Monday

Massmouth Story Slam “About Last Night” from 7 to 10 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $10. The best stories are the most shameful. Information is here. 

Tuesday

Trash Night Video: “Cyborg 2” from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $8. This monthly film event lovingly selects and screen cinematic trash that ideally has at least one redeeming quality. For “Cyborg 2,” that may be that it gave Angelina Jolie her first film role, and that after seeing the final edit, she famously went home to be sick about it. Information is here.

Wednesday

Skip the Small Talk from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. There’s a suggested donation of $10 for this 21-plus event. Another chance to forget the dumb small talk that comes from meeting new people and – thanks to provided cards with “big talk” conversational questions – get right to the kinds of conversations you have late at night where for some reason, you feel safe talking about the things you actually care about. There’s a discounted cash pizza delivery planned for early in the evening. Information is here. 

8 O’Clock at 730 Vol 50: Love Line Edition from 8 to 10 p.m. at 730 Tavern, 730 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Free. Stand-up comedians take part of the night to form a love-line panel and take questions from audience members, who can ask anything about love, relationships and the mess that can come from them. Information is here.

Friday

Friday After Thanksgiving Chain Reaction from 1 to 4 p.m. at MIT’s Rockwell Cage Gymnasium, 106 Vassar St., in the Area II neighborhood. Tickets are $12.50 (with fees, $14.89) or $5 for kids (with fees, $6.94) or $15 at the door, or $5 for children ages 5 to 17. This 21st annual post-holiday event celebrates one-of-a-kind engineering feats of Rube Goldberg-esque complexity – giant chain reactions that really must be taken on in person for maximum appreciation. Information is here.

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. (and playing through Dec. 30) at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets start at $16 off-peak. Puppetry, live music, dancing and intimate storytelling in the tradition of this Central Square institution’s award-winning “Arabian Nights” is included in a new Underground Railway Theater incarnation of Dickens’ classic tale, set in a city suspended between Victorian London and the vibrantly diverse London of today. Information is here.

Seventh annual David Bowie Black Friday and Saturday, aka David Boobie at 9 p.m. (and at 7 p.m. Saturday) at Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $25 to $30, with limited availability. One of the area’s unique holiday traditions – sort of the Harvard Square November complement to Davis Square’s December “Slutcracker” – is the Bowie-flavored striptease that comes just after Thanksgiving every year. Niki Stardust and her Total Blam Blam David Boobie Band (aka Niki Luparelli and The Gold Diggers) promise the Bowiest showgirls and showiest Bowiegirls. Information is here.

Saturday

Holiday shopping begins from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.: The 27th Annual Somerville Craft Fair will have more than 100 crafters (and a snack bar) whose reservation fees support the runners of the Somerville High cross country and indoor and outdoor track teams, at Somerville High School, 91 Highland Ave., Somerville, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Etsy Makers fair at Bow Market, 1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville, with more than 50 local makers, artists and small businesses offering handmade artisan goods, locally made products, art, home decor, and vintage stuff; Holiday Market with handmade goods from artists around New England, including jewelry, ceramics, prints, paintings and baked goods, at Gallery 263, 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport, from 1 to 4 p.m.

Annual tree lighting from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at The Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St., Harvard Square. This family event – complete with a visit from Santa – includes free hot chocolate and cookies from Henrietta’s Table cookies and and clam chowder from Legal Sea Foods, as well as live jazz to enjoy as children help decorate holiday trees. As a benefit to Cambridge Family & Children’s Service, participants are asked to bring bath and beauty products for adolescents, twin-sized sheet sets and blankets, laundry detergent and household cleaning products products, bath towel sets and bathrobes for adolescents and AA and AAA batteries. Information is here.

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. (and playing through Dec. 30) at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets start at $16 off-peak. Information is here.

Seventh annual David Bowie Black Friday and Saturday, aka David Boobie at 7 p.m. at Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $20 to $25. Information is here.

Sunday

Somerville Local First Holiday Market from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Free. More holiday shopping opportunities, this time from 40-plus local vendors of jewelry, pet accessories, housewares, textiles, fragrances, leather goods, gifts, and specialty food items. Information is here.

Astrid Kuljanic Transatlantic Exploration Co. from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Gallery 263, 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport. There is a $10 to $15 suggested donation. A band of top world music improvisors hailing from Croatia, Brazil, Seattle and New York City, complemented by accordionist Ben Rosenblum and bassist Mat Muntz. Information is here.

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” from 2 to 4 p.m. (and playing through Dec. 30) at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets start at $16 off-peak. Information is here.

This post was updated Nov. 20, 2018, to correct the address for the Chain Reaction event.