Events & Activities In The Catskills & Hudson Valley | January & February 2025
Posted by Coldwell Banker Village Green Realty on Friday, January 17th, 2025 at 9:03am
Let's embrace the chill of the Catskills and Hudson Valley this winter season with enthusiasm! Yes, January and February might have the chilliest temperatures of the year, temperatures that on occasion might make your phone shut down in protest, but that's ok! Why? Because the region offers up so many cozy doom-scroll alternatives that you could blithely drop that phone in the Hudson River and not miss it until March. While the rest of the world complains about winter, let’s put on our layers and puffy coats and treat the single-digit degree days as a communal challenge. Sure, you could stay home under a blanket, people do it – or you could join us for two months of concerts, walks, learning opportunities, and other events that will have you fighting off seasonal affective disorder with a sword of social activity! As the Local Experts in Upstate Real Estate, Coldwell Banker Village Green Realty we’ll be your guide to the Upstate events that will make you feel ok about winter. Onward!
Art Opening: Arcadian Dreams by Lois Walsh
Where: Acra, NY
Go to Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Agroforestry Resource Center to see the highly-colored work of Lois Walsh. Her dreamlike settings inspired by 17th and 18th-century French paintings that include sculpture and architecture are a beautiful, fascinating mind-bend.
Millbrook Film Club: Good Night and Good Luck
Where: Millbrook, NY
The Millbrook Film Club is hosting a showing of the 2005 feature Good Night and Good Luck starring David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Robert Downey Jr and George Clooney. It’s an entertaining civics lesson unlike anything that’s playing at the multi-plex at the moment. Plus the black and white format fits right in with January’s landscape!
Winter Seasonal Walk with Justin Wexler
Where: Athens, NY
New to Winter hiking? This is a low-stress way to begin and perhaps meet some folks who will hike with you in future. The Greene Land Trust is hosting this 2-hour walk lead by ethnoecologist Justin Wexler that follows the Hudson River at Brandow Point in Athens. This is a relatively easy walk during which participants will learn about winter in the Hudson Valley through the lens of Northeastern Native languages, history, and folklore.
LGBTQ+ Ski & Ride Weekend presented by Hunter Mountain Weddings
Where: Hunter, NY
This weekend-long event at Hunter Mountain includes some super-fun activities. Beyond the skiing and snowboarding there’s Drag Bingo and Drag Breakfast. The mountain will sparkle!
The Social Salon
Where: Catskill, NY
This year, the Thomas Cole Center is having a “Sunday Salon” series. In the age of social media and Netflix salons have fallen out of favor, so we’ll define…, ”a meeting of intellectuals or other eminent people at the invitation of a celebrity or socialite.” In this case the Cole Center stands in for the celebrity and you are the intellectuals! How kind! You’re invited to sample new custom teas inspired by the historic property from Stinging Nettles Apothecary, and Left Bank’s Community Cider that's made from pears harvested on-site. You can take a winter tour of the museum and make a winter wreath. A novel way to hang out on a Sunday afternoon.
Winter Hoot
Where: Olivebridge, NY
Every year we include the Winter Hoot in our events roundup because it is a HOOT! At the weekend’s center is folk music; swirling around the music are healthy, locally sourced meals, yoga, a hike, square dancing, and ice sculpture.
The Wallpapers
Where: Windham, NY
The Wallpapers are a Hudson Valley acoustic duo who mix covers with original songs to the delight of those coming of the slopes.
Repair Café
Where: Saugerties, NY
What’s broken in your house? Toaster? A few sweaters? A DVD player that you need so you can watch your wedding video? Bring it to the Saugerties Repair Café instead of the landfill. This particular café will feature a visible mending workshop. If you’re not lucky enough to have a cedar closet in your house and the moths have gotten your sweaters, this is your chance to make them un-holy.
New And Beginning Farmer Workshop
Where: Acra, NY
Who better to learn farming from than the experts at the Columbia and Greene County Cornell Cooperative Extension. They’re not only talking about kitchen gardening. This workshop will cover raising livestock, agroforestry, silvopasture (grazing land and growing trees on the same land), and business planning.
Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt 2B
Where: Hunter, NY
The Maude Adams Theatre Hub of the Catskill Mountain Foundation has mounted a production of Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson, Apt 2B which reexamines the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle classic through a darkly comic feminist lens. “In this highly theatrical, small-cast escapade, oddball female roommates Sherlock (yes, it’s also a girl’s name—wait, is it a girl’s name? Is it even a name?) Holmes & Joan Watson join forces to emerge from pandemic fog as a deeply codependent, quasi-dysfunctional Odd Couple adventure duo—solving mysteries and kicking butts, until they come face to face with a villain who seems to have all of the answers.” Don’t leave the mountaintop, go to the theatre!
Dancing Lessons With Mark St. Germain
Where: Woodstock, NY
One of the offerings of Performing Arts of Woodstock’s 60th Season (yes, you read that right) is Mark St. Germain’s Dancing Lessons. A comedy of two people facing serious challenges, it’s laugh-out-loud funny and heart-warming.
Shrek The Musical
Where: Rhinebeck, NY
How do they put a three-headed dragon who’s enamored of a donkey on a stage? Find out at The Center For Performing Arts in Rhinebeck. Shrek the Musical is nothing but a good time!
Island & Caribbean Escape - Hudson Valley Chef Dinner Series
Where: Montgomery, NY
It’s the end of January, who doesn’t need a Caribbean Escape? Get out of the chilly night air and enjoy a curated 5-course wine and food experience with a Caribbean bent.
Safety Sally's Firetruck Pinewood Derby
Where: Hudson, NY
Kids will LOVE Silly Sally’s safety games and tips. Adults will love the chance to re-live their childhood as they “help” kids decorate a pinewood derby firetruck.
Tapestry & Weaving Workshop
Where: Hyde Park, NY
Clover Brooke Farm has the loveliest events. This is a comprehensive weaving class that takes you from loading the loom to creating a finished tapestry for your walls. It’s a 3-hour workshop and as of the publishing of this article, there are 8 spots left!
Collage Your Troubles Away
Where: Beacon, NY
A guided workshop through the world of collage. Beahive will provide supplies but if you have books, photos, magazines or other media you want to use, you’re welcome to bring it!
Allie Chip & Tyler Dezago
Where: Kingston, NY
If you’re not familiar with Chromatic Studios in Kingston, it’s an intimate house concert/art workshop studio on Tremper Ave. Allie Chip and Tyler Dezago will be there for a Friday night of folk music that will warm up your weekend. Here’s a sample…
Singles Mixer
Where: New Paltz, NY
Speed dating is super-comfy at Robibero’s cozy winery. Put on your puffiest of puffy coats and go meet some people!
National Hot Chocolate Weekend
Where: Claverack, NY
The Cooper’s Daughter in Claverack is right out of a Hudson Valley wanna-be’s dream. Located in a former carriage house on the Claverack Stream it would be almost impossible to make it more picturesque. As you move about Columbia and Dutchess County on the 7th, stop in and have a spiked hot chocolate for National Hot Chocolate Day (as through you need an excuse!).
Breaking Broken
Where: New Paltz, NY
An opening reception for the work of Elizabeth Keithline. “Elizabeth Keithline’s work focuses on human self-extension & systems of all kinds – architecture, technology, cars, the modern built environment and the natural world. Three decades ago, she pioneered a unique sculpture technique, weaving wire around large objects and burning them out. It was then that she noticed that people really loved large fires, highlighting a rarely explored aspect of human nature — our fascination with destruction. While society often suppresses destructive impulses, even shaming them, we all remember the childish thrill that we felt when we built a tower of blocks and knocked it down.”
Crash Courses in Digital Photography
Where: New Paltz, NY
This is just one of the many top-notch classes offered by CPW at their new studio in Kingston. Photographer Jim Lafferty will teach a series of 5 classes, one each weekend. Participants can sign up for one, or bundle them all together. Topics include: Camera Basics, From Camera To Computer, Portrait Lighting and a few others.
Digital Marketing for Holistic Businesses
Where: Beacon, NY
Holistic healers, learn how to confidently promote your business.
Queer Voices: "The Other March Sisters" Reading, Discussion and Signing
Where: Kingston, NY
Meet the three authors of The Other March Sisters a companion to Little Women. “Bold, heartfelt, and richly imaginative. In this masterful companion to Little Women, three inventive authors invite us into each sister’s untold story as they forge their own paths—Meg through her unexpected calling, Beth in her bittersweet yearning, and Amy as she discovers her truest self in Europe. . . . These ‘other sisters’ shine brilliantly, revealing a tapestry of love, ambition, and self-discovery that will captivate readers anew and make this a book club favorite.” —Susan Wiggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author.
You could make a whole Little Women day of it by watching the Greta Gerwig film in the afternoon and attending the reading and discussion in the evening! It’s the best film for a winter’s day. Let it snow!
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