This is probably the slowest weekend of the year for going out, as bars and clubs and bar- and club-goers recover from the hectic holiday period. But whether you’re making plans for improvement in 2026, want to catch a band or explore a museum, there are options better than hibernating at home.
Wednesday, Dec. 31
New Year’s Eve
Whether you’re looking for free, no-fuss New Year’s Eve parties with DJs and dancing, a game night, an early celebratory toast in cities like London or Barcelona, or a family-friendly event with fireworks and a ball drop, check out our list of dozens of New Year’s Eve happenings.
Create Your Vision Board at Woodridge Neighborhood Library
Adults and teens are invited to one of the library’s final events of the year: creating 2026 vision boards, or collages meant to represent and manifest a fortuitous next 12 months. The library provides cardboard flats, magazine images, markers and glue; participants bring personal photos to tack onto their boards. Refreshments are provided after the craft. Noon to 1:45 p.m. Free.
Thursday, Jan. 1
First Day Hikes
Join the movement for Americans to begin the new year surrounded by nature with the First Day Hike initiative, which encourages you to set out on your own or join a guided New Year’s Day hike at a park. For example, Vienna’s Friends of Wolf Trap National Park is hosting a one-hour nature walk that meets by the ranger station near the Filene Center box office and then hits the park’s wooded trails for a mile and a half. Take a photo while on the hike and submit it to the Fairfax County Park Authority and the Fairfax County Park Foundation’s annual First Hike Photo Contest, and you could win a Park Authority gift card. Looking for a hike closer to home? Check the websites for state parks in Virginia (dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks) and Maryland (dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands) for lists of ranger-led and self-guided options on New Year’s Day. Wolf Trap hike: 11 a.m. to noon. Free; reserve a spot online.
Elvis’ Birthday Fight Club at GALA Hispanic Theatre
For 15 years, Elvis’ Birthday Fight Club has been one of D.C.’s most absurd, comic and wonderful traditions: A series of staged, WWF-style “bouts” between pop-culture icons — real and imaginary. Think Freddie Mercury grappling with a purse-wielding Queen Elizabeth II; the Count from “Sesame Street” doing battle with Count Chocula; or a shirtless Vladimir Putin pummeling a unicorn. As the prop-heavy action takes place onstage, hosts Elvis (the 1970s version) and drag queen Betty O’Hellno provide quick-witted commentary. Yeah, it’s that weird. Two of the D.C. performances sold out almost immediately, so a Thursday night event at GALA Hispanic Theatre was added. Move quickly before that, too, has a waitlist. Thursday at 7 p.m. $33.85-$48.80. Friday at 7 and 9:30 p.m. $39.19. Saturday sold out.
New Year’s Day Sound Bath at Willow Street Yoga
The DC Bird Alliance teams up with yoga teacher and sound healer Dante Baker for a sound bath inflected with birdsong at Takoma Park’s Willow Street Yoga. Relax and greet the new year with the warbling melody of nature. 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. $55.20.
FitDC Fresh Start 5K at the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge
A 5K race on New Year’s Day is an annual District tradition for 5,000 runners and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser. This year’s event invites participants of all fitness levels to run or walk across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge. Families are welcome to lace up their sneakers, as there’s a Kids Dash race just for little ones. 10:15 a.m. for the Kids Dash and 11 a.m. for the 5K, with registration opening at 9 a.m. Free; register online.
Friday, Jan. 2
Daft Punk is Playing at My House at DC9
2025 was ostensibly the year that Gen Z rediscoveredthe hipster music and fashionof the late 2000s and early 2010s, styles since rechristened “Indie Sleaze.” Get a start on 2026 by putting down your phone and experiencing the retro vibes IRL. Put on your favorite vintage Cheap Monday jeans and CSS T-shirt and head to DC9, where DJs Phoenix and Dionysus are spinning hits and videos from LCD Soundsystem, Fischerspooner, Hot Chip, Simian Mobile Disco and other big-on-MySpace bands from the era. 10 p.m. Free for the first 50 people, then $5.
Free Bluegrass Festival and Cheap Beer at Union Stage and Pearl Street Warehouse
D.C. was once the bluegrass capital of the world, and this weekend, the Wharf is the bluegrass capital of Washington. Music venues Union Stage and Pearl Street Warehouse are joining forces for two nights of free concerts and “cheap beer.” Friday finds Split String Soup and Radish at Union Stage, while Blue Breeze and Shannon Leigh and the Good Bygones take the stage at Pearl Street. The following night, Big Thicket and Seth Mitchell perform at Union Stage, and Tornado Rose and No Part of Nothin’ are featured at Pearl Street. Feel free to move back and forth between venues, though be aware that admission at both venues is first-come, first served, even if you claim a free ticket on the website. Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. Free.
‘Heated Rivalry’ viewing party at As You Are
Friday is a jam-packed night at LGBTQ+ community gathering spot As You Are, featuring a New Year’s Queer Market with vendors, games and a vision board station (4 to 7 p.m.); the Queers Can’t Take a Joke comedy showcase, with eight queer and trans comedians (7 p.m.); and Black Friday, a drag show with an all-Black cast (10 p.m.). But in the midst of all that, the bar is also hosting a “Heated Rivalry” viewing party, showing favorite episodes of the steamy gay hockey drama that the bar calls “our newest obsession.” They’re not alone: A Washington Post headline wondered, “What happens when your gay hockey smut becomes a global phenomenon?” If you don’t have HBO Max and are wondering what the fuss is about, here’s your chance to find out. 8 p.m. Free.
‘The Art of the Cocktail’ at Catoctin Creek Distillery
Catoctin Creek Distillery launched its Art of the Cocktail classes in its Purcellville tasting room as “a way to get butts in chairs during the very slow months of January and February,” co-founder Scott Harris said a few years ago. But during the lonely months of the pandemic, the series moved online, and the collegial Zoom gatherings began attracting cocktail lovers from across the country who were interested in making drinks with rye whiskey and aquavit and didn’t mind receiving a shopping list with homework that might involve making simple syrups flavored with Old Bay and clover honey before class begins. Season 12 begins this week, held on Zoom over six consecutive Friday evenings, with a syllabus of drinks featured in “The Comic Book History of the Cocktail,” by award-winning spirits writer David Wondrich. Each class teaches the basics of crafting three cocktails, and curious imbibers can sign up for one session or the whole slate. 7 p.m. Fridays through Feb. 6. $19 per person per class. Registration for six weeks includes a copy of “The Comic Book History of the Cocktail.”
Last call for holiday lights
The holidays can be kind of frantic, between the shopping, parties and keeping kids occupied when they’re out of school, and you might not have knocked out everything on your holiday to-do list. If that includes some of the area’s popular light displays, you’re in luck: You’ve still got a few more days to visit. The National Zoo’s ZooLights sparkles through Saturday, as does the Merriweather Symphony of Lights in Columbia. Both the Winter Walk of Lights at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna and the Garden of Lights at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton are open through Sunday. Note that the final days include a number of promotions: Meadowlark offers free and discounted admission for kids (Friday), members of the military (Saturday) and Scouts (Sunday).
Saturday, Jan. 3
Closing weekend: ‘A Bold and Beautiful Vision’ at the Anacostia Community Museum
This weekend is your final chance to see “A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington, DC, 1900-2000” at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum. The exhibition shows how some of Washington’s most important artists, including Sam Gilliam, Alma Thomas and Elizabeth Catlett, also shone as educators, sharing their gifts with generations of public-school students. Visit the museum Saturday between 1 and 3 p.m. for “Ink & Press,” a printmaking workshop inspired by pieces by Catlett and Lou Stovall, which will allow visitors to create their own original art. Sunday afternoon brings a closing reception from 1 to 4 p.m. with free food and a vision board workshop, where guests can create a piece of art reflecting their intentions in the new year. Through Sunday. Free; online registration requested.
Mid-Atlantic Band Battle at Jammin’ Java
Twenty-eight up-and-coming local bands are hoping that dreams come true during Jammin’ Java’s 30th Mid-Atlantic Band Battle. Over four nights, they’ll compete for a place in February’s finals, with $2,000 cash, a session at a professional recording studio and a headlining show at Jammin’ Java as prizes for the eventual winner. No matter which night you go, you might find a new favorite performer. Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. $15.
Slime Time at Old Town Books
In the last few days of what was, for many districts, an extra-long winter break, entertain the kids with an hour’s worth of all things slime. The event starts with a reading of “Super Magic Boy: I Am a Slime Monster” and continues with an exploration of slimes and doughs. Take home samples afterward. Parents don’t need a ticket but must remain on the premises to supervise; the slime party is geared toward kids 5 and up. 11 a.m. to noon. $25 for children.
Modern Calligraphy Class at Atlas Brew Works Bridge District
This workshop from hand-lettering brand Sip & Script introduces modern calligraphy with a pointed-dip pen and ink to participants who are new to the craft. The class covers the basics of the art form in a 90-minute instruction and demonstration. Participants leave with a beginner’s calligraphy kit: two nibs, black ink pots, two letter guides, tracing paper and a straight pen holder. 2 to 3:30 p.m. $65.
Sunday, Jan. 4
Three Kings Day Celebration at GALA Hispanic Theatre
In Columbia Heights, the holiday season traditionally comes to a close with music, dancing, kings and donkeys. The decades-long tradition of the Three Kings Day Celebration, or Fiesta de los Tres Reyes Magos, returns to GALA Hispanic Theatre on Sunday. The bilingual festival begins with a procession outside the theater on 14th Street NW, featuring the biblical three kings and a menagerie of animals including donkeys, sheep, llamas and goats, before an indoor theatrical performance that includes traditional dancing by Mexican ensemble Los Quetzales and FFC Morenada Bolivia and music by the CongaSoul Project. Local radio host Alejandro Negron serves as master of ceremonies. Procession at 1:30 p.m., performance at 2 p.m. Free. Tickets are limited to four per family and will be distributed at the GALA box office between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m.
National Museum of Women in the Arts Community Day
Some museum events take January off, including the Phillips Collection’s After 5 and the National Gallery of Art’s First Saturdays, but the National Museum of Women in the Arts is opening Sunday for its regularly scheduled Community Day, waiving admission for all visitors. Explore exhibits, including the soon-to-close “Women Artists From Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750”; create your own art in the Open Studio; or drop into guided tours at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free; reservations recommended.
Le Mont Royal’s 3rd (and final) birthday party
It’s hard to believe Adams Morgan’s Le Mont Royal has only been open for three years — the disco-ball-filled, Canadian-inspired bar feels like a mainstay, and not just for its brunch deals. But the nightspot announced Tuesday that it’s closing its doors, meaning this birthday party doubles as a goodbye party. To mark the bittersweet occasion (and its final day of service), the bar is celebrating with a six-and-a-half-hour party featuring an open bar and disco on vinyl. 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. $59.
Monday, Jan. 5
Profs and Pints: What We Know About Snow at Penn Social
Listen to seasoned meteorologist and University of Maryland professor of environmental systems Jeffrey Halverson give a talk about the science of snow over happy hour drinks. (Halverson is also the Capital Weather Gang’s severe-weather expert.) Penn Social hosts this Profs and Pints talk, which gets into how snow is formed, what makes a blockbuster East Coast snowstorm and why some winters are more extreme than others. 6 to 8:30 p.m. $15.
The Wig Shop pop-up at Service Bar
Washingtonians are lucky to have the award-winning Service Bar mixing up cocktails for us six nights a week on U Street. We’re also lucky that Service Bar’s proprietors and employees have a lot of friends around the world, who are happy to bring us tastes of faraway locations. Now, they’re welcoming guests from Boston’s Wig Shop cocktail lounge, a spot known for its love of clever, off-kilter drinks like the Coco Beets (coconut rum, aperitif, coco cream, pineapple and beets) and the Rise and Grind (aged rums, coffee liqueur, cinnamon and whipped cream). 7 to 11 p.m. Free; drink prices vary.
No Idols at Pie Shop
In yet another example of punk’s phoenixlike cycle of rebirth, No Idols sprang to life from the ashes of Baltimore’s Truth Cult. The band’s self-titled EP is full of rugged hardcore that isn’t afraid to rock and ends with the expansive “Ballad of a Fool,” a song that some may find resonant during this American moment. 8 p.m. $12-$15.
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