Weekend Event Planner

Nothing but holiday events on tap for Thanksgiving weekend in Dallas

Thanksgiving weekend is when most people kick off the holiday season in earnest and, appropriately, holiday-related events dominate the list of activities for the next five days.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Wednesday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Wednesday, November 26

Gift of Lights
Gift of Lights at Texas Motor Speedway lets visitors circumnavigate the concourses of TMS in their cars, taking in more than 600 unique LED light displays. It'd be better if the event was actually on the track, but then someone would go all Jeff Gordon and ruin everyone's fun. You can look at the lights through January 1.

Dallas Theater Center presents A Christmas Carol
Even though Dallas Theater Center has put on A Christmas Carol for 30 years, they somehow find a way to make each year's show feel new and different. Chamblee Ferguson returns as Ebenezer Scrooge in a production that promises flying ghosts, falling snow and eye-popping special effects. The play runs through December 27 at Wyly Theatre.

Thursday, November 27

There are a handful of events going on Thanksgiving Day, but this should be a time to relax at home with your family. Enjoy the day off!

Friday, November 28

Galleria Dallas presents Macy's Grand Tree Lighting Celebration
The Christmas tree at Galleria Dallas is located in the middle of the signature ice rink, so what better way to celebrate the lighting of the tree than with champion ice skaters? Carolina Kostner and junior champion Amber Glenn perform at the inaugural lighting on Friday, but the real draw is on Saturday, when ice dancing gold medalists Charlie White and Meryl Davis take the ice.

Sparkle! Christmas at the Anatole
Anyone who's enjoyed ice skating, listening to music or just taking in the lights at the Hilton Anatole's annual Sparkle event may like it even more this year because they're bringing everything inside. From now through December 31, visitors can partake in all the fun activities in a nice 70 degrees, no matter how cold it gets outside.

XTO Energy Parade of Lights
There's almost no better way to start the holiday season than by lining the streets of downtown Fort Worth for the Parade of Lights. Now in its 32nd year, it features close to 100 professionally designed flights with more than 12,000 lights each, as well as vintage cars, bands and more. Get there early for a free sidewalk spot or reserve seats in the grandstands.

Vitruvian Lights
This lights display at Vitruvian Park in Addison is not as well-known as some others in the area, but it should be. The organizers of the display set it apart by going big and bold with the colors of the lights they use to line the trees, making the scene pop like none other. The lights stay up through January 1.

Saturday, November 29

Shop Small Holiday Market
Saturday is Small Business Saturday, and you can get the bad taste of Black Friday out of your mouth by shopping local at this event at Unbranded in Deep Ellum. Along with gift choices from The Citizenry, Unbranded and other Dallas-based makers, gourmets, designers and startups, the event has free beer tastings from Community Beer Company and Holy Kombucha mimosas.

Design District Market
Much like the Unbranded market, the final Design District Market of 2014, taking place at Community Beer Company, features more than 60 local vendors offering unique holiday gifts, ranging from locally crafted jewelry and clothing to housewares, pet accessories and growlers. Also enjoy holiday films playing on big screens, food trucks and live music.

Sunday, November 30

106.1 KISS FM Jingle Ball
The annual Jingle Ball, presented by 106.1 KISS FM at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie, is the first of several all-star music festivals put on by local radio stations during the holiday season. The lineup for this event includes perennials like Jason Derulo, Fall Out Boy and Nick Jonas, as well as of-the-moment acts like MAGIC!, Echosmith and Meghan Trainor.

The multicolored display at Vitruvian Lights, which starts on November 28 at Vitruvian Park in Addison, is as spectacular as any other in the area.

Photo by Stevan Koye

The multicolored display at Vitruvian Lights, which starts on November 28 at Vitruvian Park in Addison, is as spectacular as any other in the area.

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Documentary News

Dallas native directs new Netflix series Waco: American Apocalypse

Waco: American Apocalypse

ATF agents at Waco compound in 1993.

Netflix has a new series on the tragedy that took place in Waco three decades ago: Called Waco: American Apocalypse, it's a three-part series documenting the standoff between cult leader David Koresh and the federal government that ended in a fiery inferno, televised live, with 76 people dead.

The series debuts on March 22, to coincide with the 30-year anniversary of the event which took place from February 28 to April 19, 1993. There's a trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scZ2x7R_XXc.

It's an oft-told tale and not the only new release to try and exploit the 30-year anniversary: Jeff Guinn, former books editor at the Fort Worth Star Telegram, just came out with a book also described as definitive, called Waco: David Korsh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage.

Waco: American Apocalypse is directed by another "local": Dallas native Tiller Russell (Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer), who obtained never-before-seen videotapes of FBI negotiations, as well as raw news footage and interviews with insiders.

Those insiders include one of David Koresh’s spiritual wives; the last child released from the compound alive; a sniper from the FBI Hostage Rescue Team; the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit Chief; journalists; and members of the ATF tactical team who watched colleagues die in the shootout against the heavily armed members of the religious sect.

The FBI videotaped inside the hostage negation room, thinking they'd be there maybe 24 hours, not 51 days.

"These are video cassettes that were sitting in somebody’s closet for 30 years, that show the mechanics of hostage negotiations in an intimate setting - not the hostage negotiation scenarios you see in films, but a team of people grinding, day in and day out, for 51 days," Russell says.

He also procured footage from Waco TV station KWTX, who had a reporter embedded in the initial gunfight.

While the standoff was broadcast live on TV at the time, much of it was out of camera range. The film uses 3D graphics to recreate the details of the compound.

Russell acknowledges that the tale of the cult leader who was also a pedophile, the debate over the right to bear arms, the constitutional limits of religious freedom, dredge up painful conversations that continue today.

"It cast a long shadow, pre-saging the Timothy McVeigh bombing in Oklahoma, the shooting at Colombine, and a growing distrust of government, but I think it's important to reckon with our past so we don't repeat mistakes," he says.

"So much of what’s roiling in culture today can be traced to Waco, a story about God and guns in America with all these children at the center whose lives were determined by the adults around them," he says. "There was no playbook for what happened, everyone was out on a limb, and people made mistakes. But almost everybody was trying to do their very best."

"I think this is a story that's often recalled in politicized terms, with finger-pointing on who screwed up and how did we get here, but there's a profound humanity to it all," he says.

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