Steinbach church hopes LGBTTQ+-friendly holiday performance welcoming for all

Christmas can be a difficult time for many members of the LGBTTQ+ community. Some are estranged from family and some may not feel welcome or safe at seasonal church services.

Theatre review: Adaptation of beloved holiday film a sweet treat

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre presented a capacity crowd with a big, beautiful early Christmas gift wrapped in a splashy showbiz bow as it launched its holiday production, Elf: The Musical, on Thursday.

Based on the 2003 film Elf, the stage adaptation, which premièred on Broadway in 2010, features a book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin. An entire Santa sack full of electrifying musical numbers added by composer Matthew Sklar are interwoven throughout the narrative, featuring razor-sharp, often astute lyrics by Chad Beguelin.

Elf: The Musical adds its own twists to the original screenplay, with its story-within-a-story now told from the perspective of a crotchety, TV channel-surfing Santa Claus (Daniel Bogart in his RMTC debut; also playing Grinchy publisher Mr. Greenway as an intriguing flipside) in lieu of the film’s original Papa Elf.

Santa gets the ball rolling as he reads a pop-up storybook about Buddy the elf that serves as a handy plot-framing device.

Transit employee charity boosts morale by serving others

Helping others has a way of being an automatic mood lifter. When acts of kindness happen, the residual effects for the helper are often invaluable. So when things get really rough, doing something for someone else can be just what the doctor ordered.

In 2017, after Winnipeg Transit bus operator Irvine “Jubal” Fraser died after being stabbed while on duty, morale among Transit workers was low.

Fellow bus operator Jon Rost came up with the idea of creating an employee-driven charity. He believed that this would be a way of improving staff well-being while giving back to the people of Winnipeg and showcasing the generosity of the employees who work at Winnipeg Transit. Rost was right on all counts.

A committee of transit employees, from bus operators to mechanics to office clerks, was formed to oversee the charitable effort. With the support of the Winnipeg Foundation and seed money from other sources — including private donors — the Transit Employee Community Fund was created in June of 2019.

Legal ‘show’ courts weighty contempt

All’s Fair, a so-called legal comedy-drama starring Kim Kardashian, Niecy Nash-Betts and Naomi Watts, has been savaged by critics, with some calling it possibly the worst TV show ever made.

This isn’t a so-bad-it’s-good series. It’s not a high-camp romp. It’s not a guilty pleasure. It’s not even an effective hate-watch.

In fact, as several commentators have pointed out, it’s just possible that All’s Fair (now streaming on Disney+) is not a TV show at all but instead some completely new product that could be classified as post-television, maybe even post-human.

From recklessly prolific creator Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, American Crime Story, Monster), this nine-episode season seems to herald a new mode of viewing, with content that seems specifically engineered to be consumed on a second screen while you’re doing something else, like playing online solitaire or shopping for cute shoes on eBay.

Toews, Belcourt among Time’s must-read authors

Six Canadian books have landed on Time magazine’s list of the 100 must-read books of 2025.

Miriam Toews’ A Truce That Is Not Peace, Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This and Margaret Atwood’s Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts were the trio of top non-fiction titles.

On the fiction side, Souvankham Thammavongsa’s Giller-winning novel Pick a Colour and Madeleine Thien’s novel The Book of Records were among the featured fiction picks, while Billy-Ray Belcourt’s The Idea of an Entire Life was the lone Canadian poetry collection to make the list.

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Mom gone wild, a music doc and other holiday escapes

While you probably don’t need much help finding your own seasonal programming, please accept an early gift in the shape of a Michelle Pfeiffer holiday movie. Then, as a non-festive chaser of alternatives, consider the following — music doc, period western, dog tale and a biography of a classic TV icon. Merry viewing!

● Oh. What. Fun. (movie premières Wednesday, Dec. 3 on Prime Video)

Some will find this holiday family movie relatable — painfully, regretably relatable and others will be cheering, possibly drunkenly, and considering their own domestic job action.

Claire (hello, Michelle Pfeiffer, but what’s the deal with the accent?) has been taken for granted once too often by her husband (Denis Leary) and family (including Jason Schwartzman). Her escape takes her to the stage of the annual holiday mom contest, hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria).

Liqueur adds punch to flavour profile of apricot rugelach

The first recipe in this year’s Homemade Holiday series is a hands-on pastry that plays with tradition.

Harriet Zaidman’s mother made rugelach — a classic Hanukkah dessert — with yeasted dough and cinnamon-sugar filling. While the family recipe was delicious, this cream cheese version with a boozy twist has become her holiday go-to.

“I like to try new recipes, and every year or so a bunch of colleagues from the school where I worked would get together and bake. At one of these Saturday sessions, my principal (an excellent baker) taught me to make these rugelach. Adding the liqueur to the taste made the recipe even better,” says the retired teacher and author, who publishes recipes on her food blog, North End Nosh.

“For me, it’s all about sharing … I really enjoy hearing from people who say they’ve tried a recipe and it’s become a favourite.”

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: There are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions. The moon is in Taurus.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

You might feel attracted to someone in a romantic way. This person might be from another culture or a different country. They might even be famous and not accessible, but you see them on screen or via social media. Perhaps they represent a lifestyle you would like to escape to.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)