French peas are easy, quick, and a great side for holiday hams, turkeys, and chickens. If you think you don't like peas, think again. more ›

Head on down to Hackneys on Saturday afternoon for a free sample of days gone by. more ›

Moving forward with our own observance of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King today, we bring you his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech from 1964, one of our favorite speeches of Dr. King's. more ›

Today is the federal observance of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. The Civil Rights icon would have been 82 last Saturday. more ›

Welcome back, everyone! Hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas. We got a lot of Wisconsin meats and cheeses, which should do wonders for our LDL levels when we next have a physical. But it raises the core temperature, which is what we're going to need today. more ›

You won't have to travel all the way to Daley plaza for a Christkindl market this weekend. Lincoln Square is hosting their third annual Christkindl market tonight through Sunday. Stroll Lincoln Avenue and be amazed at ice sculptures and decorations, or take a break from the cold in a heated tent at Lincoln and Leland and enjoy a hot mug of gluhwein and German food. There's also a "Kids Korner" where they can decorate cookies, ornaments and wreaths. Shoppers looking for unique holiday gifts can find some here, as well. more ›

The holiday season is upon us, friends, and you know what that means. Parties. Lots of them. Be it Hanukkah, Christmas, or otherwise, you’re bound to find yourself in someone’s home, making small talk and avoiding the mistletoe lest that mouth-breathing creeper ogling you from across the room tries to make a move. more ›

After the end of the Thanksgiving season, we often reflect on the little joys and sorrows of the season. Since we're usually the hosts and cooks, we think about what dishes went over well, which were bombs, and how we can manage to work more rum into the meal. Lately, we've also had to think about dietary accommodations, and our successes and failures. John's great post last week got us thinking. Attending Thanksgiving with vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free diners and people with nut allergies raises the question - how much should a host have to worry? more ›

Just in time for the holiday rush to get out of town, the city will light the official Christmas tree tomorrow at 5 p.m. more ›

With the return of the cold weather comes the return of another, newer, local favorite - Pedway tours! Hosted by former Chicagoista Margaret Hicks, these tours are a great opportunity to become familiar with a part of the city that many people don't know exist or have misconceptions as to how the pedway works. “I think a lot of locals really fear the Pedway, but they shouldn’t, it’s awesome, and now it’s very holiday-ish.” The writer and local comedienne normally gives a guided walking tour of the Pedway Monday and Thursday at 10:30 a.m, but for Thanksgiving Hicks is adding tours on November 24th and November 26th, both at 10:30 a.m. “I added the tours for Thanksgiving because there are so many great holiday things to see from the Pedway, like the tree in Macy’s, the beautiful Cultural Center with all of its decorations, heck, even Lane Bryant has done up their windows down there. It’s a great thing to do with your office too, learn something and have a great time” more ›

If you're planning on heading to the Museum of Science and Industry for the Jim Henson exhibition, you'll also be brought into the early holiday spirit with their annual "Christmas Around the World & Holidays of Light" exhibit. The centerpiece, a 45-foot tall tree in the Rotunda, is decorated with over 30,000 lights, 1,000 ornaments and surrounded by over 50 smaller trees decorated by volunteers to reflect Christmas traditions in other countries. more ›

Veterans Day is held in high regard here in the Chicagoist offices. As a veteran myself, I begin to look at how the six years I served in the Navy helped shape me into the man I am today, although I didn't think of it like that at the time I served. more ›

Tracy Swartz, RedEye's CTA jefe, Just posted the schedule for this year's Holiday Train. The 19th annual edition of the train, which miraculously has survived a few rounds of budget cuts in recent years, starts rolling along the Red and Purple Lines November 20 and 21. more ›

Christmas is only a week away and Hanukkah is wrapping up so it's a great time whip around the Chicago area for some lovely holiday scenes. more ›

The holidays mean parties, and (if you're smart) parties mean a punchbowl. As a host, who wants to spend the latter part of the evening rooting around in the pantry trying to figure out how to make a palatable drink from the vodka, peppermint schnapps and diet tonic water that are leftover after the "good stuff" is gone? Not us. No sir, a punchbowl is the way to go. It requires a little setup time, but once it's prepared you can back away and concentrate on mingling. more ›

Special to Chicagoist from Betsy Mikel more ›

In case you didn't notice, the Chicago skyline has been showing its Irish pride like everyone else by wearing its finest green outfits. Every few weeks a few brave individuals travel to the tops of the city to change the colors of the lights on the tops of our skyline, but how do they do it? "Magic and pixie dust," he said. Of course, Randy Stancik, building manager of the Sears Tower, was joking. It is actually a manual process, Stancik said. It takes two men about two hours to change the colors, attaching theatrical gels to the tops of the 22 spotlights that illuminate the antennae. more ›

The seven-day African holiday Kwanzaa began yesterday, and celebrations are going on throughout the city. Perhaps the most well-known celebration is the annual Kwanzaa Observance Program at Malcom X College, now in its 14th year. Their program of activities happens from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day and is free. Be sure to check out the full schedule here. Today, from 11:00 a.m until 3 p.m., a Kwanzaa celebration will be held at Kennicott Park (4434 S. Lake Park) which is free and open to the public. Also, the DuSable Museum of African-American History, Bronzeville Children's Museum, and Museum of Science and Industry will all host events over the next several days. more ›

With all the snow falling outside and the Chicagoist Office Holiday Party coming up this week, we're trying our best to fight all the downer news and get into the holiday spirit. And call us suckers, but Charlie Brown always does the trick. Enjoy part one below and finish off your afternoon with parts two and three after the jump. more ›

Zoolights is one of our favorite Chicago holiday traditions. Every night, from now until January 4th, Lincoln Park Zoo is filled with bright lights and holiday-themed activities for the whole family. Best of all? It’s free! We visited Zoolights last Friday night to bring you a glimpse of the colorful display. more ›

While we're still working on our gingerbread doublewide trailer with a gravel driveway made of sprinkles, Fruit Roll-ups and pretzel sticks carport, Hot Wheels cars on sugar cube blocks and a snack cracker outhouse, we wanted to share with you this item from yesterday's New York Times Sunday Magazine. more ›

The one thing the Chicagoist staff — which hails from all corners of the country — has in common with each other is that we all call the City of Big Shoulders home. It's rare to be able to get us in one place together to catch up on things, bond and just enjoy each other's company, but when we do the stories we tell can go on for days. It's no cliche to say that this current staff is one of the tightest knit groups to grace your computer screen. Speaking for myself, I'm thankful to be associated with such a group of inspiring, talented and dedicated people. more ›

You're running out of time to shop--and giganto stores are going to be so butts-to-nuts crowded you'll want to kill yourself--but there are still options. We're partial to the Chicago Architecture Foundation's store on Michigan and Jackson ( 224 S. Michigan) if you still need a gift for someone geeky and awesome. Also, give that person our number. more ›

We promise we love many elements about the Christmas season: the festive decorations, the spirit of togetherness, the delicious foods ... but other elements make us want to stab our eyes out. At the top of our list are awful Christmas songs. While there are some songs that make us reminisce about our childhood (anything from the A Very Special Christmas album is fair game), there are others that almost induce involuntary vomiting. We polled the Chicagoist office to compile a list of the Worst Fucking Christmas songs, and here's what was said. (You can wage your own bets about which Chicagoist writer said what): more ›

Tomorrow night kicks off Metro's "Home For The Holidays" weekend with a veritable who's who of Chicago-based bands that have had big 2007s. We've waxed ecstatic about OFFICE and the 1900s plenty in the past, so now we'd like to direct your attention to our favorite part of the undercard and encourage you to get out there early. more ›

Lucky enough to get a few days off for the Chrismukkah holidays? Several Chicago area music entities have been kind enough to give you time-filling options. more ›

Bin 36 hosted their annual Bubbles Bash last night where 450 revelers ate and drank, then drank ome more, to their heart’s delight. Champagne, cava, prosecco, sekt, and sparklers from a full range of countries flowed for hours making a dark and drizzly Wednesday night into a scintillating celebration of friends, flavors, and holiday festivities. more ›

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In high school one of the constants of our Friday nights was a family-sized pizza delivered to the house from La Villa Restaurant and Banquets in Old Irving. We'd fight for a corner slice among our allotment, chase them down with a glass of pop, and head out the house for our other constant: vainly working on our game with every Catholic school girl we could meet. more ›

With the city being overrun by holiday bar crawls, it might be difficult to walk the streets this weekend without being accosted by a drunk dude in holiday vest or run over by a Santa in a hazmat suit. Throw on your best Cosby sweater and enjoy any or all of these weekend delights.... more ›