Five things to do in Brooklyn this week!

Friday

Dec. 14

Going nuts

The Mark Morris Dance Group’s “The Hard Nut” opens its two-week run tonight at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. This fun take on “The Nutcracker” updates the story to the 1970s, with dancing robots and Barbie figures, a scary Mouse King and Queen, and students from local schools providing a live chorus.

7:30 pm at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, www.bam.org). $25–$125.

Saturday

Dec. 15

Wizards rock!

Apparate to an early show at the Bell House, where rock band Harry and the Potters will host the Ninth Annual Potter’s Yule Ball. The founders of “wizard rock” will sing fantastical, high-energy tunes about Quidditch, giant spiders, and defeating fascist politicians, along with supporting acts the Whomping Willows, Tonks and the Aurors, the Swedish Shortsnouts, and Brooklynite Jocelyn Mackenzie.

5 pm at the Bell House [149 Seventh St. at Third Avenue in Gowanus, (718) 643–6510, www.thebellhouseny.com]. $22.

Sunday

Dec. 16

Hit the road, Jack

Local honky-tonker Sean Kershaw and the New Jack Ramblers have played regularly at Hank’s Saloon since 2001 — when both the bar and the band had a different name. But with the Saloon set to move Downtown in the new year, this will be his last performance in the Atlantic Avenue space. Expect plenty of guest performers.

1 pm at Hank’s Saloon [46 Third Ave. at Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill, (718) 625–8003], www.exitfive.com/hankssaloon.

Feeling boxed in: The holiday show at hte House of Yes will feature dancing presents, sexy Santas, and “gay-ngels.”

Andrew T. Foster

Tuesday

Dec. 18

Skate tiny reindeer

Santa Claus will hit the ice this afternoon — and you can join him! The first 100 skaters to show up at this free event, sponsored NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and the Prospect Park Alliance, will also get free hot chocolate. Bring your own ice skates to “Free Skate with Santa,” or rent a pair for $7.

3–6 pm at LeFrak Center at Lakeside [171 East Dr. at Ocean Avenue in Prospect Park, (718) 462–0010, www.lakesidebrooklyn.com]. Free (skate rental $7).

Wednesday

Dec. 19

XXX-mas

Unwrap a naughty Christmas show at the “House of Yes X-mas Spectacular” — an annual extravaganza of scantily-clad elves, gay angels, and high-flying reindeer on aerial equipment. The saucy show, directed and choreographed by the founders of the nightlife venue, will run through Sunday, Dec. 23.

8 pm at the House of Yes [2 Wyckoff Ave. at Jefferson Street in Bushwick, (646) 838–4937, www.houseofyes.org]. $35 ($75 VIP).

Rambling bar: Sean Kershaw and the New Jack Ramblers will play a final brunch show at Hank’s Saloon before it moves into the Hill Country Food Park Downtown.

Holly Neal