Don't have to work on Veterans' Day? There's plenty in the city to keep you busy, while remembering what the holiday is all about in the first place.

Boston will host its annual Veterans' Day ceremony tomorrow morning at 11, the perfect way to support and show appreciation for those who have served this country. The event, held at the state house's Memorial Hall, is free and open to the public.

The Second Annual Veteran Training Freedom Trail Walk will also take place tomorrow between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. All those wishing to walk the trail with Veteran Training are welcome at any point during those hours, and are asked to donate a minimum of $35, the amount it costs to send a care package to a single soldier or disabled veteran.

Veterans and active duty military will also eat free of charge at Applebees restaurants nationwide (click here to find your nearest location), and whether you're a veteran or not, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is free for the day.

Photo by Eric Wilbur

Remarkably, Thanksgiving is a little more than two weeks away, which still leaves plenty of time to plan dinner at home for the day. However, if you plan on dining out, you might want to start the process of making reservations.

A number of Boston restaurants (including the Eastern Standard in Kenmore Square) are offering special Thanksgiving Day menus and specials for the holiday, featuring a grand assortment of turkey, pasta, seafood, and desserts. Many menus are prix-fixe and offer a tremendous value for those looking to leave the holiday cooking to someone else.

Click here to see some of the options, menus, and how to make a reservation.

Photo by Eric Wilbur

I was walking through a local department store the other day, when U2's "Christmas (Baby) Please Come Home" started to jangle through the loudspeakers. I thought to myself how much I used to love this song, particularly because I would normally hear it only a few weeks each year, leading up to Christmas.

No longer. The song now plays numbing agent, much like the rest of corporate America's insistence to force Christmas down our throats the first week of November in order to secure profit margins. No Christmas until after Thanksgiving, please.

However, there are exceptions to the rule, including this weekend's annual Boston Christmas Festival at the Seaport World Trade Center. For 23 years now shoppers have been able to browse products and designs from hundreds of craft artists, with items including designer fashions, artisan jewelry, and handcrafted holiday décor. The event also features specialty foods and a gingerbread house competition.

The show continues today and tomorrow. Cost of admission is $12 (kids are free). For a $2 discount coupon, visit the Christmas Festival's web site. This year's festival is expected to draw more than 30,000 people.

Beer and barbeque for a cause? Yes, please.

Harpoon Brewery and the New England Barbeque Society team up to present the "Harpoon Helps pre-Thanksgiving Beer-B-Q," Nov. 15 at the Northern Ave. brewery. This barbeque-style Thanksgiving meal (featuring jalapeño poppers, brined turkey, and smoked pumpkin) will help raise funds for the Greater Boston Food Bank's annual food fund, which supplies Thanksgiving meals for families in and around Boston.

The $60 admission can help provide more than 124 families in need with a Thanksgiving meal. According to Harpoon, the Greater Boston Food Bank provided 38,000 turkeys, last year to families with its food fund.

Tickets are limited to only 200 seats, and can be purchased online.

Image courtesy Harpoon Brewery

The retail world may want to push you directly into holiday shopping, but November offers plenty to avoid the commercial jingles for a few more weeks. Bob Dylan, the Celtics and Bruins, and the start of the annual tradition, the Nutcracker, highlight November in Boston.

From Plimoth Plantation to Sonic Youth, here's a glance at the top November events that the city has to offer.

Photo courtesy Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism

The final push in the Boston mayoral election race is underway with Tuesday's Election Day looming.

According to Fox 25 News, incumbent Thomas M. Menino still holds a 20-point lead over challenger Michael Flaherty in his bid for re-election. But while that race may be a slam-dunk win, there are plenty of other district races that may indeed come down to the wire. The Election Department also has a complete list of candidates on the ballot.

All polling areas (156 of them throughout greater Boston) in the city will open Tuesday morning at 7. Click here to find out where your polling location is. All precincts will have ballots written in English and Spanish and ballots fully translated in Chinese and Vietnamese will also be available. Interpreters will also be available in the following languages: Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese dialects), Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean Creole, and Russian.

How safe do you feel in Boston? According to Forbes Magazine, area residents should feel more secure than few others in the country.

The magazine ranked the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy-New Hampshire area the fourth-safest (tied with Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash.) in the nation, based on criteria that included population, violent crime, workplace fatalities, traffic death rates, and natural disaster risk.

Boston finished the survey as the safest city in the nation for traffic deaths, which probably makes sense if you understand the meaning of the term, "gridlock." Its lowest score was under the category of natural disaster, where the area finished 28th, presumably for the likelihood of blizzards and hurricanes.

Nearby Providence-New Bedford-Fall River finished sixth in the survey, 11th in traffic death rates and tied with Boston for the risk of natural disaster.

Don't be a blockhead and miss the opportunity to catch the Brattle Theater's free screening of "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown," Saturday afternoon, part of the Cambridge theater's annual family Halloween event. There will also be special treats and other spooky cartoons shown at the independent, non-profit theater over the course of the afternoon.

That won't be the only Halloween noteworthy event in Harvard Square this weekend though. On Friday night, the "Harvard Scare" takes place, featuring a costume parade for children and an all ages "Monster Mash" block party. Local retailers will also be serving up all sorts of Halloween-related specials. The fun kicks off at 4 p.m. For more information on what there is to do in Harvard Square, check out our walking tour.

Of course, if you're so inclined to channel your inner Linus and sit in a pumpkin patch on Halloween night waiting for the Great Pumpkin himself, there are plenty of those close to Boston. It's just that, you know, he's probably not going to show up this year either.

Brattle Theater photo by Eric Wilbur

The debates rage on: Regina's or Santarpios? Presto's or Pino's?

Everyone has his or her favorite pizza place in Boston, and nobody is exactly wrong. From the North End to collegiate classics, Boston can hold its own when it comes to some of the country's best pizza spots.

Check out our list of 10 of Boston's best, then let us know which one is your favorite.

Photo courtesty Ernesto's Pizza

Halloween is just a week away, which means the local calendar is jam-packed with ghoulish events.

Some of the events that begin today include Halloween Town, Boston's largest family Halloween celebration, the Zoo Howl at the Franklin Park Zoo, and the Boston Ghost Cruise. Meanwhile, it is sure to be a busy week in Salem, where Halloween goes big-time with an infamous history of witches and supposed hauntings.

For a complete listing of Halloween events in the Boston area, click here. To see what's going on in Salem, click here.

If Halloween isn't quite on the brain yet, we can't recommend today's Boston Book Festival enough. Ben Mezrich, Ethan Gilsdorf, and Dennis Lehane will be among 90 authors and presenters at the Copley Square event. Should be a cool time.

Photo courtesy Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism