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This weekend’s picks for free and cheap things to do (12/21 to 12/23) in NYC. Holiday-themed as well as end-of-the-world ones too. Cultural events in art, music, film, dance, theater, design, walking, food, and general fun!

1. Fri 12/21 in Music/Participatory/Fun – The Gaits: A High Line Soundwalk. 3 to 4:30pm. Turn your footsteps into sound. Just one of the many Make Music Winter Events this Friday. See other events here. FREE

2. All weekend in Film/Art – Christian Marclay’s The Clock. Through 1/21/13. FREE Fridays from 4 to 8pm.

3. Fri 12/21 in Art/Film/Music/Magic/Comedy – The End of the World Party. 7pm to midnight. FREE (RSVP here)

4. Fri 12/21 in Comedy/Performance — The Afterlife Comedy Show at 8:30pm: Emily Heller, George Gordon, Erin Judge and more.$8

5. All weekend in Art – George Bellows Paintings through 2/18/13. Pay what you wish.

6. Fri 12/21 & Sat 12/22 in Music – Sō Percussion: Where (we) Live: crafting sonic landscapes from found objects, Brooklyn-based quartet Sō Percussion explores the idea of home with a bold experiment in collaborative art-making. At 7:30pm. $16 to $40

7. All weekend in Dance/Acrobatics – STREB- Forces! The Movical. Elizabeth Streb and her Extreme Action Company a theater of flight with big hardware and big muscles. Good for the whole family. $25 Adults $15 kids Check site for showtimes.

8. Fri 12/21 in Music/Participatory – Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace: Come together and sing John Lennon’s “Imagine” at the very moment Yoko Ono’s new video IMAGINE PEACE lights up sixteen Times Square billboards at 11:57pm. Meet 11:45pm at Times Square. Part of Make Music Winter. FREE

9. All weekend in Dance/Music/Light –  iLuminate Artist of Light: extraordinary effects choreographed with phenomenal dance moves. You can see them in action here. $49.50 adults $30 Students Check site for numerous showtimes through 1/5/12.

10. Fri 12/21 in Music – JD Samson and MEN at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar. 6pm to midnight. FREE

11. Sat 12/22 in Walking/Fun – The Amazing New York Scavenger Hunt: fast-paced team event that is part scavenger hunt and part obstacle course. 12:30pm $17.50 Holiday Edition is $35.

12. All weekend in Dance/Performance – The Butt-Cracker Suite: A Trailer Park Ballet, a funny and irreverent adaptation of The Nutcracker. Enter promo code flamingo for $25 tickets. 8:30pm.

13. All weekend in Theater/Multimedia – Reid Farrington’s A Christmas Carol. an imaginative and ghostly multimedia re-telling of Dickens’ seasonal tale. Fri 12/21 & Sat 12/22 at 8pm. Sun 12/23 at 3pm. $25

14. Sat 12/22 in Music – Everett Bradley’s Holidelic: this holiday funk-tacular blends the influences of P-Funk, Sly Stone and other 1970’s and ‘80’s funk and soul bands into original songs that celebrate diversity, mild familial seasonal dysfunction, individuality, and holiday booty shaking. 8pm $20 advance $25 at door

15. Sat 12/22 in Music – The Cecilia Chorus of NY: Mangia! Holiday Music with the Flavor of Italy. 8pm Tkts $25 and up.

16. Sat 12/22 in Music – David Johansen with Romans. 7pm $23 advance; $25 door

17. All weekend in Dance/Comedy/Performance – The Bang Group: Nut/Cracked: a comic/subversive, neo-vaudeville version of The Nutcracker.  7:30pm $24 in advance $30 day of

18. Sun 12/23 in Film – Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel. 2pm and 6pm. $14

Also in Film all weekend – Zero Dark Thirty: The new Kathryn Bigelow film about the manhunt for Bin Laden. $13

UPDATES:
All weekend in Graphic Design – The Fifty and Fifty State Mottos Project at the Ace Hotel Gallery. FREE
Sat 12/22 in Music/Participatory/Holiday – Greenwich Village Caroling Walk at 4pm. FREE
Sat 12/22 in Performance/Improv – The Tarantino: Improvisers performing an improvised Quentin Tarantino movie before your eyes. At 10pm $5.
Sun 12/23 in Film/Holiday – It’s a Wonderful Life at 2pm. $10 tkts