Deck the halls with boughs of monkeys! Drop by the Bainbridge Performing Arts Gallery Friday, Dec. 6 for “The Sock Monkey Diaries.”

The First Fridays Art Walk serves up primate encounters to playfully balance the height of the holiday pandemonium. Join artist and author Sally Jo Martine’s one-of-a-kind sock monkeys as they return to Bainbridge Island for a fun Christmas frolic, food and friends beginning at 6 p.m. in the BPA Gallery, plus the opening night reception (beginning at 6:30 p.m.) for Bainbridge Performing Arts’ “The Santaland Diaries,” the hilarious cult classic that chronicles David Sedaris’ experience as Crumpet the Elf in Macy’s Santaland display.

Martine’s handmade original sock monkeys discover themselves somewhere between the assemblage of their body parts and subsequent adornment. Each monkey in the tribe has their own (often outlandish) story, yet they share a common purpose – to bring cuddly comfort, joy, laughter and hope into the lives of others. The December exhibit includes goat, bunny, and dog monkeys, as well as Christmas-tree decorator and elf monkeys, an antelope monkey, a binkie-loving infant monkey, breast-cancer survivor monkeys, and more.

Martine is the author of four books, “Peeling Back the Heart: Exposing the Soul,” a loosely bound but intentional gathering of words that weaves a heart-based path through a passionate spiritual landscape, “Monkey Tales” and “Monkey Tales II,” two whimsical character-based medleys of sock monkeys depicted in photographic and biographical format, and “Survivor Tales,” a portrayal of the emotional twists and turns of two-dozen “sock monkey survivors,” as inspired by the author’s personal journey with breast cancer.

The exhibit runs throughout December at the BPA Gallery, 200 Madison Avenue North. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and one hour prior to each performance.

For more information, call 206-842-8569 or visit www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org.