Holiday primers

State of the Art

by Carly Carioli

We all understand the concept of why we get the day after Thanksgiving off, right? It's our duty to the economy to head to the nearest mall and bang down plastic repeatedly, so as to give a booster shot to retailers who're scared peepless that we're all gonna do our holiday gift shopping on eBay and Amazon.com. Cambridge being Cambridge -- more specifically, the Zeitgeist Gallery being the Zeitgeist Gallery -- there's a group of rebellious pranksters determined to bring new meaning to Black Friday.

In its efforts to wage a "24-hour moratorium on corporate spending," the Zeitgeist has declared November 26 "World Buy-Nothing Day." And since there's nothing the Zeitgeist tricksters love more than a parade, they'll be having one from the gallery (312 Broadway in Cambridge; call 971-0580 for info) to Harvard Square, during the course of which they'll hand out pre-printed "Christmas Gift Exemption Vouchers" and "spending lots of quality time buying nothing in selected stores." Once the parade hits Harvard, everyone will assemble to worship a ceremonial Golden Cow, and "Rev." Rich Mackin -- the self-anointed "Consumer Defense Poet" -- will regale listeners with his correspondence to and from corporate America, all while perched upon an actual soapbox.

Would that we could all be so noble. But hell, some of us have significant others who'll kick us to the couch if they get a voucher in their stocking, so it's off to corporate Christmas land we go! Leading the department-store pack is Macy's, which is in bed with the Parks and Recreation Department in presenting the 58th annual Boston Common Tree Lighting. This is the big-deal family affair, in which the town rolls out a whopping 70-footer during a gala "magical evening" hosted this year by the guy who's taken over as Captain Kangaroo. There's also a 200-member choir singing "Come to the Common," which is humbly described in a press release as "Macy's own gift to the people of the City of Boston . . . written specifically for the tree lighting two years ago." Now that's what we call tradition. The Boston University Marching Band, Tommy Menino, and Santa Claus are all in on the scam -- though it might be worth going just to hear Tommy attempt to keep his consonants in order when he leads the crowd in "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." That goes down December 5 at 6:30 p.m.This year, Macy's is honoring "famous Bostonians": Jay Leno, culinary capo Todd English, the Sox, Norm Abrams and Steve Thomas (we had to look it up -- they're the guys who took over This Old House), Seiji Ozawa and Keith Lockhart, and, uh, Nancy Kerrigan. What, no Boston Strangler?

Our pick to click: the official Cambridge holiday tree gets lit up this Friday, November 26, at the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square in a ceremony beginning at 4 p.m., with fewer strings attached. At the center of the Cambridge ceremony is a 50-foot Canadian evergreen; a couple of brass quintets play from the rooftops, and there's a petting zoo with an actual reindeer, food from Rialto and Giannino's, and a wooden village featuring the hotel's mascot, Henrietta the pig. Mayor Frank Duehay and Santa are along as well, and the event is a benefit for Toys for Tots. As opposed to a benefit for Macy's.