Local and regional artists and crafters are sharing their talents for a great cause this holiday season, and the Muscatine Art Center invites everyone to join in the fun. The beloved Heartfelt & Handmade Ornament Competition, its decorations on view through December 5, has returned, and the first day to purchase these ornaments on December 6, at the Heartfelt & Handmade Family Festival and Market.

Local artisans, trolley rides, a lot of ugly sweaters, and, of course, appearances by St. Nick are among the guaranteed sights at the eagerly anticipated 41st-Annual Christmas in LeClaire weekend, with holiday-themed events and family activities scheduled at more than a dozen downtown locales between December 5 and 7.

The new recipient of the Academy Awards' 2026 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and one of most beloved entertainers in American history, the Queen of County Music's stage spectacular Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol brings its national tour to Davenport's Adler Theatre on December 7, a new musical featuring songs by Dolly Parton and book by David H. Bell, adapted by Bell, Curt Wollan, and Paul T. Couch.

Touring in advance of their forthcoming European dates and in support of the band's most recent album Truth Killer – a top-three Billboard smash that Metal Injection called "focused and streamlined with plenty of catchy songs and a few surprises" – the Grammy-nominated alternative-metal artists of Sevendust return to East Moline venue The Rust Belt on December 6, performing from a repertoire that includes 14 studio albums, one live album, and two compilation albums,

On December 7, Rascals Live will host a very special event with an iconic musician from Brother Cane, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Thin Lizzy, Alice Cooper, and Black Star Riders, the Moline venue's An Afternoon with Damon Johnson treating fans to stories, acoustic songs, and more with the noted rocker, including a listening party for the forthcoming Brother Cane album Magnolia Medicine.

Minneapolis-based alt-rock and power-pop musicians who inspired Good Music Radar to rave that their "flow is maintained as a sacrosanct part of their passion for music," the Pullstring quartet headlines a December 6 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, The Other Side Reviews adding that "Pullstring explores human vulnerability and fragility in a heart-aching but simultaneously heart-warming way."

With the Michigan musicians lauded by the Grand Rapids Herald Review as a "wonderfully talented" band that finds "percussions, strings, and trumpet working together seamlessly to provide the foundation for vocals and lyrics," Wild Horses enjoys a December 6 "Basementstormer" engagement in the basement of Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, the group's recent accomplishments including acting as 2024 openers for Willie Nelson and winning the Blue Ox Virtual Band Competition.

With this year's series of seasonal concerts benefiting the FISH of Galesburg food pantry, the revered vocal ensemble Choral Dynamics presents its yuletide show The Beauty of Christmas at Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre December 5 through 7, director Alisa's production designed to celebrate the beauties of nature, tradition, decorations, seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child, home, family, friends, and the Nativity.

The Lion in Winter is considered a classic, and its current area production, directed by Noah Hill for Moline′s Black Box Theatre, is an enthralling, often hilarious feast, with the fine cast of seven doing full justice to the clever script.