you HAVE to buy yourself a birthday gift, but if you want to … we know a place. Have an amazing day!

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

’Tis the season to hemorrhage money … but not today! We’re giving your wallet a much-needed holiday break with a list of the best things to do around Boston this month without spending a dime.

Go forth and be festive:

☃️ Get your Boston winter magic fix. Boston’s Frostival is in full swing, and chances are, you’ve probably seen clips of the free holiday drone shows lighting up the Common. Emily’s review: It’s 100% worth seeing IRL. And the fun’s not over — the Fire & Ice Festival keeps the vibes going later this month.

🚶 Take the most holly jolly hot girl walk of the year. A.k.a., a ~holiday stroll~. Think of it as a neighborhood-wide open house for local businesses, complete with drinks, bites, music, and peak festive energy. Here are four we’re hyped for:

🍪 Cosplay as a Great British Baking Show contestant. Curio might not have Paul Hollywood, but they welcome all your scrummy treats at their cookie swap on Dec. 9. The assignment: Bring one to two dozen cookies and fill your tin with everyone else’s goodies. Bonus: There’s a separate nut-free/allergy-friendly table. <3

🏠 Build a gingerbread house like your life depends on it. ‘Cause it might feel like it at YNPN Boston’s gingerbread building competition on Dec. 9. You’ll have 30 minutes, piles of sweets, and a team of three randos. It's free, but you must RSVP to play.

❄️ DIY your own holiday gifts and decor. Out: Target’s holiday aisle. In: BU’s craft-and-chat paper snowflake night (tonight!). Need more inspo? Their clay creations class on Dec. 9 lets you craft your own dish or trinket for a very wholesome gift. 

🎆 Fireworks! Ice sculptures! A Frog Pond skating spectacular! That’s just a taste of the line up at First Night, Boston’s iconic New Year’s Eve celebration on Dec. 31. From the Frog Pond to Copley Square, parts of the city basically turn into one big NYE festival, with live music, fireworks, free admission to the Mapparium, and so much more. Here’s the full schedule!

🧑‍🎄 Pull on your ugliest holiday sweater. Boston’s massive Make Friends After College group is hosting a slew of holiday events, including an ugly sweater social on Dec. 12 at Citizen M’s ~swanky lounge~ and a holiday lights walk on Dec. 20 that’ll hit ALL the best spots.

🎭 💸 Cheap tickets don’t always mean cheap views. With ArtsCard Boston, anyone under 35 can score $40 seats (the good seats, not nosebleeds) to Celebrity Series performances all season long. Every show? Yes, every show, even last month’s mega-sold out Yo-Yo Ma concert. ArtsCard Boston app users scored 42 great seats. Download the ArtsCard app and discover your next music, theater, or arts obsession.

🌨️ The state of today’s storm: Rainy. In Greater Boston, anyway. As of Monday evening, it looks like all we’ll have to show for Tuesday’s “snowstorm” is a coating (at best), and some gnarly commutes. Though a few flakes will fall in the morning, most of it will be washed away by the heavy rain and wind that’ll follow in the afternoon, with the worst weather rolling in between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. The legit snow will fall west of I-95, which could see four inches or more. Keep up with the latest here.

🛍️ You think shopping at the Snowport is expensive? Try being a vendor! According to Boston.com, a spot at Boston’s trendiest holiday market runs anywhere from $7,500 to $27,200 — or around 12 to 18% of a shop’s profits. And that’s not to mention the additional costs and labor it often takes to build, staff, decorate, and operate these booths (here’s a peek behind the curtain). But vendors say the Snowport’s sheer foot traffic and visibility make it worth the cash. In 2024, the market saw over a million visitors.

❤️‍🔥 At these fitness classes, you train like a main character. Enter: Fit for Fiction, Boston’s new social workout club built for bookworms, founded by local writer Carly Youssouf. Each workout is tailored toward a certain genre, with props, cues, and a playlist to help participants feel like they’re on a hero’s journey. Think: A “The Lion, the Witch, and the Workout,” pilates class with dagger-shaped dumbbells, or a “Hunger Gains” boxing workshop designed to make you feel like you’re training for a fantastical battle. Here are the upcoming events.

🎁 This is your sign to start holiday shopping. Boston magazine just dropped its holiday gift guide with 40 hand-picked items for everyone on your list. And while some of the picks would quite literally drain our savings account (see: $16,000 earrings), there are also plenty within our budget. For example: This cutie checker print baking set from Macy’s, custom-made lipsticks from Lip Lab, an Allston Christmas-inspired ornament that made an appearance at last year’s Boston.com white elephant swap, and more. Here’s the full list!

Enter to win a two night stay at The Mansion at Ocean Edge with an igloo experience for four people. To enter, just refer a friend and have them accept your invite by the end of the day on 12/02/2025. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

18+. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Limit one entry per person. See Official Rules & an additional entry option here.

For about four days, the internet really thought there was a human skull in Southie. Let’s rewind. On Nov. 21, Instagram was taken by storm when what appeared to be a human skull was found wedged in a piece of concrete at a Southie construction site. 

Cue the wild speculation: Would it mark the re-opening of a cold case? Was it a mob-related crime? Could Whitey Bulger be involved? Officials shipped it off to a forensic anthropologist to find out, saying it could be months before we’d know the answer. 

Turns out, we didn’t have to wait long. By Nov. 25, the results were in: The skull was fake, and it’s unclear how it got in the concrete in the first place. BORING!

— Written by Gia Orsino, Emily Schario, and Claire Nicholas

💀 Thanks for reading! Guess it wasn’t exactly concrete evidence … am I right?

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Celebrity Series, for supporting local journalism and keeping Boston’s creative scene thriving (and affordable).

🌵 The results are in: 41% of B-Siders want us to try out the Cactus Cafe Club for our next B-Side Certified. Your wish is our command. <3

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].