Homeless vigil

A one-hour candlelight vigil — from 4 to 5 p.m. today — will commemorate National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day and nearly four dozen homeless men and women who have died this year outside or by violence in King County. The vigil will be at Westlake Park at Fourth Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Seattle.

Similar vigils for homeless people who have died are scheduled across the country today. The date, designated by the National Coalition for the Homeless, was picked because tonight is the winter solstice, the longest night of the year.

Signs of the season

• The Seattle Theatre Group will host a free holiday open house from 4 to 7 p.m. today at The Paramount Theatre at Ninth Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Seattle, with free entertainment, light refreshments and tours of the historic theater. Donations of nonperishable food items to Northwest Harvest are encouraged.

• The Baltimore Consort classical-music ensemble will perform a free concert, open to the public, at Harborview Medical Center at 6 p.m. today. The open concert will follow ensemble performances for hospital patients and their families in waiting areas around the hospital, which is at 325 Ninth Ave. The free 6 p.m. concert will be in the hospital's cafeteria.

Nutcracker notes

The more than four dozen whimsical nutcrackers on display around downtown Seattle are still up for grabs — by auction.

They're being auctioned online by the nonprofit Northwest Center to benefit the agency's work with people with disabilities.

The online auction will run through the end of this month, and the nutcrackers, each more than 6 feet tall and designed by a local artist, will be on display until then. They're spread out from Pioneer Square to the waterfront to Seattle Center.

An audio tour is online at www.nutcrackermarch.org, and the Web site gives information about each nutcracker, its location and its artist.

The event is sponsored by Pacific Northwest Ballet and produced by the Downtown Seattle Association. The Web site also carries information about online bidding.

Blood Center

holiday hours

All Puget Sound Blood Center donor centers, including the Central Seattle center on First Hill, will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, but centers will be open regular hours on other days over the next two weeks.

Donor centers normally open on Mondays will be open the day after Christmas and the day after New Year's. Information: 800-398-7888.

Getting around

Metro Transit bus routes will be on Sunday schedules on Christmas Day and the day after, and on New Year's Day and the day after. On both Mondays — Dec. 26 and Jan. 2 — some Metro routes have added trips, which are noted by the letter "H" on the weekday schedule.

Metro's waterfront streetcar line, currently operated as bus route 99, will not be running on Christmas Day or New Year's Day.

All Metro customer-service offices, including Rider Information, will be closed on the day after Christmas — Monday — and the day after New Year's Day — Jan. 2.

Here & Now is compiled by Seattle Times staff reporter Charles E. Brown and news assistant Suesan Whitney Henderson.

To submit an item, e-mail herenow@ seattletimes.com or call 206-464-2226.