Looking for a fun, nonshopping excursion on Christmas Eve with the kids? The annual Candy Canes for Ponies day at Sunrise Stables is the place to be, and it’s free! For two hours, kids are invited to feed and pet the ponies, who, it will be noted by digital-camera-wielding adults, will be wearing their finest holiday attire; the making of homemade treats rounds out the trip. Whether this excursion will soften or worsen the child’s repeated demands for a pony is your call, but it highlights a good cause: most of the horses at Sunrise Stables are rescued from abuse and neglect to be given proper care. Come see “Pebbles” and “Wall-E” up close and personal on Thursday, Dec. 24, at Sunrise Stables, 1098 Lodi Lane, St. Helena. Noon–2pm. Free. 707.337.5582.Gabe Meline
After 11 years in business, the casual, relaxation-inducing Ace-in-the-Hole Pub in Graton is closing, and with it goes the hearts of many regular drinkers, eaters and music makers. Sales for Ace Hard Cider are booming, and the production is moving to a larger, publess facility across town. Not one to go out with a whimper—the Ace is, after all, one of the few venues in the North Bay with live music seven nights a week—the jolly spot on the corner of Graton Road and Gravenstein Highway hosts a free-for-all Beatles sing-along on its last night of pulling pints. Christmas can be the cruelest time, and seeing the Ace go down would normally be crushing, but sources tell us they’re planning on staying open long past closing for the big boozy Beatle blowout at the end of a long and winding road on Wednesday, Dec. 23, at the Ace-in-the-Hole Pub. 3100 Gravenstein Hwy., Graton. 6pm–whenever. Free. 707.829.1101.Gabe Meline 
With no official “gay” bar in Napa County, a group of fun-loving philanthropists have come up with a dahh-ling idea: the Napa Guerrilla Gay Bar. Floating from location to location, the group announces a night, sets up a DJ, busts out the food, and jokes with you, the bartender, and all your wonderful friends before cutting a mean rug to some saucy tunes. The money goes to good causes, and for “Rockin’ Around,” their holiday party in Napa this weekend, the causes couldn’t be better. Half the dough goes to Napa Valley Shelter Project, a homeless services organization, and the other half goes to the Napa Valley Food Bank. Reads their website: “It doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight, male or female, single or coupled, owner of a cat or a dog, a Raider fan or a 49er fan, wearer of boxer or briefs, a coffee or tea or Coke or Pepsi drinker. EVERYONE is welcome.” Get down on Sunday, Dec. 20, at the Centre Café. 388 Devlin Road, Napa. $20–$35. From 3pm to 8pm. 707.603.3260.Gabe Meline
In one short verse of the party track “San Francisco Anthem,” the 32-year-old Baghdad-by-the-Bay rapper San Quinn manages to shout out Hunters Point, Hayes Valley, Candlestick Park, Twin Peaks, Barry Bonds, the Fillmore District, Jerry Rice and the Golden Gate Bridge. Add a sample from Scott McKenzie’s “If You’re Going to San Francisco” in the background, and you’ve got a Bay jam. All things Ess Eff come easy to Quinn, who’s also recorded songs such as “Bay Luv,” “Northern California,” and named an entire album, The Rock, after Alcatraz. Unmistakable on the mic with a low, gruff timbre, Quinn’s destined to be one of the survivors of Bay Area rap; he was in the game before it was big, and he’ll be here if it ever dies down. He performs with DJ Amen on Friday, Dec. 18, at 19 Broadway. 19 Broadway, Fairfax. 9pm. $15–$20. 415.459.1091.Gabe Meline 
Do you travel religiously to Christmas Jug Band performances, only to be let down by the absence of your main man? Do you wear out your copy of Where’s the Money?, pining for the actual thing, live and in person? Do you desperately watch on constant repeat the McDonald’s commercial from the 1970s that features said main man and actual thing, Dan Hicks? (YouTube “Very old Big Mac 70’s commercial”; he’s at :09!) Well, your chance for a guaranteed appearance by Mr. Country-Swing Christmas is here, as Hicks himself brings his Christmas show, “Holidaze in Hicksville,” live and onstage. You’ll be sleighed by Hicks’ original tunes like “My Main Man Santa,” “A Yule That’s Cool” and “Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Christmas Card.” Pile on a preshow dinner of Big Macs, and you’ll be looking like Santa soon enough yourself! Hicks hos and hos and hos on Friday, Dec. 18, at the Raven Theater. 115 North St., Healdsburg. 8pm. $25–$35. 707.433.6335.Gabe Meline 
With all the focus on the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock this summer, most stayed away from the imminent shadow of Altamont, an event possibly with more cultural significance but with absolutely zero celebration. The story by now is familiar: more than 300,000 rock fans trekked to see the free concert by the Rolling Stones, only to witness the deteriorating situation with a security force supplied by the beer-fueled Hell’s Angels, who stabbed a man, Meredith Hunter, high on meth and brandishing a revolver, in front of the stage during the Stones’ set. As Hunter died, so did the hippie dream; the paradigm shift is examined in Ethan Russell’s timely new book ‘Let It Bleed: The Rolling Stones, Altamont, and the End of the Sixties.’ Russell reads from the book, and discusses what we in the Bay Area like to forget, on Thursday, Dec. 17, at Book Passage. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. 7pm. Free. 415.927.0960.Gabe Meline
You might want DJ Hero. You might want a flat-screen TV. You might even want, for reasons too vague to understand, an Amazon Kindle. Who wants two tickets to Paradise? 
Always on the hunt for new sounds and new contexts, the Berkeley-bred eight-string jazz guitarist 
Since shutting its doors in the late 1980s, the Uptown Theater in Napa has been one of those dream projects of restoration—everyone wants to see it shine like the architectural diamond it once was when it first opened in 1937, but who’s got the money? Alas, good intentions and good benefactors have recently combined to save the decaying theater, and the Uptown is slated to reopen in early 2010, with full restoration to its original art deco splendor. The job hasn’t been easy (when it closed, its ceiling fresco was covered and the large auditorium was subdivided into four smaller theaters with separate screens), but the results are reportedly beautiful. The public gets its first chance to witness the restoration when Napa County Landmarks leads its 21st annual 
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