The week ahead: Dec. 21-27

The Week Ahead is our hand-picked event guide to the next seven days in Sioux Falls and slightly beyond. For guaranteed placement or to promote your event ahead of time, email [email protected] about a featured event listing.

Dec. 21: Blue Christmas

While Advent is a season of hope and Christmas is a season of joy, not everyone feels hopeful or like celebrating. This season also can magnify the darkness of loss, grief, depression and loneliness. On Thursday’s Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, people will gather in prayer, in worship and in hope. The public is invited to any of the services:

• Longest Night Worship, Renner Lutheran Church, Renner. Soup supper at 5:30 p.m., worship at 6:30 p.m.
• Blue Christmas Service, Zion Lutheran Church, Hartford, 6:30 p.m.
• Blue Christmas Service, St. Marks Lutheran Church, Sioux Falls, 7 p.m.
• Blue Christmas Service, Brandon Lutheran, Brandon, 7 p.m.
• The Little Stone Church, Sioux Falls, 7 p.m.

Dec. 23: Music and sweaters

Need another chance to show off that sweater that lights up? Bin 201, 201 E. 11th St., will host its annual ugly sweater contest along with music by The Barn Flies. It will run from 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday.

Dec. 23: ‘Nightmare’ showcase

Icon Event Hall + Lounge, DaDa Gastropub and others are hosting a “Nightmare Before Christmas” Showcase on Saturday at 402 N. Main Ave. Doors open at 8:30 p.m., with music at 9 p.m. Cost is $5 at the door for 18 and older — don’t forget your ID. Artists include Sad Planet, Trash Owls, Chewy Rodriguez, Seagull Hazard and Taylor Riley.

Dec. 25: Cats at Christmas

The Cattitude Cafe is changing its hours for the holidays, giving people a chance to cuddle with cats for Christmas and the new year. Hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Christmas, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. New Year’s Eve and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. New Year’s Day. Cats will begin opening their donated presents at 10 a.m. Christmas Day — if they’re in the mood. It will be livestreamed. The cats’ holiday meals also will be livestreamed.

Dec. 26: Candy Cane Day

Tuesday is National Candy Cane Day, paying tribute to the sweet treat first made in the 17th century when a choirmaster in Cologne, Germany, needed to find a way to keep the children quiet during the exceptionally long Christmas Eve Mass, according to folklore. They’re celebrating candy canes in nearby Luverne, Minnesota, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday. Stop at the History Center to take part in crafts for kids, warm beverages, snacks, scavenger hunts and more.