Our daily column, 5 Things You Need to Know Today, will help you to get your day started and offer you some fodder for water cooler conversation.

1. Mass Ballet has two performances of its Nutcracker today. Featuring more than 100 local dancers, the curtain rises at 1 and 7 p.m. at Lincoln-Sudbury High School. Tickets are available at the door $15-$22.

2. First-ever Framingham Community Craft Fair  from 9 to 3 p.m.. at American Career Institute 125 Newbury St. There will be 20-plus exhibitors, numerous items for raffle, baked goods, lots of fun activities for the kids including face painting, temporary tattoos, children's movie room, balloons, and a free family photograph with Santa.  Admission is free. Monies raised from raffle items will benefit the Student Emergency Fund.

3. Looking for a gift for the bibliophile? Today is the Friends of the Framingham Library Monthly Book Sale. Members can shop early at 9:30 a.m. Opens to the public 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

4. This is the last weekend of the  A Sense of Place art exhibit at Fountain Street Fine Art gallery. Open today 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

5. Caroline Mack of Framingham was cast as Clara in Walnut Hill School for the Arts' 2012 production of The Nutcracker. Mack, a Walsh Middle School sixth grade student, will perform as Clara today, Dec. 15 at 2 p.m. and her final performance is tomorrow, Dec. 16 at 2 p.m. at Perrin Theater in the Keiter Center for the Performing Arts on the Natick campus of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts. Tickets, if still available, are $25 adults and $18 children.