A Christmas Carol, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

Like holiday traditions, shows at this time of year come in every size and weight, and volume of fa-la-la-la-la. And if you’ve been resolutely festive-resistant so far, this is a week on E-town stages where you might as well give in, capture and release your inner elf, and have fun.

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Here are some possibilities for your holiday entertainment on Edmonton stages.

•With Bells On, the new lively holiday musical at Theatre Network fashioned by Devanand Janki and Tommy Newman from Darrin Hagen’s play, happens in an elevator, stuck between Up and Down. It pairs a 7-foot drag queen decked out like a giant tannenbaum and a sadsack tax accountant who’s bottomed out — in an elevator. It’s based on a much-travelled two-hander play by Darrin Hagen. The go-for-the-gusto ending isn’t something I can explain. But getting there is playful and funny, and the songs are cleverly rhymed. The 12thnight review is here. And you can meet the ex-Edmontonian Janki in the 12thnight preview here. Tickets: theatre network.ca

•A Christmas Carol, the David van Belle adaptation sumptuously produced by the Citadel for the fifth season, continues its run through Dec. 23. It takes the Dickens novella ahead a century and crosses the Atlantic: the flinty Ebenezer, whose mood hasn’t been enhanced by years of retail, runs a department store in 1949. And Mrs. Cratchit is the store manager. The centrepiece of the show is a wonderfully substantial performance by John Ullyatt as the man in need of last-minute redemption on Christmas Eve. Read the 12thnight review. Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820

•Rapid Fire Theatre, Edmonton’s venerable improv comedy, achieves the impossibly spontaneous with their holiday musical The Blank Who Stole Christmas. A different villain every performance, whose identity is unknown in advance to the cast of five, shows up in the middle of a musical to fill in the Blank (on opening night, the Blank was the singer-songwriter Lindsey Walker as Liza Minnelli). And, amazingly, the cast of five has to keep chaos at bay by adjusting both script and songs. Pretty crazy and very impressive. Check out the little 12thnight review here. Tickets: rapidfiretheatre.com.

The Best Little Newfoundland Christmas Pageant … Ever! Photo supplied.

•Whizgiggling Productions, devoted to the celebration of the province that’s always a half-hour later than the rest of us, is back this weekend with a 14th edition of their signature holiday comedy The Best Little Newfoundland Christmas Pageant … Ever. It takes us into the anarchic fun of small-town amateur theatricals, where the untutored Herdmans, baffled by that whole business with the Wise Guys, invade the auditions and grab the best parts. Can chaos be averted? Subverted? It’s at the Backstage Theatre in the Fringe Arts Barns Friday through Sunday. Tickets: fringetheatre.ca.

•Girl Brain, Edmonton’s hit sketch comedy trio — Alyson Dicey, Caley Suliak, Ellie Heath — unleash their quick wits on everything Yuletide, in a new series at Theatre Network, Thursday through Dec. 23. Tickets: theatrenetwork.ca.

Evan Dowling, David Findlay, Mhairi Berg in Die Harsh The Christmas Musical, Grindstone Theatre. Photo by Adam Goudreau

•Grindstone Theatre, purveyors of such original musical satire hits as Jason Kenney’s Hot Boy Summer and thunderCATS, returns for a second season with their holiday musical. Die Harsh: The Christmas Musical, opening Thursday on the Varscona stage in a newly expanded, fully designed form, is a marriage of the iconic action thriller and, yes, A Christmas Carol. Who would think of doing this, I hear you ask. A musical-writing team with parody on their minds, that’s who (Byron Martin and Simon Abbott). Check out the 12thnight PREVIEW with the former here. It runs through Dec. 23, and tickets are at grindstonetheatre.ca.

•At the Edmonton Christmas Market, an all-star cast — Davina Stewart, Dana Andersen, Andrea House, and Paul Morgan Donald — top-drawer improvisers all — is back at the Capitol Theatre in Fort Edmonton Park with It’s A Wonderful Christmas Carol. It runs Saturday and Sunday; tickets are at showpass.com.

•The kookiest of holiday imports, the Christmas panto, is to be found at the vintage Capitol Theatre, too, through Sunday as part of the Edmonton Christmas Market. Snow White gets plucked from the Grimm canon, and diverted, and subverted, for riotous comic effect by a new company Edmonton Repertory Theatre. And the audience gets to hoot and holler, and generally misbehave, along with the cast of Jennifer Krezlewicz’s production. Check out 12thnight’s preview and review. Tickets: foredmontonpark.ca

•Harvey isn’t, strictly speaking, a “holiday show,” I guess. But Mary Chase’s 1944 Pulitzer Prize winner, the story of an affable man whose best friend is a 6-foot rabbit invisible to all but him, is a charmer that speaks to the magic and fantasy of the season in more than a few ways. It’s at Walterdale, Edmonton’s venerable community theatre, through Saturday in a Rebecca Bissonnette production. Tickets: walterdaletheatre.com.