Winter Solstice events Fallen Angel
Earth Eagle Brewings hosts a Winter Solstice party on Thursday.

Top five things to do: Winter Solstice edition

A roundup of weekend/solstice/holiday entertainment on the Seacoast

We’re publishing our top-five roundup a day early this week to include the Winter Solstice events — and extending it an extra day to go through Christmas. Welcome winter with these early-season highlights.

Winter Solstice beer releases

Winter Solstice Hygge Life Garrison City Beerworks

What would winter be without beer? Insufferable, that’s what. Fortunately, two Seacoast breweries unveil new brews on Thursday, Dec. 21. At 4 p.m. in Dover, Garrison City Beerworks introduces Hygge Lyfe, a Belgian stout with cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla, and currants. Frank Landford provides live music, and Embers Bakery offers gingerbread. At 6 p.m. in Portsmouth, Earth Eagle Brewings hosts a Winter Solstice celebration featuring the bottle release of Fallen Angel, a barley wine, along with other beverages and bites.

Beat Night Scrooged

Beat Night Scrooged

Beat Night, in case you just moved here yesterday, is a monthly open-mike poetry event in which spoken word is accompanied by live improvised music from the Beat Night Band. On Thursday, Dec. 21, Portsmouth Book and Bar invites anyone suffering from holiday burnout to celebrate the darkest night of the year with some Christmas jeer. The special “Scrooged” edition of Beat Night takes place from 7-9 p.m. on the Winter Solstice. For more information, click here.

Harvey Reid & Joyce Andersen

The ultra-talented duo of guitarist Harvey Reid and fiddler Joyce Andersen present their 19th annual Seacoast Christmas Concert on Friday, Dec. 22, at 7:30 p.m., at Durham Community Church. Presented by the Seacoast Guitar Society, a nonprofit organization that benefits area guitar lovers, the acoustic strings will include guitars, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, and autoharp. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door ($10 for students; free for kids 8 and under). For more information, click here.

Dreadnaught album release

Dreadnaught Hard Charging

Hard-hitting prog-rockers Dreadnaught unleash their new album, “Hard Charging,” with a show at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth on Saturday, Dec. 23, at 8 p.m. The trio of bassist Bob Lord, drummer Rick Habib, and guitarist Justin Walton have released six albums over the last 20 years, and for much of that time have served as house band for The Music Hall’s Writers on a New England Stage series. The Screen opens the release show. Tickets are $13-$15, available here.

The Rocky Horror Show

Rocky Horror Show

Cap off your Christmas celebration with a night of humorous horror, science fiction, and drag. Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” returns to the Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth on Monday, Dec. 25, at midnight (extending into the wee hours of Tuesday morning, Dec. 26). The local production is directed by Brandon James and Ben Hart. (There’s a second midnight performance on New Year’s Eve, but it’s already sold out.) Tickets are $20-$25, available here.

For a full calendar of local events, click here.