Lights Fantastic

The most spectacular Christmas light displays around Dallas this year

It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas before Halloween in some parts of Dallas, but fortunately, most folks waited until the Thanksgiving turkey was purchased to actually flip the switch on the yuletide decor.

There's nothing more fun than loading the family into the car, stopping for hot chocolate, and driving through neighborhoods to see holiday lights. Here are some of the best Dallas-area commercial and neighborhood displays.

Commercial displays

Holiday Wonder at Fair Park
This new event at Fair Park in Dallas features more than 2 million lights, bringing to life holiday favorites in giant illuminated displays. Those displays include winterscapes, floating swans, perennial holiday favorites (including Santa Claus), and more. The event also includes a two-story slide for kids and adults, a snowball throw with real snowballs, an acrobatics show, and more. The event continues through January 7.

Vitruvian Lights
Vitruvian Park has been transformed into a dazzling and magical holiday wonderland during Vitruvian Lights, when over 1.5 million sparkling LED lights are wrapped around more than 550 trees. The lights remain on every evening through January 1 and are free to view. Check the website for special events in the park.

Christmas in the Branch
Farmers Branch has been illuminated with half a million sparkling, flashing, and dancing lights for an animated drive-through tour. You’ll travel through a variety of different scenes, each with its own theme, from fantasy to patriotic. There’s festive holiday music, and the grand finale is an animated show starring Santa himself. The tour begins at Valley View Lane and Interstate 35, continues south on Denton Drive, and through the Farmers Branch Historical Park.

Light Show Spectacular
Go to Grapevine for the blockbuster Lone Star Christmas at the Gaylord Texan Resort, but stay for all the other festive events and displays around town. The popular Light Show Spectacular is a synchronized light and sound display at the Grapevine Christmas Tree. It's located next to the Town Square Gazebo along Main Street in historic downtown Grapevine, at the corner of Main and Dallas streets. This free, fun-for-all-ages lights show is about 20 minutes long and runs continuously from 6-11 pm nightly through January 7.

Enchant: The World's Largest Christmas Light Maze & Market
A world of Christmas wonder awaits as Enchant: The World's Largest Christmas Light Maze & Market makes its U.S. debut at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Guests can get lost in the world's largest light maze, take photos around the largest Christmas tree in North Texas, glide around the ice-skating pond, or waltz through the Enchant Christmas Market with over 85 vendors, including Arlington favorite Texas Christkindl Market Lane, now a part of the Enchant experience. The event will go on through December 31.

People Generation presents Magical Winter Lights
Magical Winter Lights at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie is unlike any other holiday lighting event to take place in the DFW area. The festival bases its designs from Chinese lanterns and transforms them into larger-than-life remakes of well-known landmarks. The lantern festival embraces more than just the Chinese cultural elements by also creating lantern designs that speak to the local audience. The 2017 festival features several themed sections including Magical Wonderland, Christmas Candy Land, The Lone Star State, Dinosaur Land, and Mystery of the East. The DFW Magical Winter Lights will specifically include an entrance castle lantern inspired by the Dallas County Courthouse, a giant cowboy, and Dallas’ iconic Pegasus.

Prairie Lights
Prairie Lights is a two-mile, drive-through holiday park experience, situated along the shores of Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie, that boasts a stunning display of more than 4 million lights and other holiday attractions. This year’s event, which runs through December 31, features live reindeer; dozens of all-new, holiday-themed light scenes; out-of-car experiences; and the park’s famous grand-finale animated tunnel that guests drive through upon exit. Featured events and attractions include the Holiday Magic Lighted Walk-Thru Forest, Snowmazing Snow Maze, and Holiday Village. Hint: Cut down on wait time with a fast-pass, available on the website.

Christmas in the Square
Frisco's Christmas in the Square features the largest choreographed holiday lights and music show in North Texas. Now in its 12th year, the event features a show with over 175,000 lights set to music. It also includes "snow flurries" every 15 minutes on Fridays and Saturdays, creating a winter wonderland even when the weather is not so frightful. While you're there, you can go ice skating for $10.

Neighborhood displays and events

Interlochen Holiday Lights
Arlington's Interlochen neighborhood consistently ranks high in national polls of most spirited areas with holiday lights. Each year, more than 200 homeowners go all out with extravagant lights, decorations, and displays that are worth the trek. This year is the neighborhood's 42nd to stage the free event, which begins nightly at 7 pm. Find the entrance at Westwood Drive and Randol Mill Road and make your way slowly along the winding roads of the neighborhood. (Note: You'll want to plan for long lines as Christmas approaches, as December 25 is the last day for the display.)

Deerfield neighborhood, Plano
In Plano, the Deerfield neighborhood hosts a holiday decorating contest that yields magical results: another top-rated winter wonderland you can walk or drive through. Deerfield subdivision is located between Preston Road and Coit Road. Enter from Legacy Drive, heading north on Colonnade or Archgate; check the website for maps and schedules. The free drive-through event lasts through December 30.

Highland Park
Perennial holiday favorite Highland Park shines with beautiful light displays, many of which are professionally installed; pick just about any street where you see houses lit top to bottom in twinkling lights, and there are bound to be a dozen more. Be sure to check out Highland Park Village while you're in the area. You can take horse-drawn carriage tours through the neighborhood, for a fee. Don't miss the town's dazzling “Big Pecan Tree” on Armstrong Parkway, just west of Preston Road. It is decorated with over 5,000 red, blue, orange, and green Christmas lights, and the lighting of the tree is believed to be the oldest Christmas tradition in Dallas County.

Kessler Park
In historic Kessler Park, you'll find lots of holiday lights on homes and trees against a backdrop of the Dallas skyline. A group of volunteers plan and coordinate the holiday decorations on various traffic islands in the neighborhood. From downtown Dallas, go west on Interstate 30. Take the Sylvan exit, turn south on Sylvan, drive about a half a mile, and turn west on Colorado. This one's so popular that limo tours are a thing.

Lake Highlands
In Lake Highlands, the 12 Days of Christmas come alive on Timberhollow Circle. The display has been a tradition for more than two decades. Each home is decorated as one of the days, from a partridge in a pear tree to 12 drummers drumming. Several residents have moved over the years, but they’ve passed along the decorations to the new homeowners to keep the tradition alive. The entrance is located one block south of Royal Lane off Abrams Road on Moss Haven Drive. The lights stay on through the end of December.

Prairie Lights in Grand Prairie.

Prairie Lights/Facebook

Prairie Lights in Grand Prairie.

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RIP Tom

Prominent Dallas businessman and sports mogul Tom Hicks dies at 79

By American Battle Monuments Commission

Tom Hicks, RIP

Thomas O. Hicks, legendary Texas businessman, philanthropist, mentor, and devoted husband and father, died in Dallas on December 6, surrounded by his family; he was 79.

Hicks was widely regarded as a pioneer in American business, reshaping private equity and introducing strategies that influenced an entire generation of investors. He co-founded Hicks & Haas in 1984, where he executed landmark deals including the transformative Dr Pepper/7UP merger. He later co-founded Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst in 1989, which grew into one of the largest private equity platforms of its era, completing major transactions across consumer products, broadcasting, and food and beverage.

More importantly, Hicks was known for his integrity, generosity, and loyalty in business—qualities that shaped every partnership he formed and every life he touched.

Longtime friend and peer in Dallas business community Richard Fisher reflected on this spirit, saying, “Tom Hicks was a legend in finance who perfected the leveraged buyout and pioneered the ‘buy and build’ strategy by creating one of the world’s largest beverage companies. Best of all, he was a devoted, constant friend who supported me with gusto when I ran for the U.S. Senate, even though we were from different parties. A man is measured by his affection for and unflinching support of family and friends. At this, Tom was a true champion.”

Hicks’s influence extended well beyond business. A passionate sports fan, he owned and chaired the Dallas Stars from 1995–2011, guiding the club to multiple division titles, two Presidents’ Trophies, and the 1999 Stanley Cup Championship. He also owned the Texas Rangers from 1998–2010, leading the team to three American West Division titles and a World Series appearance.

In 2007, he acquired a 50% stake in Liverpool F.C., making him one of the few individuals to hold simultaneous ownership across NHL, MLB, and Premier League organizations.

“Tom was a close friend and a great partner. He dreamed big and watching him bring the Stanley Cup here to Dallas was something that I will always cherish,” said Dallas Cowboys Owner, President and General Manager Jerry Jones. “Tom was a champion for sports, and we had the same vision for Arlington—to make it a destination where fans could feel the heartbeat of our teams and our community together. Being shoulder to shoulder with him was always about more than ballparks and stadiums, though. It was about personal respect, trust and friendship. We shared a lot of miles together, and I’ll miss him greatly. My heart goes out to his family.”

He also made extraordinary contributions to the city of Dallas, helping shape the region’s cultural, educational, and civic landscape across decades. Hicks played an instrumental role in the development and planning of the American Airlines Center, which opened in 2001, and contributed significantly to the Santiago Calatrava–designed Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge spanning the Trinity River.

He also supported education initiatives across North Texas, including the land donation that became Tom Hicks Elementary in the Lewisville Independent School District.

Reflecting on Hicks’s profound impact on the city he loved, Ross Perot Jr. said, “Tom Hicks was an innovative businessman and a pioneer in private equity. He combined his commitment to business and sports through his ownership of the Stars and the Rangers. Tom was dedicated to Dallas and, as a partner in the American Airlines Center, helped revitalize an important part of downtown. He was a great partner and a longtime friend, a man of vision and courage who loved his country and Texas. He played a meaningful role in building our great city, and he will be remembered with gratitude.”

In addition to his business and civic achievements, Hicks remained deeply involved with the University of Texas, where he served on the Board of Regents from 1994 to 1999 and helped establish UTIMCO, now the largest public university endowment in the country—an accomplishment he regarded as one of the most meaningful contributions of his professional life.

Hicks also served his country. He was a paratrooper in the Army Reserves and later served as a presidentially appointed Commissioner of the American Battle Monuments Commission, which oversees U.S. military cemeteries and memorials around the world.

Yet above all his accomplishments, Hicks will be remembered most for his profound love of family. Known by those close to him for his humor, intellect, and steadfast leadership, Hicks treasured time with his children and grandchildren above all else. He is survived by his beloved wife of 35 years, Cinda Cree Hicks; his six children—Thomas Ollis Hicks Jr., Mack Hardin Hicks, John Alexander Hicks, Robert Bradley Hicks, William Cree Hicks, and Catherine Forgrave Hicks. He was a much-loved father-in-law to Alexandra, Stacy, Portia, Rachel, Paige, and Rick. Finally, his greatest joy was his grandchildren, all fourteen and counting: John, Jet, Isabella, Eloise, Annabelle, Gigi, Mack Hardin Jr., Scarlett, James, Lincoln, Jake, Hawk, Campbell, and Nancy.

His six children collectively shared, “Of everything he accomplished in his remarkable life, Tom Hicks’s most cherished title was, ‘Dad’. No matter the trials and tribulations he faced in life, he was constant in his generosity and love for his family. He remains a guiding force for our family, and we are deeply honored to continue expanding his legacy. Although we are devastated by this loss, we are profoundly grateful to have been his children.”

Services are pending, and additional information will be provided as arrangements are finalized.