A puppet in Spiral Q's Peoplehood parade.

The time for holiday shopping has officially descended upon us. If you feel like you're spending too much on gifts, here's one way to counteract it: a weekend full of free activities.

Friday: First Friday in Old City
Wander around as galleries host opening receptions and offer free appetizers, wine and entertainment.

Saturday: Peoplehood Pageant
Spiral Q Puppet Theatre usually hosts its community-building parade and pageant every October, but this year the pageant portion was rained out....until now! At 1 p.m. on Saturday, enjoy this performance with giant puppets at its new indoor location, the Sister Clara Muhammad School at 4700 Wyalusing Ave.

Sunday: Peace Around the World
Designed for families, Peace Around the World is an educational celebration of different holiday traditions. Bring your young ones and learn about a myriad of holiday celebrations through music, stories, art, activities and more.

For more things to do in December, take a look at the December events calendar.

Image: Meg Favreau

La Lupe's nachos

Ever wonder what it's like to be filled with more tortilla chips than a bag of Tostitos? I found out on Saturday when I attended the nacho crawl set up by Lee from Nachos NY, a New York City nachos blog. Attendance was huge: Lee received so many RSVPs for the event that he was forced to turn people away, and still others showed up without RSVPing.

On the crawl we sampled nachos at three spots off of East Passyunk: Royal Tavern, La Lupe and Cantina Los Caballitos. My favorite nachos were the chicken ones at Royal Tavern -- they had a generous dollop of guacamole, fresh tomatoes, not too much chicken and a great zing of lime. Second place goes to the vegan beef nachos at Cantina, which were coated in real cheese despite the fakeness of the beef and had a good, smoky flavor and hot-pepper spice. (They also received praise from meat lovers, which is always a good sign.) La Lupe's nachos were fine, but I thought that their chip-to-topping ratio leaned too far to the chip side, making them a bit bland.

Nachos from the Royal Tavern

Despite being so recently stuffed silly with nacho goodness, I'm charged up to take more nacho adventures soon. Where should I go next? What are your favorite nachos around Philadelphia?

Images: Meg Favreau

Cantina Los Caballitos, the second stop on Saturday's Nacho Crawl.

Unless you're planning to ride Thursday's tryptophan lull straight through to Monday, you'll probably be looking for some things to do this weekend other than eat (or, at the very least, you might be looking for some non-turkey food to chow down on):

Thursday: The Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade
It's hard to go wrong with giant balloons.

Friday: Black Friday
Strap on your shopping shoes and head to the stores. CBS3 has a round up of what times area malls are opening, and Philadelphia Weekly's Style blog has a great list of Black Friday sales at Philadelphia boutiques.

Saturday: Nacho Crawl
Ten dollars gets you in on nacho action at three South Philadelphia restaurants - just make sure you RSVP to lee@nachosny.com.

Sunday: Headhouse Square Winter Wonderland
From now until the end of December, every weekend will include a flurry of events featuring some combination of lights, singing and Santa. Start the series off with the Headhouse Square Winter Wonderland and tree lighting, 5 p.m. on Sunday night.

Photo by R. Kennedy for GPTMC

Black Friday always breaks my brain a little, pitting the part of me that dislikes crowds against the part of me that likes saving money. I usually go with the part that dislikes crowds and spend Black Friday inside my house, eating sandwiches made from the leftovers of Thanksgiving dinner and looking for deals online. Mmm. Sandwiches.

I'm still debating about whether or not I'll venture out this year, but I am starting to think about where in the Philadelphia area I would visit on Black Friday. There is, of course, the gigantic King of Prussia Mall, whose doors will open at 5 a.m. even though the stores won't open until an hour later. Over at the Cherry Hill Mall, the JC Penney's will open even earlier at 4 a.m. And in Coshohocken and Philadelphia, Ikea is offering free coffee and breakfast until 10:30 a.m. in addition to its sales.

Is there anywhere you're visiting for Black Friday in Philadelphia? A store or sale you go to every year, or an especially good deal you've heard about this year? Leave your suggestions in the comments.