It's beginning to look a lot like...

The holiday season is upon us once again. The days are getting chillier...

earmuffs required

Holt Renfrew and The Bay's holiday windows are installed, Starbucks red cups (and Joy tea!!) are in full force, Christmas music is starting to pop up (everywhere but Shoppers Drug Mart) and finally last weekend, the Santa Claus Parade made its way through the streets of Toronto.

I kinda love the holiday season and I'm getting excited for some great events happening in the next few weeks, including some events where I'll be singing!

Saturday December 1st - Singing Strong Holiday Magic in New York

I'm thrilled to be participating in another Singing Strong 'Cabaret for a Cause'. Proceeds from this holiday themed evening will be donated back to Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and I'm looking forward to sharing the stage with an amazing group of talented performers, including the lovely Lindsay!

Linz & I at last year's Cabaret for a Cause

Thursday December 13th - HoHoTO 

HoHoTO is a huge holiday-themed party to raise funds for the Daily Bread Food Bank. This annual event has been going on since 2008, and has raised more than $165,000 and collected more than four tonnes of food for Torontonians in need. I think it's pretty amazing that something that started as a conversation over Twitter has turned into such a successful fundraiser for an incredibly worthy cause. 

Friday December 14th - Set Those Sails - A Night of William Finn

I'm really excited to be a part of this amazing project that Tara has been working on. William Finn writes insanely beautiful and moving music, and Tara has collected a stellar group of performers and musicians to bring his music to life. It's sure to be a wonderful evening and we'd love to have you there. 

Sunday December 16 - Canada Sings Riverdale Annual Carol Singalong

I love singing Christmas carols, and last year I had the most wonderful time sipping a warm beverage and singing carols in harmony alongside a brass quintet and organ. Canada Sings is a really neat organization that encourages people to partake in the joy of music, and the holiday season is a ridiculously fun time to do so!

Links include more details and ticket information. I can't wait for all of these events and would love to see you there too!

What are you looking forward to over the holiday season? Do you have any events that are now a tradition for you to attend?

This is my Winter Song to You

The last few weeks have been crazy and awesome and hectic and hilarious. I can hardly believe that it’s December!! This week marked the beginning of what I like to call the Holi-month and I had a blast with a lot of wonderful people at some great events.

On Tuesday I went to Hip and Urban Girl’s Champagne and Cookie Party with my sweet friends Reggy and Christine.

I promise, that if you put 200 women in a room with cookies and booze, there will be madness! There weren’t a ton of gluten free and vegan options aside from the BabyCakes snickerdoodles that I brought

and the delicious cookies that Reggy made (there was almond butter and cranberries involved, they were pretty fantastic) I think my favourite moment in the evening was a toss up between coming upon Christine with a platter of a dozen cookies in front of her, each of which had a single bite taken out of it

or the discussion Reggy and I had with the rep from Ohhh Canada about Tenga eggs making wicked stocking stuffers. Both moments were pretty amazing. Thanks to my Charlie’s Angels for a super fun evening and to Val for hooking me up with the tickets!

On Friday night I headed to the Cameron House with a some of my favourite friends for Graydon James & the Young Novelists’ cd release party.

The show was fantastic. They have some incredible harmonies, heartbreaking lyrics and the whole band is wickedly talented. The crowd at the lovely Cameron House had a stellar energy, which was enhanced for me by the fact that I had one of my besties on either side of me. And did I mention that there were cupcakes and tea goodie bags?? They are a fantastic band to see live and it was a pretty magical evening. Go. Buy. The. Album.

Finally Saturday I had my own chance to be on stage spreading some festive cheer in another Singing Strong cabaret in support of Buddies in Bad Times theatre.

I had a blast singing with some amazing singers (including my dear friend Lindsay), fabulous musicians (including Tara on keys) surrounded by a really fun audience and some great repertoire. There was an eclectic mix of tunes including some musical theatre, pop and jazz along with some holiday favourites that I got to sing lead on including Baby It’s Cold Outside (which is actually a creepy song…) and Baby Please Come Home.

Linz and I also sang Wintersong, which is just such a  beautiful song. It’s an amazing thing to be able to take our friendship to the next level by singing in harmony with one another! I also got to sing Christmas Lullaby from Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for World (which is one of my dream roles) And of course the evening was made even better by the fact that there were some really awesome people in the audience to see me AND I was wearing a Damzels dress, which is always a good recipe for a perfect show. It was a brilliant evening and a great way to kick off the holiday season!

My holi-month continues with a party tonight, at least 3 pot lucks in the coming weeks, some more singing engagements and an evening at the symphony for Handel’s Messiah next week!

Do you have any fun plans for the Holi-month? What’s your favourite holiday tune?

PS – did you know I was nominated for a 2011 BroadwayWorld Toronto award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical? If you have a minute, please vote!!