Dec. 11 weekly planner: Top 10 LI events

'The Nutcracker'

Let visions of sugar plums dance in your head. Under the direction of New York City Ballet master Frank Ohman, New York Dance Theatre presents the 30th anniversary season of "The Nutcracker."

This year's production features added music and scenes set to additional Tchaikovsky pieces from "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty," along with the addition of a Hungarian, Neapolitan and Polish dance trilogy. Special guest artists from the Dance Theater of Harlem and other New York City companies will join Ohman's troupe along with a cast of 80 including children, semiprofessional and professional dancers onstage continuing the holiday tradition.

2. Cirque Le Masque Noel

An international troupe of circus artists presents a holiday show with music, elves, singing and more, while maintaining a three-ring atmosphere onstage with live music, acrobats, aerialists, clowns and more. Be prepared -- the show encourages audience participation.

3. Meet Al Roker

The popular NBC "Today Show" weatherman is a novelist, too. He appears in Huntington to sign and discuss his latest mystery, "The Talk Show Murders: A Billy Blessing Novel," which is about a celebrity chef who turns sleuth.

4. Holiday Lights Drive-Thru

Drive through a mile-long wooded trail filled with light displays and vignettes entirely produced, built, assembled and coordinated by Girl Scouts of Suffolk County staff and volunteers. After the show, stop in at the holiday village, where you'll find Santa for picture-taking along with the "Hall of Trees" made up of 60 trees donated and decorated by scouts, to be distributed to Long Island shelters and adult homes.

5. Mo -- in Garden City

Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, baseball's all-time leader in saves (603), will sign autographs at the Steiner Sports Store in Roosevelt Field mall Monday. Fans can welcome back the reliever, who recently underwent surgery to remove polyps from his vocal cords.

6. 'Dive! Living Off America's Waste'

Cinema Arts Centre's "Let's Eat! Films on Food" series continues with a screening of this award-winning documentary, which tells the story behind the billions of pounds of food that is thrown out each year in the United States. Filmmaker Jeremy Seifert and his friends go "Dumpster diving" through garbage receptacles in the back alleys of supermarkets in Los Angeles to find good food. A discussion and reception follows.

7. Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday Run

You'll see people running as reindeer, Santa and elves for the 5k family run/walk that loops around the streets of Bethpage. Participants are invited to wear holiday-themed costumes to be judged for merchandise prizes at an awards ceremony following the run. Start and finish at John F. Kennedy Middle School. Before the main event, there'll be a free quarter-mile kiddie run starting at 9 a.m. Participants are urged to bring a new unwrapped toy to benefit the youngsters at the John Theissen Children's Foundation.

8. Decor workshop

The scent of fresh balsam will be in the air for a greenery workshop that will help you put your personal touch on three holiday decorations to take home, including centerpieces, cranberry jars and wreaths. Make things as elaborate or as simple as you'd like -- materials including fresh greens, silver and gold trays, trim, ribbons, jars, frames and candles will be available. Bring gardening gloves, pruning shears and lunch, if you'd like. Preregistration required.

9. Eileen Ivers

Keeping the lines of tradition open with stories and music, the Irish-American fiddle champion presents a holiday celebration, "An Nollaig: An Irish Christmas," with her band, Immigrant Soul, featuring both traditional and contemporary Irish tunes along with holiday favorites arranged by her and her band, including "The Wexford Carol," a 12th century Irish Christmas carol and "Hark the Herald Angels" in traditional jig time.

10. Solstice bird walk

A few days shy of the actual winter solstice, take a hike on the boardwalk and through the dunes to learn about bird identification. The ranger-led program includes an indoor presentation followed by a walk to the Great South Bay to spy wintering water fowl and other birds from sparrows to chickadees and snow buntings. Bring binoculars.