Weekend Top Picks for Dec 9-11: It's A Wonderful Life, and More

Are we having fun yet? There is boundless joy in addressing holiday cards, decorating the tree — and then watering it and trying to keep it from toppling over — navigating the mall, remembering to move the Elf on the Shelf each night, enduring the holiday office party and planning the family get-togethers. It's enough to make anyone say, "Bah, humbug."

Get your holiday spirit back with one (or more!) of many holiday classics being staged around town.

It's A Wonderful Life. Don't just settle for the TV version — although no one has ever looked more radiant than Donna Reed as Mrs. George Bailey. (With the possible exception of Grace Kelly in Rear Window.) The live adaptation of the classic is in town from Asheville, and you can be part of the action. Literally. The audience sits on stage along with the actors. In this stage adaptation, the folks at a financially struggling radio station brave the elements to perform a radio play of Frank Capra's script. It doesn't matter how many times we see it, the lump in the throat is always there when George Bailey decides he wants to live. Fri-Sun. Learn more.

A Christmas Carol. Theatre Charlotte stages Dickens's classic where Scrooge learns important lessons from some visiting ghosts. It's the third consecutive year Theatre Charlotte has staged the play, and it comes back each year by popular demand. Fri-Sun. Learn more.

A Tuna Christmas. Audiences keep asking CAST to bring back this modern holiday classic, too. And, they oblige. This is the sixth year they've had two actors play every role in the cast — which is part of the fun. Like Live from WVL, the action takes place at a radio station. Unlike WVL, a space ship lands in town on Christmas Eve. Fri-Sat. Details.

Million Dollar Quartet. It doesn't have anything to do with Christmas, but there's nothing more joyful than the recreation of the historic night Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins came together in a Memphis recording studio for the first and only time. It's your last chance to see it, Charlotte, and you shouldn't miss it. Fri-Sun. Get the scoop.

Banish the bah-humbugs!