Doc Fest names audience award winner, violin virtuoso at The Church in Sag Harbor, workshops for women from the Cowgirls, music at the Masonic Temple.

April Gornik will be at The Church in Sag Harbor to reprise the talk she gave on Egon Schiele last month at the Neue Galerie in Manhattan.

The Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett has a full slate of programs through the holidays, culminating when Hello Brooklyn will headline its New Year's Eve party.

New Year's Eve prix fixe from the 1770 House, holiday specials at Rowdy Hall, takeout offerings from the Cookery and Bostwick's, classes at Silver Spoon.

Hayground School students are bringing the Bard to the Bridgehampton School this week, with two performances of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” on Thursday. Members of Shakespeare and Company, from Lennox, Mass., have returned for their 27th year to work with the students to stage a production.

Brian Callahan, one of two men charged in 2013 in connection with a $96 million Ponzi scheme involving the Panoramic View resort, is among 1,499 people whose sentences were commuted by President Biden on Thursday. The United States Attorney's Office had called the incident "one of the largest Ponzi schemes in Long Island history."

Santa by fire truck, latkes at Temple Adas Israel, and holiday music by the Sag Harbor Community Band.

Four historic inns in East Hampton Village and three more in Amagansett will be decorated for the holidays and open to visitors on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. during a free self-guided tour sponsored by the Greater East Hampton Chamber of Commerce. Each will have “festive beverages and holiday treats,” the chamber promises.

Santa, real reindeer, caroling, and holiday boat parade!

Despite concerns from one board member about setting an unwelcome precedent, the East Hampton Town Board voted three to one — with one recusal — to exempt the planned senior citizens center in Amagansett from local zoning and land-use regulations.

East Hampton lifeguards performed a record number of rescues, 226 total, during the 2024 season at town beaches, according to the town’s chief lifeguard, John Ryan Jr. Of that number, 202 rescues occurred at protected beaches, while 24 took place at unprotected beaches. Both of those numbers doubled from last year’s totals.

It’s fitting that the winner of East Hampton’s first Holiday Spirit storefront-decorating contest should be a business known for having fascinating windows: The Monogram Shop on Newtown Lane has made national headlines not for its holiday décor but for the tally of political cup sales that, in election cycles past, has been a notoriously accurate predictor of presidential outcomes. The window cup count was wrong in November, but the window display in December is, according to a panel of judges, oh so right.

The East Hampton Town Board has proposed designating two structures at 66 Main Street in Wainscott, on a 30-acre property recently purchased from Ronald Lauder, as historic landmarks to be known as the John Osborn Homestead Historic Landmark. Some advocates say the whole property should be landmarked.

The Springs General Store has been shuttered since the end of the 2022 summer season, and while the new owners are getting closer to winning approvals for changes they plan, one of them, Daniel Bennett, confirmed via text last week that the store will remain closed for the summer of 2025.

Upward of 50 people attended East Hampton Village’s first workshop as it prepares to update its comprehensive plan, filling nearly every chair in the Emergency Services Building. Familiar themes peppered the conversation: traffic congestion and speeding, lack of affordable housing, the departure of mom-and-pop shops, and the constant clatter of the landscaping and construction industries.

The Montauk School Board has a self-imposed deadline of its first meeting in January to decide whether to proceed with the latest draft of its proposed building renovation, a $37 million plan that would include a new gymnasium.

The Hampton Ballet Theatre School’s annual production of “The Nutcracker” is returning to Guild Hall for four shows that start Friday night in the newly renovated theater.

Pitch Your Peers, a charitable effort launched here in 2023 by Brooke Bohnsack, has awarded a $35,000 grant to the Springs Food Pantry and a $10,000 grant to Project Most, the organization announced on Dec. 1.

Bridgehampton’s Ernestine Rose, an important figure in the history of the New York Public Library, championed preserving Black culture through the Schomburg Collection.

Lego Robotics at Springs School started its new season and like last year there are two teams: the Lightning Bots coached by Laura Foti and Erik Schwab and the Thunder Bots, coached by Danielle Hamilton and Tracey Frazier.