It’s November, so most minds are on turkey and stuffing, but two theater companies are getting a jump on Christmas festivities. While we won’t see Ford Theater’s annual production of A Christmas Carol until December, both Arena Stage and Synetic Theater have their own take on the classic. Arena's Christmas Carol 1941 emphasizes the DC Christmas experience (Nov 16), while Synetic's promises to be more choreography-driven (Nov. 24).

The relatively new company Spooky Action Theater is going noir with Dark Rapture, a murder mystery (Nov 8).

It may not be a "Tradition!", but Olney Theater will stage Fiddler on the Roof this month (Nov. 14).

Puppets with dirty mouths (and hilarious lyrics) are the attraction of Avenue Q, making a stop at National Theater (Nov. 27).

Also this month

• Studio's's Shining City, by Conor McPherson, is being billed as a modern ghost story (Nov. 7).
• It's absurdist, so it fits Scena's sensibilities - catch their production of The Maids (Nov. 10)
• Alzheimer's may not be the most entertaining subject for a play, but Didatic Theater is hoping it'll be, well, didactic (Nov. 15).
• Keegan Theater has a return engagement of its Mojo Mickybo (Nov. 15).
• A Tuna Christmas: It will never die. At the Warner (Nov. 20).
• Fiona Shaw leads the National Theatre of Great Britian in a production of Beckett's Happy Days at Kennedy Center (Nov. 23).
• Get some late-month swashbuckling in by seeing Round House Bethesda's take on Treasure Island (Nov. 28).

Still playing

This is the last weekend to catch Catalyst's The Trial, which DCist Chris thought was great, as well as Studio's My Children! My Africa!, RepStage's A Shayna Maidel, Meat and Potato's one-note Rashomon, Solas Nua's Made in China, and Theater Alliance's Ambition Facing West; Nov. 11 marks the end for Toby's Dinner Theater's Titanic, WSC's Caligula, Olney's Late Night Catechism, and Round House's Redshirts; On Nov. 25, MetroStage's Tick Tick Boom, Woolly Mammoth's Current Nobody and Now What?, Theater J's lovely ode to Mamet, Speed The Plow, and Folger's crowd-pleaser As You Like It all close; but you've till December and beyond to see Rorschach's Kit Marlowe, Signature's The World Begins, Arena's Women of Brewster Place, the obvious but endearing I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change in Bethesda, and both of Shakespeare Theater's Marlowe-devoted repertory works.