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.

theater kids families holidays music concerts comedy symphony dance event-planner

Shaq Sighting

Shaquille O'Neal cruises Dallas lake in custom '64 Chevy Impala boat

Courtesy of Effortless Motors/Youtube

A still from the Effortless Motors video

“Oh, my God! My Impala boat has arrived!” The shout comes from NBA Hall-of-Famer Shaquille O’Neal, as seen in a viral video from California-based Effortless Motors.

Those on Lake Ray Hubbard one day in early July witnessed the 7-foot-1-inch basketball superstar, known worldwide as Shaq, cruising the North Texas waters in a convertible 1964 Chevrolet Impala. A surreal sight, onlookers say.

“I had to do a double take, rub my eyes, and hope no one had spiked my coffee,” says Rockwall resident Steve Johns via phone. Johns was doing maintenance on his berthed boat when he saw the celebrity steering the craft through the waves with two other men aboard.

The passengers were Ahmad Abdelrahman and Daniel Ubario, classic car specialists who founded Effortless Motors, a full-service auto concierge in Riverside, California. They built and delivered the custom craft to O'Neal and filmed both its reveal and its maiden voyage.

O’Neal had semi-jokingly discussed the idea with the men last March, on his 54th birthday, while commissioning a Chevy Impala ‘64 restoration for his multimillion-dollar car collection.

“He wanted something crazy that no one in the world has ever seen,” Abdelrahman, Effortless CEO, tells CultureMap in an interview.

In early July, the team delivered O'Neal's consigned classic car to his home in the Ridge Lakes of Heath subdivision, on the lake’s east side. The video shows O’Neal treating family members to low, rumbling rides around his otherwise quiet suburban enclave and appearing ecstatic as he hugs and heaps praise upon the car specialists.

“You did a great job. Oh, thank you! Everything is perfect,” O’Neal says about the $1.2 million street-ready Impala, whose price reflects the extensive modifications needed to accommodate Shaq’s XXL physique. “But you promised me the boat for my birthday,” O’Neal quips.

On cue, a second trailer arrives hauling the gold Impala boat, a nod to Doughboy (Ice Cube)’s 1993 ride in the movie Boyz n the Hood.

The logistics of delivering both a car and a surprise boat — and secretly setting up the latter’s trial run — were challenging, but O'Neal's reaction made everything worthwhile, Abdelrahman says.

“The best thing was knowing we built something that has never existed before," he says. "Seeing that Impala on the water, it’s like seeing a unicorn flying across the sky.”

In the video, Shaq is seen settling into the customized captain’s seat and navigating choppy waters as Abdelrahman exclaims, “First seven footer to drive a ‘64 Impala in the water.”

“Once again, Effortless Motors delivers,” O’Neal says into the camera.

The video then shows the famous TNT broadcaster stopping under storm clouds to sign autographs and snap photos with starstruck lakegoers. “We love your boat, Shaq,” a teenage boy is heard saying after snapping a selfie. “You’re the best, man. We love you!”

O’Neal has lived part-time in the Dallas area since 2022, when he bought a $1.2 million Carrollton mansion. He sold it for $1.7 million and moved into his current 5,100 square-foot, approximately $2 million Rockwall County estate in 2024.

Since then, sightings of the megastar abound around Dallas-Fort Worth. In Mesquite in 2024, he treated 20 students to $500 shopping sprees at JCPenney. On another occasion he gave a $500 gift card to a couple he met at Fort Worth’s JCPenney, which they paid forward to children in need. And earlier this year at the Rockwall Target, he distributed $100 bills to shoppers at random. He's also behind the Big Chicken restaurant franchise, whose Fort Worth location recently closed.

But Shaq isn't the only retired athlete taking high-end toys to Texas waters. While his Impala jetboat is one of a kind, other luxury autos afloat have been spotted nearby. Former Dallas Maverick Charlie Villanueva regularly is seen cruising his Rolls Royce amphi-boat near his Lake Ray Hubbard home, many Instagram commenters pointed out after Shaq’s maritime adventure went viral.

Automotive journalists at The Autopian noted that, based video footage, Shaq’s new toy is not amphibious but rather a fiberglass silhouette of the Impala attached to a jet boat hull.

“That doesn’t take away from the spectacle of the thing much, with the rather slab-sided Impala body cutting an unexpected shape through the water,” wrote The Autopian's Andrew Evans.

A still from the Effortless Motors video

Courtesy of Effortless Motors/Youtube

Shaq featured in the Effortless Motors video.

celebrities lake ray hubbard shaquille oneal impala boat cars rockwall shaquille o'neal