31 THINGS TO DO IN December

1

PAY tribute, educate, and pin a red ribbon on your lapel. It's World AIDS Day.

2

STEP up to the plate. Bidding starts tomorrow at Sotheby's on one of Babe Ruth's home-run-slamming bats, as well as on other celebrated baseball memorabilia.

3

FOCUS.Surface magazine's Avant Guardian event celebrates American fashion photography, at Miami's Splashlight Studios.

4

TAKE the A train. On this date in 1927, Duke Ellington, a then unknown performer, and his orchestra debuted at Harlem's famed Cotton Club.

5

LIFT the curtain. Billy Crystal's one-man show, 700 Sundays, opens at the Broadhurst Theater, in New York City.

6

HOLLER likeTarzan. The "Wild: Fashion Untamed" exhibition, an exploration of man's obsession with animalism and fur, begins tomorrow in N.Y.C. at the Met's Costume Institute.

7

LIGHT the first candle. Hanukkah begins at sundown.

8

GO house gaping. The annual Antiquarius Holiday House Tour leads you through some of Greenwich, Connecticut's most spectacular private homes bedecked for the season.

9

CAROL along with the National Symphony Orchestra Pops, led by conductor Marvin Hamlisch, at the Happy Holidays! Christmas concert at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center.

10

SAY "Om" with Richard Gere at the International Himalayan Festival in Kangra, India. Celebrate with the Dalai Lama, who was given the Nobel Peace Prize 15 years ago.

11

FOLLOW, vicariously, Lewis and Clark's historic path. An exhibition of photographs from a modern-day journey along the route opens today at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

12

JAM with the Pixies, who finally return to New York City. Tonight they will play the second of their eight shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

13

BUCK Communism in favor of musica. The Havana International Jazz Festival Tour starts today.

14

EXPLORE Antarctica. On this day in 1911, Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole. December is the best time to visit.

15

SING along with a flying nanny. The stage version of Disney's Mary Poppins opens today in London, at the Prince Edward Theatre, 40 years after the film's premiere.

16

FORGET about Jack Frost—what about Jack White? Learn about de Stijl, the design movement that influenced the White Stripes, among others, as part of MoMA's Brown Bag Lunch Lectures.

17

SOAR with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett. The Aviator, Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic, opens today.

18

DECK the halls. The Los Angeles Philharmonic celebrates the season with "Home for the Holidays," with traditional carols and other music, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. \

19

BID adieu. Festival d'Automne, the annual three-month Parisian contemporary-art event, ends today.

20

BATTLE the Mouse King and dance with the Sugar Plum Fairy. The San Francisco Ballet presents the holiday classic Nutcracker until the end of the month.

21

SURF. Catch sun and tubular fun at the biggest surfing competition in the U.S. The Vans Triple Crown ends today with the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters, at the Banzai Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore.

22

LOVE holiday music. Catch a classic Christmas double-feature sing-along at Chicago's Music Box Theatre, a holiday tradition since 1983.

23

SALSA up to N.Y.C. and see "Retratos: 2,000 Years of Latin American Portraits," a pioneering exhibition of approximately 125 paintings and sculptures, at El Museo del Barrio.

24

LEAVE out the cookies and carrots. Santa and his reindeer are on their way.

25

OPEN gifts. And do something charitable. Merry Christmas!

26

FEAST your eyes on a program of Ailey standards as part of the new season of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at New York's City Center.

27

RESURRECT your Lincoln Logs and Tinkertoys. The Mori Art Museum of Tokyo displays its first-ever architecture exhibition, "Archilab: New Experiments in Architecture, Art and the City."

28

MAINTAIN unity. The Spirit of Kwanzaa performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., celebrates the African-American holiday's 38th year.

29

WATCHhomme a homme defense as French-basketball-league players duke it out at the Palais Omnisports de Bercy-Paris for their annual all-star match.

30

SADDLE up. Watch riders maneuver their stallions today at the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, the oldest in the world.

31

JET to the remote Christmas Island of Kiribati. Celebrate New Year's Eve on this Pacific hideaway—it will be the first place on earth to hit 2005.