Celebrating Thanksgiving in Boston

Some popular Boston restaurants, such as the Club Café and Capital Grille, are serving up the usual Thanksgiving fixings at a reasonable cost. Photo courtesy of Flickr contributor Satya Murthy

If you’re not among the 26.4 million Americans expected to take to the air or the more than 46 million expected to hit the road this week to reach their Thanksgiving celebrations, don’t worry. Right here in Boston there are plenty of things to do, places to eat, and special events guaranteed to put you in the holiday spirit. Whether you’re thinking about checking out a show or catching up with friends at a local eatery, we’ve put together some great suggestions for making sure your weekend will be fun and festive.

Where to eat—under $40

Club Café

If you forgot to RSVP for the undergraduate Thanksgiving meal at Marciano Commons on Thursday (sorry, the deadline was Monday), there are some great, affordable restaurant choices nearby. Club Café is offering a Thanksgiving buffet on Thursday. For $29.95, diners can feast on roast prime rib, baked cod, baked sweet potato, homemade cornbread, and pumpkin ravioli. For dessert, you can choose from a range of pies and cakes. You’ll also be helping out a good cause. Ten percent of the day’s proceeds will be donated to the Boston Living Center, which supports members of the HIV/AIDS community.

Club Café, located at 209 Columbus Ave., will serve its Thanksgiving buffet on Thursday, November 27, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. To make a reservation (strongly recommended), call 617-536-0966 or visit their website. Take any MBTA Green Line trolley to Arlington and walk over to Columbus Avenue. 

McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood & Steaks

Feel like something other than turkey this Thanksgiving? Consider making a reservation at McCormick & Schmick’s, one of the country’s premier seafood/steakhouse chains. With two downtown locations (Back Bay and Faneuil Hall), McCormick and Schmick’s offers extensive seafood and steak menus. But in a nod to the holiday, the restaurant will also be serving all the traditional Turkey Day fixings, including a turkey dinner ($25.99) and pumpkin pie dessert ($5.99). Walk-ins are allowed; however, reservations are suggested.

McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood & Steaks is located at 34 Columbus Ave. in the Theater District. To make a reservation there, call 617-482-3999 or go to its reservation web page. Hours on Thanksgiving are from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Take any Green Line trolley to the Arlington stop. McCormick & Schmick’s other location is at One Faneuil Hall Marketplace, where its Thanksgiving hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. To make a reservation there, call 617-720-5522 or make a reservation here. Take an MBTA Blue or Orange train line to State Street. 

The Capital Grille

This high-end steak house is serving up quite a dinner at a relatively reasonable price (for Capital Grille). They are offering a meal that includes slow roasted turkey with brioche stuffing, French green beans with Marcona almonds, mashed potatoes, and cranberry pear chutney. Prices are $36 for adults and $15 for children. The main dessert, a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingerbread crust, is $10. The restaurant still has some seats available during evening hours, but reservations are required. Looking at the menu, we can see why.

Capital Grille, 900 Boylston St., still has a limited number of seats available from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Take an MBTA Green Line trolley to Hynes Convention Center. To make a reservation, call 617-262-8900 or visit their website.

Graduate Student Thanksgiving Meal at Marsh Chapel

BU is hosting a special Thanksgiving meal for all graduate students, courtesy of Marsh Chapel. The free meal, which features a traditional holiday menu including turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, will take place in the Marsh Room in Marsh Chapel. Guests are welcome to make a dish, but it is not required. Volunteers are needed to help with setting up, cooking, and cleanup. Anyone interested in attending please contact Rev. Brittany Longsdorf, BU’s chaplain for international students, at 617-358-3399. There is a very limited number of tickets left; therefore, you must make a reservation here.

The graduate student Thanksgiving meal begins at 1 p.m. on Thursday, November 27, at Marsh Chapel, 735 Commonwealth Ave. The event is free and open to graduate students only.

What to watch

Macy’s 88^th Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade

For most Americans, TV and turkey go hand in hand, and there’s no better way to kick off the holiday season than by turning on the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This year’s procession will feature 16 giant balloons, 27 floats, 12 marching bands, 1,300 dancers, and a whole lot more. The three-hour extravaganza wraps up with an appearance by Santa, officially heralding the start of the Christmas season. The televised event draws a yearly audience of more than 50 million viewers.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will air on NBC from 9 a.m. to noon on Thursday, November 27. 

Football

We’re not quite sure how the Pilgrims would feel about it, but football has become synonymous with Thanksgiving. This year’s NFL matchups are especially interesting. To kick things off (okay, forgive the pun), the Detroit Lions take on their division rival, the Chicago Bears. That game will be followed by a showdown between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, who are both currently duking it out for the top spot in the NFC East. Rounding things out is a rematch of last January’s NFC Championship Game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers.

The Lions-Bears game will air on CBS beginning at 12:30 p.m. The Eagles-Cowboys game will be broadcast on FOX starting at 4:30 p.m. Football wraps up with the Seahawks-49ers game, which begins at 8:30 p.m. on NBC.

Things to do

Boston Volvo Village 5K Road Race

What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than by supporting a great cause? The 3.1-mile Volvo Village 5K Road Race seeks to raise money to support the Greater New England chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Prizes will be handed out to the competitors with the best times and to the first 750 runners to cross the finish line. There is no minimum fundraising amount required to participate, but all runners are encouraged to make a donation. To participate in the race, you can register online for $20 here or register on the day of the event for $25.

The Boston Volvo Village 5K Road Race begins at 9 a.m. on Thursday, November 27, at the Boston Volvo Village, 75 North Beacon St., Brighton. Take an MBTA #64 bus to the North Beacon/Saunders Street stop. Onsite registration begins at 7:30 a.m.For more details, contact Jared Wayne at Volvo5K@nmss.org or call 1-800-344-4867. 

Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker 

The holiday season wouldn’t be the holiday season without sugar plum fairies, Clara and her prince, and the rich fantasies of Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet, The Nutcracker. Choreographer Mikko Nissinen’s acclaimed production of the classic is returning to Boston this Thanksgiving weekend, performed by the equally acclaimed Boston Ballet Company. One critic hailed Nissinen’s staging as “the most magical version of The Nutcracker.” Performances run from Friday, November 28, through Wednesday, December 31. Prices range from $45 to $182. Performances usually sell out, so act fast.

Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker is at the Boston Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston. To buy tickets, call 617-695-6955, search online, or visit Boston Ballet’s box office, 19 Clarendon St., Boston. Box-office hours during performance weeks are Mondays to Fridays, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. To get to the Boston Ballet’s box office, take any MBTA Green Line trolley to Copley. The box office is closed on Thanksgiving. To get to the Boston Opera House, take any MBTA Green Line trolley or Orange Line train to Downtown Crossing. 

The Trip to Bountiful 

Here’s your chance to see acclaimed actress Cicely Tyson—now 80—reprise her Tony-award winning role as Carrie Watts in Horton Foote’s heartbreaking drama, The Trip to Bountiful. The production, which also stars Vanessa Williams and Blair Underwood, is in town for a limited two-week engagement. The Trip to Bountiful, which the Wall Street Journal called “one of the half-dozen greatest American plays,” tells the story of an elderly woman determined to revisit her childhood home one last time, despite the disapproval of her son and daughter-in-law. Performances run from Thursday, November 20, to Sunday, December 7. Prices range from $25 to $110. Be sure to purchase your tickets before they sell out.

The Trip to Bountiful is at the Emerson/Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont St., Boston. To buy tickets, call the Emerson/Cutler Majestic Theatre Box Office at 617-824-8400, purchase them online, or email tickets@artsemerson.org. Box-office hours are Mondays to Fridays, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. The box office is closed on Thanksgiving.

The ImprovBoston Holiday Spectacular 

You might need a laugh or two if you’ve spent the holiday with relatives who drive you crazy. Head over to Cambridge for the kickoff of ImprovBoston’s month-long Holiday Spectacular, which begins Friday, November 28. “Part scripted, part improvised, and all hilarious,” according to the ImprovBoston website, the show features up-and-coming local comedians and performers. General admission tickets are $18, $14 for students.

ImprovBoston is at 40 Prospect St., Cambridge. The ImprovBoston Holiday Spectacular runs every Friday at 10 p.m. from November 28 to December 26, with additional Saturday performances on December 20 and 27. Tickets can be purchased at the door and are available online here.

Ice Skating on Frog Pond

Cold weather means the return of ice-skating, and there’s no better place to lace up than at the Boston Common Frog Pond, at the heart of Boston Common, the nation’s oldest public park. Tickets for admission to the rink are $5 for skaters 58 inches and taller, and free for those shorter than 58 inches. You can either bring your own skates or rent them at the rink ($10 for adults, $5 for kids). If you need your blades sharpened, they’ll do it right there for $8.

To get to the Boston Common Frog Pond, take any MBTA Green Line trolley to Park Street. The rink is open Mondays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. For information on skate rentals and events, call 617-635-2120.

Goya: Order and Disorder at the Museum of Fine Arts

One of the greatest artists to work in Europe during the late 18^th and early 19^th century, Francisco Goya is getting the star treatment in this huge retrospective of his work at the Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibit, Goya: Order and Disorder, includes 170 of the Spanish artist’s most important works, making it the largest Goya exhibition in North America in 25 years. The show looks at Goya’s work thematically, focusing on his stately portraits (order) and his depictions of war (disorder) and includes works created between the 1770s and the end of his life in 1828. The core of the show is 71 works from the MFA’s own collection, some of which haven’t been displayed in 25 years. And several museums, including the Museo del Prado, the Musée du Louvre, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, have loaned works for inclusion in the exhibition. Please note that the museum is closed on Thanksgiving but will reopen on Friday, November 28.

The Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., is open Saturdays through Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., and Wednesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. (but closing early Thanksgiving eve). Admission is free for BU students with a valid ID, $25 for adults, $23 for seniors (65+) and students (18+), and free for children 6 and under. Admission for children ages 7 to 17 is $10 on weekdays before 3 p.m., and free on weekdays after 3 p.m., weekends, and public school holidays. Take an MBTA Green Line E trolley or the #39 bus to the Museum of Fine Arts stop. Goya: Order and Disorder runs through January 19, 2015. 

Blink! A Light & Sound Extravaganza at Faneuil Hall

As the hours of daylight get shorter and shorter, Bostonians look for light wherever they can. One place you’ll find plenty of it is at Faneuil Hall, which is celebrating the holidays with its annual Blink! Light & Sound Extravaganza. More than 350,000 LED lights will illuminate the marketplace throughout the holiday season. In the seven-minute spectacle, which repeats all evening long, the choreographed lights dance to holiday music recorded by the Boston Holiday Pops. Last year’s light show attracted more than 200,000 people.

Blink! at Faneuil Hall Marketplace is free and open to the public. Shows begin at 4:30 p.m. each evening and run continuously until 9:30 p.m. through January 4. To get to Faneuil Hall, take an MBTA Blue or Orange line train to the State Street stop.

Men’s Hockey and Men’s Basketball

Even though the campus is in recess for Thanksgiving, there’s plenty going on at Agganis Arena and Case Gym over the weekend. Cheer on the men’s hockey team when they host the Colgate Raiders on Saturday, November 29, at Agganis Arena. The following afternoon, the men’s basketball team takes on the University of Massachusetts-Lowell at Case Gym. Go Terriers!

The men’s hockey team hosts Colgate on Saturday, November 29, at Agganis Arena, 925 Commonwealth Ave., starting at 4 p.m. Tickets are free for students with a Sports Pass, $10 to $22 for students without a Sports Pass and faculty and staff, and $17 to $26 for the general public. To purchase tickets, call Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000, or visit any Ticketmaster outlet or the Agganis Arena ticket office at 925 Commonwealth Ave., Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can also purchase tickets online here.

The men’s basketball team will host UMass Lowell at 4 p.m. on Sunday, November 30, at Case Gym, 285 Babcock St., Boston. Tickets are free for students with a Sports Pass, $5 for students without a Sports Pass, $7 for faculty and staff, and $12 for general admission. Tickets can be purchased at the Agganis Arena/Walter Brown ticket office or online here. 

Where to shop

Shops at the Prudential Center

If you’re looking for one-stop shopping for those on your holiday list, you won’t do better than the Shops at the Prudential Center. Among the many popular stores located in the mall are Club Monaco, Lacoste, Barnes & Noble, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, and Vineyard Vines. Santa will be in residence every day through Christmas Eve at the Belvidere Arcade.

The Shops at Prudential Center are located at 800 Boylston St. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Santa will be at the Belvidere Arcade through Christmas Eve. You can pay him a visit Sundays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

SoWa Market

Looking for that one-of-a-kind gift for the hard-to-please person on your shopping list? Head to the South End on Sunday, November 30, to the SoWa Vintage Market, one of Boston’s most unique shopping venues. The marketplace, located inside a brick warehouse, features all things vintage, from LPs to jewelry.

The SoWa Vintage Market is open Sunday, November 30, (and every Sunday except Christmas and New Year’s) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The market is located at 460C Harrison Ave., Boston. Take the Orange Line to the New England Medical Center T stop, then take the Silver Line #4 or #5 bus to the Union Park Street stop and walk to Harrison Avenue. 

Newbury Street

There may be no better place to shop than picturesque Newbury Street, Boston’s answer to LA’s Rodeo Drive. You’ll find top-of-the-line boutiques, high-end consignment shops, Barbour, Burberry’s, Cole Haan, and lots more. Many of the stores are offering Black Friday and Small Business Saturday deals this weekend, so you might come away with some great deals. You can find a full list of the stores located along Newbury Street’s eight blocks here.

To get to Newbury Street, take any MBTA Green Line trolley to either Hynes Convention Center, Copley, or Arlington. 

Brandon Lewis can be reached at bmlewis@bu.edu.