Your Christmas Eve essential read. Five local feel-good highlights, selected with yuletide love by the team at Camdenist

 GOING OUT?: Have fun supporting local businesses 

Omicron naturally caused a wave of depressing cancellations in the run-up to Christmas, but as the situation changes, there's never been more a important time to head out (when you feel ready) to help the area's creative and social hubs recover after yet another Covid battering. Camden Cabaret has a NYE extravaganza of comedy, drag and more at All About Eve in Jamestown Rd, and they are booking dates right through January and beyond too, so head there to lighten the mood. Theatres also desperately needs our support, so try Hampstead Theatre's current production, Peggy For You, directed by TV fave Richard Wilson, which returns on Monday (27th) and runs all through January. And of course, our beloved local pubs need people to drink all the neglected festive booze stockpiles, including Chalk Farm Rd's The Lock Tavern, currently neon-clad (pictured above) in what turned out to be a sadly over-optimistic jumping-the-gun kinda promo from Guinness celebrating the return of Xmas pubbing. They have a Mon-Fri 'hoppy hour' from 5-7pm offering £3 pints and other deals, plus there's plenty of outdoor space.

 READ: Sofa-bound festive entertainment 

Remember to return to this email when you're slumped in a sofa stupor over Christmas to enjoy interviews with musicians, scientists and even a philosopher, all from the last 12 months on Camdenist.com. The ongoing Music in Camden series includes some real corkers, including the BBC's Robert Elms on the New Romantics and the future of youth culture, rapper AWATE about growing up in Camden with synaesthesia, plus the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Acland Burghley School discussing their unusual partnership. Also make sure to curl up on a winter's evening with the series of interviews with the cerebral speakers from September's HowTheLightGetsIn festival, held at Kenwood. You'll hear from Francis Crick Institute scientist Guneş Taylor on genome editing and the future of reproductive science, futures theorist Luke Robert Mason on what the future really means and neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland on where neuroscience meets philosophy. We promise you'll feel truly inspired, even after all those mince pies.

 WATCH: It's A Wonderul Life at Camden's new Curzon 

Elevate your Christmas Eve movie experience later tonight with a special screening of the classic It's A Wonderful Life at the new Curzon in Hawley Wharf. Five luxurious screens occupy railway arches that are inspired by New York's jazz bars. With only 30 seats in each, the setting is suitably cosy and relaxed for this festive essential showing at 5.30pm. Stay up to date with everything going on in Camden's new entertainment district with the Camdenist guide to Hawley Wharf.

 ART: Glass Cloud Gallery 

Looking for some culture to discover on an Xmas walk? Consider wandering past Glass Cloud Gallery - the artist-run window at Camden Peoples Theatre. Their Winter Salon is on until 27th January, featuring a variety of artworks including ceramics, sculpture, painting and even a cyanotype. With viewings only possible from the pavement, it's one activity that even Covid can't cancel. The gallery is also running a fundraiser featuring over 100 small works all at £50.

 VIDEO: Beautiful Brutalism - Alexandra Rd Estate 

Grab the Quality Street, sit back and enjoy this lovely documentary on Rowley Way in Swiss Cottage and its iconic Grade II-listed housing scheme. The film features the voices of the residents, who clearly love living in this vast concrete 'ziggurat', despite controversies over its cost, raw appearance, and long-term maintenance. The film paints a picture of a genuine community and reveals a structure with unique quirks such as heating in the walls and special sound and vibration defenses against the nearby railway line. 

 THIS WEEK'S ONE-CLICK POLL 2021's best topical cracker jokes have been selected by Chortle, but which one of this pick of the groan-fests gets your vote? 

LAST WEEK WE ASKED:

With 600,000 Brits now spending Xmas in isolation, we wonder if these results are even keeping up with the situation as it changes by the hour. Whatever you're doing and whoever you are able to eat, drink ansd be merry with (in person or via Zoom), the team at Camdenist wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and we look forward to keeping you fully briefed on the best of the borough as-and-when we emerge from this latest phase of the pandemic. 🎄

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