Tis the season for gathering with family and friends! If you're looking for ways to entertain your guests or explore Arlington’s vibrant arts scene this holiday season, we’ve got you covered. With events running through December, Arlington’s Winter Arts Highlight offers a comprehensive guide to arts and cultural happenings across the county, ensuring you’ll find something for everyone.
This winter, Arlington’s vibrant cultural calendar includes unique events for all ages.
This edition covers events from December 2025 to January 2026. Last updated December 8, 2025.
Arlington Artists Alliance
thru January 11, 2026 | Alliance Gallery | Clarendon
Alliance Gallery is pleased to present Holding Together, a group show featuring Rosemary Feit Covey, Julia Dzikiewicz, Tracy Ferry, Emily Shepardson, Jennifer Wessmiller. The exhibition spotlights artworks that transform chaos into strength, calm, and consciousness. The exhibition asks, how can we hold it together when chaos surrounds us?
Through practices including assemblage, collage, sculpture, and painting, small fragments and found objects are carefully reimagined into works that resonate with courage and renewal. The artists take a creative and unconventional approach to artmaking – mesmerizing and individualistic, while evoking a sense of resilience.
Mason Exhibitions Founders Gallery
thru February 6, 2026 | Mason Exhibitions Founders Gallery | Virginia Square
Free
Material Acts of Resistance: Michèle Colburn brings together a selection of mixed-media works that transform the materials of conflict into meditations on endurance, vulnerability, and dissent. Through the use of gunpowder, wire, thread, and burnt paper, Colburn reconfigures symbols of violence into gestures of reflection and renewal. Her practice explores how the act of making can itself become a form of resistance, translating the volatile into the contemplative, and the destructive into the poetic.
thru January 25, 2026 | MoCA Arlington | Virginia Square
MoCA Arlington presents the first major museum exhibition to survey the work of Iranian-American painter Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi. Over the last fifteen years, Ilchi has cultivated a unique painting practice that merges the conventions and techniques of Western abstraction with the visual language of Persian art and architecture. The complexity and distinctiveness of Ilchi’s work comes from her commitment to material exploration, her deep engagement with art history, and the incorporation of her unique personal history. Ilchi has developed a singular vision, grounded in material proficiency and nourished through a uniquely poetic visual language.
Right: Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi,Through the first gate, into our first world 1, 2019, Acrylic and watercolor on panel, 20 x 24 in.
Featured artists: Amalia Caputo, Reynier Leyva Novo, and Lisu Vega in collaboration with Carlos Pedreañez
In the face of migration, political rupture, and cultural erasure, Tactics for Remembering invites viewers to reflect on the notion of home as a fluid and emotional space—shaped by memory, by the body, and by absence. Conceived as part of MoCA Arlington’s Global Spotlight series, the exhibition intentionally “bends the frame,” expanding the lens beyond national boundaries toward an affective geography: Cuba-Zuela. Used internally, and often with pejorative connotations, this linguistic hybrid is reclaimed as an act of solidarity, affirming the historical and cultural kinship between Cuba and Venezuela. Through this grouping, the exhibition resists narrow nation-based curatorial models and instead honors the porousness of Caribbean identity and the solidarities born out of necessity and generosity.
Right: Amalia Caputo, La casa (de Hestia) (still), 2010, Single-channel video
Film Screening Event on December 18: Join for a special screening of a short documentary developed in conjunction with the exhibition and featuring exhibiting artists Amalia Caputo, Reynier Leyva Novo, and Lisu Vega discussing their work. The screening will be followed by a conversation between guest curator Fabiola R. Delgado and panelists Ricardo Betancourt (film director) and Luis Vasquez La Roche (artist and professor), whose practices engage with themes of memory, migration, and cultural continuity.
as i look towards what could have been mine is Joey Enríquez’s elegiac ode to the desert of the American Southwest, a place synonymous with the artist’s personal ethnography, familial ancestry, and, for the artist, a place where their soul is at rest. Taking viewers to the edge of ruins, both metaphorical and literal, Enríquez alludes to the deserts’ innate expansiveness through poetic prose, printmaking, sculpture, and found object installations.
Right: Joey Enríquez, could i see this without you? (detail), 2025, Clay monotype prints on Reemay 34gsm, 336 x 72 in.
In Essential Arlington, Arlington-based photographer Mac Cosgrove-Davies captures portraits of people whose labor, care, and expertise keep the community of Arlington running. They support the infrastructure and services that allow everyone who lives, works, or just visits Arlington to go about their daily lives. Cosgrove-Davies works with the wet plate collodion technique, which was the dominant photographic process from the 1850s to the 1870s. The timeless appearance of the sepia-toned images and the labor required to make them imbues the portraits with a gravitas that celebrates their subjects and the community they make possible.
Right: Mac Cosgrove-Davies, Arlington Fire Company 106 (detail), 2025, Tintype, 6 x 8 in.
Arlington Children's Chorus
December 2-14 | multiple locations
Join ACC this December! Celebrate the season with joyful music!
- Dec 2 at the Willard, 6–8 PM
- Dec 3 at Ballston Singing Tree Market, 4:30 PM–5:30 PM
- Dec 6 at Hotel Washington, 10–11 AM
- Dec 14 UUCA Morning Service, 10:15–11:15 AM
- Dec 14 ACC Winter Concert at UUCA, 3–4 PM
Encore Stage & Studio
December 5-14 | Gunston Theatre Two | Long Branch Creek
Join us for Encore’s newest holiday tradition, Jingle Bell Jam! Back for a second year, this fun, family centered revue celebrates winter and the holidays. Our talented students will perform heartwarming scenes and classic holiday songs with a live band. Jingle Bell Jam the Remix is the perfect way to deck the halls and bring in the holiday spirit! Recommended for ages 4 and older.
Arlington Concert Band
December 4 | Washington-Liberty High School | Virginia Square
Celebrate classic holiday music with the Arlington Concert Band, a wind ensemble made up of more than 70 professional music educators and dedicated, talented amateur musicians. This concert features music of Eastern Europe and includes music from Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff as well as Alfred Reed’s Russian Christmas Music, and Fiddler on the Roof! This is a free concert for all to enjoy.
Arlington Chorale
December 6 | Westover Baptist Church |
Escape the holiday rush and discover music that will move you. Two choral masterpieces tell the same powerful story: a young woman receiving life-changing news and responding with a song of joy and hope. Francesco Durante and Kim André Arnesen both use the Magnificat to portray Mary's wonder, devotion, and gratitude upon learning she will be the mother of God's son. Experience how these two composers, separated by centuries, portray this joyful moment from the Christmas story. In addition to these two major works, you'll hear beloved holiday songs that will inspire you to celebrate the season! Join us as we rejoice in music's power to celebrate courage, faith, and strength found in unexpected places.
Arlington Philharmonic
Saturday, December 6 | 5:00pm | Ballston Quarter | Ballston
Play with a pro! A festive symphony orchestra concert featuring students from Kenmore and Gunston Middle Schools playing with the professionals. Plus visit the Day Violins instrument petting zoo!
A Communities of Arlington Music Festival concert.
DC Starlight Orchestra
December 11 | Calvary United Methodist Church | National Landing
Enjoy classic holiday tunes from a full jazz orchestra! Enjoys classics like “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Silver Bells,” “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Charlie Brown Christmas”, “Oh Chanukah,” and “What a Wonderful World.” You can help others by bringing a food or money donation, which will support the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC).
Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington
January 23 | 7:00-9:00pm | MoCA Arlington | Virginia Square
Hosted by Arlington’s own Sarah Fridrich, songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and one-half of the local duo, String Mamas. Four local songwriters will take turns sharing their original work as well as respond to and support each other, and offer wisdom, care, and truth around everyday life experiences. Come experience community through song, music, and story!
Signature Theatre
thru January 25, 2026 | Signature Theatre | Shirlington
The iconic musical gorgeously staged in-the-round in Signature’s intimate setting and directed by Joe Calarco (Jesus Christ Superstar, Gypsy). Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman, his family and their tightknit community honor tradition but must contend with a changing world and a rise in antisemitism at their home in Czarist Russia. The glorious score with songs “Sunrise, Sunset” “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Matchmaker” unite with exquisite dance in this classic of the musical theater canon filled with humor, heart – and life.
Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington
Saturday, December 13 | 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. | MoCA Arlington Innovation Studio | National Landing
The Crochet Cart Project is an initiative to spread the joy of knitting and crocheting to all of our neighbors. On Saturday, December 13, the Crochet Cart Project will guide this free public workshop! A chance to get together, be social, and learn some crochet (if you don’t already know the basics!). You’ll be guided in some simple crochet techniques to create a square, and those squares will all be combined to create a group blanket!
Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington
Thursday, December 18 | 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. | MoCA Arlington | Virginia Square
Join us for a special screening of a short documentary developed in conjunction with the exhibition Tactics for Remembering. The documentary features exhibiting artists Amalia Caputo, Reynier Leyva Novo, and Lisu Vega discussing their work. The screening will be followed by a conversation between guest curator Fabiola R. Delgado and panelists Ricardo Betancourt (film director) and Luis Vasquez La Roche (artist and professor), whose practices engage with themes of memory, migration, and cultural continuity. The post-screening conversation will delve into how artistic practices can sustain vulnerable histories and activate remembrance across distance and time.
Arlington Artists Alliance
December 18 | 6:00-7:30pm | Alliance Gallery | Clarendon
Join at Alliance Gallery to learn about the artistic practices of the artists of Julie Dzikiewicz, Rosemary Feit Covey, Tracy Ferry, Emily Shepardson, and Jennifer Wessmiller - the artists of "Holding Together." How do these artists "hold it together" in times of chaos and uncertainty? How does their artistic practice help or heal them? Learn about their process and techniques at this artist talk.
Saturday, December 6 | 10:00am-4:00pm | The Studios at Arlington Arts | Green Valley
Looking for one-of-a-kind gifts this holiday season? The artists of The Studios at Arlington Arts (formerly LAC Studios) have created fine pottery, sculpture, and prints for distinctive, quality holiday gifts.
Consolidating a broad range of cultural offerings under one roof, the newly built studios are in Arlington Cultural Affairs Division’s headquarters building which also contains the black box Theatre on the Run, two dance studios, rehearsal rooms, and gallery space. Occupying the third of the building formerly housing the County’s Sports Division offices, the facility is now fully devoted to bringing cultural amenities to the Four Mile Run area.
Open to Being letterpress studio + shop
Saturday, December 6 | 11:00am-3:00pm | Open to Being | Long Branch Creek
Holiday shopping finale with local makers! Letterpress stationery, organic herbal teas, elegant ceramics + festive screen printed totes.
Step into Open to Being's cozy Arlington studio + shop for a “slow shopping” experience where you can discover the artistry of letterpress stationery, shop ceramic treasures and organic tea, and mingle with makers and fellow guests who value local maker businesses and good company. December’s table highlights Gretchen Mull Ceramics and Jessica Eason of Rough Seas Productions.
Everything in the shop this month represents the finest in thoughtful giving, ideal for those who appreciate quality, intention, and the care that goes into every handmade work of art. Celebrate art, artists, and woman-owned businesses when you shop this season. In our vibrant space, you can visit with the makers as you get creative in combining gifts from each maker. Read about the Makers.
Saturday, December 6 | 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. | Washington-Liberty High School | Virginia Square
Free
Save the date and plan to attend one of Arlington's most fun and festive traditions! The Washington-Liberty Holiday Bazaar returns on Saturday, December 6, 2025.Take a gander at houseware, jewelry, ceramics and more, all handmade by 90-plus local artists and artisans at this market. Some of the participating vendors include block-printed linens from Lovely Lady Linens, art prints and earrings by Julie Gross, and pocket pillows from Evie's Pillows. Cash-only student tables will have delicious baked goods, homemade dishes and hot drinks to raise funds for clubs and sports teams.
Saturday, December 6 | 10:00am - 4:30pm | Central Library | Virginia Square
Visit the Friends of Arlington Public Library (FOAL) who are setting up a special holiday shop full of books, puzzles, games and specialty items for readers of all ages. Items will be reasonably priced and available for purchase. All proceeds directly support Arlington Public Library programs. Shop for gifts or for yourself!
- Bring your purchased items to the free wrapping station in the Glebe Room and be ready for the holidays!
- Enjoy a performance by the Arlingtones at 1:00 p.m.
- Rossana coffee truck will have drinks and treats available for purchase.
Thursday, December 11 | 5:00-8:00pm | Clarendon Metro Park | Clarendon
Light Up Clarendon isn’t just one night — it’s a season-long celebration from Thanksgiving through mid-February. Join us as we kick off the holidays with caroling by The Arlington Chorale, a local craft market, visits with Santa, and more. Pizza from Colony Grill and warm drinks from Rossana will be available for purchase during the kickoff event on December 11. See Santa from 5:00 to 7:00pm, and listen to caroling and music will be from 6:00 to 6:45pm.
Arlington Artists Alliance
December 12-14 | Hendry House at Fort C.F. Smith Park | Woodmont
Save the date for Arlington Artists Alliance's most popular event: Winter Artful Weekend at Fort C.F. Smith Park in its 23rd year! This annual event will showcase 40 talented artists from the Arlington Artists Alliance and is ideal for holiday shopping. Find original works for every budget and occasion. The event is free and open to the public.
December 12-13 | 5:00-9:00pm | Water Park | National Landing
Discover unique gifts from local vendors, indulge in delicious treats, and enjoy the holiday spirit with your neighbors. Don't miss out on this opportunity to support small businesses and find the perfect presents for your loved ones. See you there!