12/6: Winter Lights Lantern Festival

Lights can create a festive mood during the long nights and dreary days of winter. Now in its 16th year, the Winter Lights Lantern Festival is the culmination of a series of lantern-making workshops at the Cleveland Museum of Art. A procession of dancers, puppeteers and professional artists carrying lanterns they’ve made leads a crowd to Wade Oval to wend its way through an installation called The Environment of Lights. The procession begins at 5:30 p.m. at the museum’s north entrance. If you couldn’t attend the workshops on previous days, you can make a lantern there from 2-4:30 p.m. (You can also buy a lantern at the museum store, although that sounds a little like cheating.) It’s also the closing program of Holiday Circlefest, taking place at two dozen University Circle and nearby institutions from 1-5:30 p.m. today. Events range from live music performances and hands-on gift- and card-making opportunities to holiday sales and free cookies. Go to universitycircle.org for a full schedule. — Anastasia Pantsios