EVENTS IN NOVEMBER : ‘Into the Wild’ at Chicago Museum

Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History will open a new permanent exhibit Nov. 9, “Into the Wild: Animals, Trails & Tales.” To lure visitors, the exhibit was designed with combinations of animal dioramas, a mix of simple and high-tech units, games, videos, reading rails, environmental recreations, sounds and other multimedia resources.

Four main exhibits feature a nature walk through wetlands, cliffs, ocean shores, prairie and woodlands; a field guide to North American birds, and other birds and mammals.

“Into the Wild: Animals, Trails & Tales” is free with regular Field Museum admission. The museum is open daily, except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for youths 2-17, seniors and students. Families pay a maximum of $10.

For more information, contact the Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, Ill. 60605, (312) 322-8859.

New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is reopening its Arms and Armor Galleries on Nov. 8 in its Pierpont Morgan Wing. About 1,000 European, American, Islamic and Japanese objects from AD 600 to 1900 will be displayed.

The museum is open Sundays and Tuesdays through Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. Admission is by donation. It is suggested that adults pay $6, students and seniors $3. Youths 12 and under go free.

For more information, contact the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. at 84th Street, New York 10028-0198, (212) 879-5500.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is getting ready to open Jean-Noel Desmarais, a new $95-million pavilion, on Nov. 21. The addition links the museum’s original 1912 building on the north side of Sherbrooke Street with a large light-filled pavilion on the south side of the street via a series of underground galleries.

The pavilion incorporates the facade of a 1905 apartment building and a cultural passageway between Bishop and Crescent streets. This new extension doubles the museum’s exhibition and educational space.

The museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. It’s closed on Mondays. Admission prices vary, depending on the exhibit visited. For example, the current “The 1920s: Age of The Metropolis” in the North Pavilion, on exhibit through Nov. 10, costs $12 per adult, $5 for students with IDs and seniors, and $1 for youths 12 and under. Tickets are on sale at the museum and all admission ticket counters, which can be reached in advance by calling (514) 522-1245.

For more information, contact the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1379 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1K3, (514) 285-1600.

Denver Theater

The Temple Hoyne Buell Theater, part of the Denver Performing Arts Complex, will open on Friday. Events, including concerts, operas, musicals and shows for children, will take place over a 10-day period.

The new theater has been constructed within the shell of the old Denver Arena, and is connected to the 1908 Auditorium Theater. One of its features is a glass-roofed, multilevel glass galleria that enables visitors to see the city skyline and the Rocky Mountains.

Performances that start at 8 p.m. will be by the Central City Opera, Colorado Ballet, Colorado Children’s Chorale, Colorado Symphony, Denver Center Theater Company and Opera Colorado. Tickets are $25 to $150 per person.

From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and next Sunday, there will be free outdoor performances. For more information, contact Foundation for the Denver Performing Arts Complex at (303) 825-4565.

Macy’s Big Parade

One of the largest parades in the world is New York City’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, with floats, balloons in the shape of cartoon characters, celebrities and Santa Claus. This gigantic parade officially welcomes the holiday season beginning at 10 a.m. from Central Park West at 77th Street, and ending at 34th Street and Broadway a few hours later.

For more information, contact Macy’s, Herald Square, 34th Street and Broadway, New York 10001, (212) 560-4495 (a recording with information about the parade starts Monday).

Plymouth Holiday

The public Thanksgiving dinner at Plymouth, Mass., begins with a 9 a.m. Pilgrims procession to the First Parish Church for a Thanksgiving service. Afterward, a traditional holiday dinner will be served in four seatings for visitors. Seatings are at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 and 3:30. Cost is $35 per person. Reservations required. Dinners will be served at Memorial Hall on Court Street. For more information, contact the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce at (508) 746-3377.

Victorian Christmas

A Victorian Christmas will take place at Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va., Nov. 23 through Dec. 22. “Christmas at Oatlands” is based on the memoirs of Elizabeth Grayson Carter Beach, who was born at Oatlands in 1867. Oatlands is now the property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which opens the 1803 mansion to the public each holiday season.

Each room is decorated the way that the holidays were once celebrated. A Christmas morning breakfast setting with lace table cloth and red-and-gold china dishes is in the dining room. The library has an interrupted chess game, and the second-floor bedrooms reflect Christmas morning disarray with unmade beds, toys and Christmas stockings strewn around. Also, there’s a 12-foot beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the downstairs drawing room.

Tours are from 10 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. daily (closed Thanksgiving Day). Cost is $5 per person. Candlelight tours are offered Saturday evenings at 6 p.m. and cost $6 per person. The tours include historical vignettes of Carter relatives and friends. Fresh cider and home-baked cookies are served at the end of each tour.

For more information, contact Oatlands Plantation, Route 2, Box 352, Leesburg, Va. 22075, (703) 777-3174.