Chinese New Year Celebration

5 reasons every Dallasite should celebrate Chinese New Year at the Crow

The Crow Collection of Asian Art’s annual Chinese New Year Festival has been around for as many years as the collection itself has — which is 16, in case you haven’t been keeping track. An estimated 15,000 people are expected to attend the daylong festival on Saturday, February 21, celebrating the Year of the Ram.

Here are five reasons why they’ll be there:

1. How often can you pet sheep and lambs in downtown Dallas?
In addition to the petting zoo (11 am-5 pm), kids can also get their face painted on Flora Street. (Olive and Pearl streets will be closed to traffic.)

2. You can fill an envelope full of coins and feed it to a lion for good luck all year.
Inside the museum, from 11 am-7 pm, you can decorate a traditional Chinese New Year envelope with gold stamps and feed it to the colorful lion dancers to ward off evil spirits, create your own Chinese lantern, make a headband to celebrate the creative talents of people born in a Year of the Ram, and build a firework display to celebrate the year at home.

3. Any excuse for a food truck.
Bombay Chopstix, Mad Grill, Spin Sushi, My Cupcake Garden, Bobaddiction are just a few of the trucks that will be onsite.

4. You can put all those hours staring at the Chinese New Year paper placements at Asian restaurants to good use in the Year of the Ram trivia game.

5. An Asian comedic magician will be there. Enough said.
Well, almost enough. On the main stage, entertainment includes live music from Chinese folk singers, the Huayun Chinese Orchestra, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Dallas Asian American Youth Orchestra, and SMU Meadows World Music Ensemble. Guests can also enjoy traditional lion and dragon dances, the UTD Chinese Dancing Crew, and the Jasmines Chinese Dance Troupe.

In addition to the above, a professional gallery educator will give a tour of the Crow’s newest exhibition, Benevolence and Wisdom: New Gifts from the Collection of Trammell and Margaret Crow (2-4 pm). And Friends of the Crow Collection have access to light refreshments, a calligraphy demonstration by TAO Arts, and traditional Chinese and dessert buffets in a special members lounge.

The Chinese New Year Celebration takes place on February 21, 11 am -7:30 pm, at the Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, 2010 Flora St. 214-979-6430.

The best part? Admission is free.

Celebrate Chinese New Year at the Crow Collection on February 21.

Chinese New Year at the Crow Collection in Dallas

Photo courtesy of Crow Collection

Celebrate Chinese New Year at the Crow Collection on February 21.

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Well-to-do Dallas suburb lands on top-10 list of holiday big spenders

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Flower Mound residents have the No. 7 biggest holiday budgets in the U.S. for 2024.

It looks like Santa Claus is going to be competing with residents in Flower Mound to see who brings the most lavish holiday gifts this year.

Festive Flo-Mo ranked No. 7 in WalletHub's annual report on U.S. cities with the biggest holiday budgets in 2024.

Residents in this well-to-do Dallas suburb are expected to spend $3,541 on their Christmas gifts this year. But tsk-tsk: That's down $56 from the $3,485 they were ready to drop in the 2023 ranking — bumping them down two spots from their previous ranking at No. 5.

The U.S. Census Bureau says that Flower Mound's estimated population of 79,445 had a median household income of $154,471 in 2023. No wonder they have the extra cash to spare.

Flower Mound consistently makes the list of the top 10 U.S. cities with the biggest holiday spenders, outshining its nearby neighbor Frisco, which took a precarious drop this year from their previous high ranking of No. 3 in 2023.

They've now fallen off the top-10 list altogether. The average holiday budget in Frisco is still an exorbitant amount – $3,412 – but that only garnered the city No. 11 in the overall ranking out of 558 U.S. cities. You gotta spend to stay on top.

The No. 1 city in the U.S. for biggest holiday spenders in 2024 is Newton, Massachusetts, a wealthy suburb right outside of Boston, where the median income measured in 2022 was $176,373. Slots 2 through 5 were all cities in California's Silicon Valley: Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Milpitas.

Seven additional North Texas cities landed in this year's top 100 biggest holiday budgets, including:

No. 18 – Allen ($3,070)
No. 32 – Plano ($2,658)
No. 45 – North Richland Hills ($2,484)
No. 52 – McKinney ($2,386)
No. 76 – Richardson ($1,980)
No. 81 – Carrollton ($1,932)
No. 92 – Lewisville ($1,848)

Meanwhile, Dallas landed at No. 213 this year with an average holiday budget of $1,406, and Fort Worth ranked No. 359 with a budget of $1,082.

Each year, WalletHub calculates the maximum holiday budget for over 550 U.S. cities "to help consumers avoid post-holiday regret," the website says. The study factors in income, age of the population, and other financial indicators such as debt-to-income ratio, monthly-income-to monthly-expenses ratio, and savings-to-monthly-expenses ratio.

Whether a Dallasite's holiday budget is under $200 or more than $1,000, it's better to prioritize remaining within that budget instead of racking up the credit card bill, according to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo.

"There are plenty of ways to enjoy the holidays and show you care without spending much money, like hosting potlucks or giving handmade gifts," said Lupo.

Other Texas cities that made it into the top 100 are:

No. 13 – The Woodlands ($3,395)
No. 15 – Sugar Land ($3,214)
No. 23 – Cedar Park ($2,930)
No. 25 – League City ($2,897)
No. 39 – Round Rock ($2,538)
No. 60 – Pearland ($2,223)
No. 87 – Austin ($1,905)

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