Noel Night 37: Cultural Center rolls out arty party with music, dance and cool history

Here is one reason we love the beginning of winter. Maybe once it’s here for a few months the love fades, but that’s another story. Let’s save it for mid-January.

Now it’s time to take in all the wintry delights of the 37th annual Noel Night, this Saturday, Dec. 5 in Midtown Detroit’s Cultural Center Area. Over 40 institutions, including the College for Creative Studies, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Science Center, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Historical Museum, the Detroit Public Library, Museum of Contemporary Arts Detroit (and other worthy participants too numerous to mention) open their doors to the public free of charge during this Cultural Center-wide holiday “open house.”

Activities include horse-drawn carriage rides, holiday shopping, family craft activities and performances by over 70 area music, theatre, and dance groups. The evening’s festivities end with a rousing community sing-along on Woodward Avenue led by the Salvation Army Band. It is a long-standing Noel Night tradition and it is a sight to behold. Here’s the complete schedule for Noel Night.

Free shuttle service is offered between participating venues. Convenient parking is available in area lots. The University Cultural Center Association (UCCA), a nonprofit planning and development organization that supports the physical maintenance and revitalization of Midtown Detroit, produces the event.

A few personal, FilterD-certified recommendations: City Bird, now open in its brand new space at 460 W. Canfield, where visitors can shop for cool holiday gifts from more than 50 local and regional designers; Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes located in the Park Shelton, featuring acoustic guitar music by Chris Flynn; also in the Park Shelton, Leopold’s Books, Midtown’s new independent bookstore, will have plenty of readable items for sale’ and old favorite Motor City Brewing Works, will be serving up gourmet pizzas and Ghettoblasters along with music from Ann Arbor-based dance-pop septet, My Dear Disco (showtime 7:45 p.m.). For full list of dining and drinking choices go here.

Noel Night is sponsored by Bank of America, DTE Energy, the Colin Hubbell Memorial Fund, Trent Design, Inland Press, WNIC, WWJ Newsradio 950, and WDET.