Richard Dent IV and Patricia Buckley (members of the Actors’ Equity Association) in “The Snow Queen” at Portland Stage in 2013. Photo courtesy of Portland Stage

Small-town Texas? A South Paris sauna? A fairy tale kingdom? A rave?

Maybe you don’t want to visit the Land of Sweets or the North Pole yet again. Thankfully, local venues will take you on a journey to new stories and unexpected places this December.

Take a trip south as the Theater at Monmouth will present “A Tuna Christmas” set in Tuna – the fictional, third-smallest town in Texas that features as the setting of five comedic plays. The residents are preparing for an annual contest of local lawn displays and plot to prevent a wealthy resident from winning for the 15th straight year. There’s an iguana and a Krispy Kreme and a local production of “The Christmas Carol.”

Dawn McAndrews, the theater’s producing artistic director, said the play has more than 20 “oddball characters,” and all are played by just two actors. The quick-change chaos adds to the fun.

“It’s two men who play all the characters,” McAndrews said. “They play their mothers. They play their girlfriends. There is literally a crew of people on both sides of the stage for when they come running off stage to change into the next character.”

Tickets for a Thanksgiving preview on Nov. 28 cost $15. Admission for all other dates costs $23 for students and $30 for everyone else. The show runs through Dec. 8. For more information, visit theateratmonmouth.org or call the box office at 207-933-9999.

If you are in the mood for a winter wonderland, Portland Stage will present “The Snow Queen” from Nov. 29 to Dec. 24. Based on a classic story by Hans Christian Anderson, the play follows young Gerda as she goes on a journey to rescue her friend Kai from the Snow Queen’s wintery palace. The story loosely inspired the Disney movie “Frozen,” but artistic director Anita Stewart said the play is for all ages.

“It’s a story that works for everyone, from 4 to 100,” she said. “There’s levels of the storytelling that are involved that I think you can bring a very young person here, and they are going to love it. An older person is also seeing it with different eyes. It’s a deep story that feels light to the touch.”

Despite inspiring “Frozen,” the story is perhaps not as well known in popular culture as some of the writer’s other tales, such as “The Little Mermaid” or “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Stewart said it will feel both familiar and new.

“It’s not ‘Little Red Riding Hood,’ it’s not ‘Cinderella,’ but it’s in that vein,” Stewart said. “You have characters you see in every kind of fairy tale, but it’s a story, if you haven’t seen it before, that is a great tale.”

Tickets, which cost between $25 and $70, are available at portlandstage.org or by calling the box office at 207-774-0465.

Lauren Orkus (member of Actors’ Equity Association) and cast members in “The Snow Queen” at Portland Stage in 2013. Photo courtesy of Portland Stage

For a grownup holiday, you could also visit the Hill Arts in Portland for “Another Evening at Dave’s Sauna” with two shows on Dec. 6. This production is a sort-of sequel to “An Evening at Dave’s Sauna,” a mostly true original musical by playwright Jonathan Leavitt about Dave Gravier and his anything-goes business in South Paris.

This fictional holiday tale includes the characters from the original but is less based in real stories from the past. Leavitt imagined Gravier misplacing a significant amount of money (that much is inspired by the lore of the place) and has to save the holiday by hosting a burlesque show at the sauna on Christmas Eve.

“This one is very much a dive into our own twisted imaginations around the holidays, and it’s just a lot of fun,” Leavitt said. “Maine could use a lot more inappropriate theater that isn’t so sanitized and family-friendly. Like a lot of us, I get icky feelings in my stomach when I have to put up with sanitized holiday shows on TV.”

Showtimes are 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Tickets cost $30 in advance and $34 at the door and are available at thehillarts.me or by calling 207-347-7177.

Here are some other surprises for your stocking:

Capital City Improv presents: “Hallmark Christmas Unscripted,” The Hill Arts, Portland, Dec. 5, $20 to $25. thehillarts.me

“Holiday Dragtacular Feelin’ Frosty,” presented by The Hill Arts and Dragology, Portland, Dec. 7, $15 to $19. thehillarts.me

“Fairytale of New York: The Ultimate Irish-Inspired Christmas Concert,” Dec. 10, State Theatre, Portland, $35 to $65. statetheatreportland.com

“Santa Rave: The Ultimate Holiday Themed Rave,” Dec. 20, State Theatre, Portland, $15 to $25. statetheatreportland.com

“A Holly Jolly Holiday with Ida,” Footlights Theatre, Falmouth, Dec. 21, $20. thefootlightstheatre.com