Weekend Event Planner

These are the 14 best things to do in Dallas this Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving weekend is paradoxical when it comes to events. You'd think that with many people traveling, the slate would be pretty small. But the opposite is true this year, with six new holiday-themed events competing with a Disney ice extravaganza, a rap mini-festival, two comedians, a symphony concert, a new non-holiday theater production, and two concerts.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Wednesday, November 27

Disney On Ice presents Frozen & Encanto
Disney On Ice' Frozen & Encanto transports fans into two of the most popular Disney films, featuring favorite songs, ice skating, aerial acrobatics, and more. Audiences will see Anna, Elsa, Mirabel, and the Madrigal family live, as well as fan favorites Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald, Goofy, and many more. The production runs through Sunday at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen.

Thursday, November 28

Grand Prairie Parks, Arts and Recreation presents Prairie Lights
The annual Prairie Lights is a two-mile, drive-through holiday park experience that showcases a display of more than 4 million lights arranged in hundreds of festive holiday scenes throughout Lynn Creek Park at Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie. At the halfway point, guests can exit their vehicle to enjoy carnival rides, concessions, photos with Santa, a walk-thru forest, and holiday shopping. The second half of the drive ends with the popular light tunnel. The event takes place nightly through December 31.

Friday, November 29

Home for the Holidays: A McKinney Christmas
Home for the Holidays: A McKinney Christmas transforms Historic Downtown McKinney into a festive winter wonderland. Activities will include the official Tree Lighting Ceremony, visits with Santa, performances by Mosaix, Maylee Thomas, Mayor George Fuller, and Andy Timmons, and attractions like a Ferris wheel, carousel, snow hill, Frosty's train, petting zoo, rock climbing wall, and Candyland. The event takes place through Sunday.

Dallas Theater Center presents A Christmas Carol
Three spirits have come to visit the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and take him on a fantastic journey through Christmases past, present, and future. Brimming with joyful songs, magical spirits, and holiday cheer, the holiday classic embodies a story of joy, redemption, and the spirit of Christmas. The annual production from Dallas Theater Center runs through December 28 at Wyly Theatre.

Christmas at the Anatole
The Hilton Anatole in Dallas will present the annual Christmas at the Anatole, filled with new attractions like the 60-foot-tall Grand Ferris Wheel, a Christmas Tree Maze, a Snowy Summit Slide, a Bavarian Village where visitors can shop for holiday gifts and seasonal treats, and the Aprѐs-Ski Lodge, where guests can unwind and warm up at a cozy lodge with festive food and craft cocktails. The event runs through December 24.

Snow Fest: Jeezy and Friends
If you're looking for a totally different kind of holiday(?) event, the rap showcase Snow Fest may be for you. Jeezy, the owner of six No. 1 albums, will be the headliner of the festival-style concert, which will also feature performances by Webbie, Juvenile, Plies, Big Tuck, Ying Yang Twins, Lil' Keke, and MC Lightfoot. They'll all perform at Comerica Center in Frisco.

Improv Arlington presents Lil Rel Howery
Lil Rel Howery has been such a presence in movies and TV for so long that it's easy to forget that, like many comic actors, he got his start as a stand-up comedian. He's appeared in a slew of movies in recent years, including Free Guy, Get Out, Bad Trip, and Judas and the Black Messiah, and he also starred in his own Fox sitcom, Rel. He'll perform four times through Saturday at Improv Arlington.

Lyric Stage presents Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings
Lyric Stage opens its 31st season with the holiday classic Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings. At first, Francis, Jinx, Smudge, and Sparky aren't sure why they've returned to Earth for another posthumous performance, but a phone call from the heavenly Rosemary Clooney lets them know that they're needed to put a little harmony into a discordant world. The production runs through December 22.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Dvořák’s New World Symphony"
Led by Austrian conductor Markus Poschner, Dvořák’s most-beloved symphony, the Ninth, features cascades of hummable tunes, bold horn calls, and suggestions of African- and Native American melodies he heard during his American sojourn. Making his DSO debut, Charles Yang, member of the string ensemble Time for Three, will perform Kris Bowers’s For a Younger Self. There will be three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Improv Addison presents Ralph Barbosa
Ralph Barbosa was named the Funniest Comic in Texas in 2019, was the winner of the New York Latino Film Festival Stand Up Comedy competition in 2021, and recently made his HBO debut on the HA Festival Comedy Special. He also sold out six shows in Dallas for his 2023 Netflix special, Cowabunga. He'll perform four times through Saturday at Improv Addison.

Theatre Three presents Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 is a vibrant musical spectacle set in 19th-century Russia, where romance and intrigue unfold amidst glittering ballrooms and tumultuous relationships. The musical, based on a 70-page segment of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, features a unique blend of electro-pop and Russian folk-inspired music. The production runs through December 29 at Theatre Three.

Texas Ballet Theater presents The Nutcracker
The holiday season will sparkle with the joy and wonder of Ben Stevenson's annual production of The Nutcracker. Set to Tchaikovsky's iconic score, this perennial favorite invites audiences into an enchanting vision of merriment and delight, making it an essential part of any holiday tradition. The production will run through December 8 at Winspear Opera House.

Saturday, November 30

Midland in concert
The country band Midland surprisingly didn't come out of the same-named city, but rather Dripping Springs, just outside of Austin. Named instead after the Dwight Yoakam song "Fair to Midland," the group has made a big mark on country music, hitting No. 2 with its debut album, On the Rocks, and No. 1 with their 2019 album, Let It Roll. They'll play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving in support of their new album, Barely Blue.

Sunday, December 1

Ha*Ash in concert
Embracing a country theme, pop duo Ha*Ash is returning to their roots on this tour as natives of the Southern U.S., hailing from Lake Charles, Louisiana. With the "Ha*ashville" concept, they are reimagining their sound, blending their love for American country music with the Mexican influences of their culture. They'll play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Photo courtesy of Prairie Lights

Prairie Lights at Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie opens on Thanksgiving Day, November 28.

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Movie Review

Reminders of Him blends trauma and romance in slight but effective story

Photo by Michelle Faye / Universal Pictures

Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers in Reminders of HIm.

Texas author Colleen Hoover has gone from being a popular writer to a full-on celebrity in the 2020s, with the new film Reminders of Him marking the third adaptation of her books in just 19 months (a fourth, Verity, is scheduled for release in October 2026). All of her books that have been adapted so far - most notably It Ends With Us - are female-led stories that feature elements of romance and trauma, catnip for studios looking to appeal to the underserved demographic of women.

Leading the way in this film is Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe), who returns to her hometown of Laramie, Wyoming after spending years in prison for killing her boyfriend, Scotty (Rudy Pankow), in a car accident. That relationship resulted in a daughter, Diem (Zoe Kosovic), whom Kenna gave birth to while imprisoned and is now being raised by her grandparents, Patrick (Bradley Whitford) and Grace (Lauren Graham).

Yearning to be a part of Diem’s life, Kenna tries to reconnect with Patrick and Grace, only to be rebuffed by Scotty’s best friend, Ledger (Tyriq Withers), a former NFL player who now owns a local bar. In running interference, Ledger starts to become closer to Kenna, discovering that her tragic mistake shouldn’t be the only thing that defines her.

Directed by Vanessa Caswill and written by Lauren Levine, the film features mostly surface level examinations of its themes and average performances, yet it winds up being effective thanks to a willingness not to rush through its storytelling beats. The filmmakers take the slow and steady approach toward the coupling of Kenna and Ledger, setting up their bond through a series of heart-to-heart conversations that makes any romance feel earned.

The majority of the focus is on Kenna reclaiming her place in the world, and on Ledger coming to terms with the fact that the person who killed his best friend is not inherently a bad person. The film definitely could have gone deeper in its explorations of grief and anger, but the sheer amount of time it takes in addressing the characters’ doubts and fears turns out to be sufficient for a film that’s not aiming to be considered a dramatic masterpiece.

It also helps that Caswill and Levine do a solid job of establishing the variety of characters that inhabit the film. Kenna and Ledger don’t always feel like fully-formed people, but they become so through their interactions with each other and the other townspeople. Lady Diana (Monika Myers), a girl with Down syndrome who lives in Kenna’s apartment complex, and Roman (Nicholas Duvernay), Ledger’s co-worker at his bar, help to broaden the appeal of the two leads.

Monroe has, to this point, been best known for starring roles in horror films like It Follows and Longlegs. While she does somewhat well in this role, her delivery is often more flat than you’d expect for a character going through what she does. Withers thankfully doesn’t remind viewers of his recent bomb Him, demonstrating a crossover appeal that should serve him well in the future. Whitford and Graham don’t get to do much, but their combined experience gives their roles exactly what is needed.

It may sound like damning with faint praise, but Reminders of Him is a competently made film that knows how to serve its core audience without insulting anyone who may not automatically be all-in for such a story. The filmmakers don’t try to force any of the key moments down the audience’s throat, and that stands out in a genre that’s not always known for its subtlety.

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Reminders of Him opens in theaters on March 13.

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