Holiday News

A list of Christmas trees in Dallas, from tallest to shortest

Galleria Dallas and its very big Xmas tree.

Photo courtesy of Galleria Dallas

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, when all the malls and cities and outlet centers around Dallas do their ceremonial raising and lighting of the Christmas tree. There's a new twist in 2024, and it's quintessential Texas: It's become a contest for who has the biggest tree? More than one has posited a claim to being the tallest tree of all.

With everyone vying to be DFW's version of Rockefeller Center in New York (which this year comes in at 74 feet tall), we thought it was time to take a measuring stick.

Here is our roundup of lighted Christmas trees in DFW in order from tallest to shortest:

Galleria Dallas

The North Dallas mall purports to have the tallest indoor Christmas tree in Texas. ("Everyone from USA Today to Martha Stewart has declared it so," says a Galleria spokesperson.) Installed in the center of their trademark ice rink, it's a 95-foot-tall beauty with 700 branches, hand-sewn twigs, thousands of ball ornaments, and a 10-foot LED star topper that weighs 100 pounds — all told, it takes nearly 50 people and five days to erect. Best of all, the tree is synthetic — so much better than killing a real tree.) They'll do a tree lighting on November 29 and 30.

Sundance Square, Fort Worth

Coming in at second tallest is the 82-foot-tall Norway Spruce at Fort Worth's Sundance Square. It's the largest live tree in Texas and made its grand arrival from Cadillac, Michigan to Sundance Square Plaza on November 25. It's 8 feet taller than this year's Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City so you know Fort Worth is going for bragging rights. There will be a tree lighting from 6-7 pm on December 3.

Peace Plaza,Main Station in Grapevine

Grapevine, the Christmas Capital of Texas, has a sizable entry at 60 feet. It's right next to the outdoor skating rink on the plaza lawn. There wasn't a ceremonious lighting of the tree this year in favor of a street lighting for the Parade of Lights. However, the lights will be on twinkling each night.

Kaleidoscope Park, Frisco

Newly opened Frisco park has put up its first-ever Christmas tree, featuring a 50-foot tree decorated with 42,000 twinkling lights synchronized to festive music. The tree was first lit by Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney on November 22. The tree is located on the park's Activity Lawn.

Klyde Warren Park, Dallas

Downtown Dallas park will host the lighting of the Mayor’s Christmas Tree, a 50-foot-tall, 5,000-pound tree with nearly 40,000 LED lights. They'll host a tree-lighting celebration on December 7 at 6 ;pm, with festivities and music, including a Nutcracker performance and music from the Emerald City Band.

Allen Premium Outlets Mall, Allen

Allen has an admirable entry for an outlet mall: a 38-foot synthetic tree wrapped in 2,000 lights. Extra points for the synthetic. The lights first went up on November 21. Find the tree in the central court, right behind the Allen Premium Outlets sign.

Addison Circle, Addison

As part of Addison's Rockin' Around the Circle holiday activities, the town has set up a 32-foot tall tree, perched on top of a six-foot base, coming in at approximately three stories high. For an added touch, lights on the tree are even synchronized to Christmas music.

Hotel Drover, Fort Worth

The Stockyards hotel has installed a 30-foot Christmas tree located in The Backyard. They'll host a tree lighting on November 29, but only open to guests who stay overnight.

City of Carrollton, Carrollton

Carrollton has a 20-foot-tall tree located on the historic downtown square and they are doing up their tree lighting on December 7 with great fanfare, including photos with Santa, toy soldier stilt walkers, face painting, photo booth, and a 175-foot drone show to accompany the tree lighting. It starts at 7 pm.

Grand Prairie Premium Outlets, Grand Prairie

The outlet mall has a 20-foot-tall synthetic Christmas tree which they installed on November 22.

BONUS: Vitruvian Park, Addison

This isn't a singular tree lighting, but the park's 455 trees are wrapped in over 1.2 million sparkling LED lights as part of a tree lighting display on November 30. Additionally, there will be free Santa photos, letters to Santa, a live reindeer, classic holiday characters, an elf ballon artist, food trucks, and vendors.

holidays

Holidays Are Here

Ben Stiller wrangles with mayhem in Hulu holiday movie Nutcrackers

Photo courtesy of Nutcracker Productions LLC/Hulu

Ben Stiller, Atlas Janson, Homer Janson, and Ulysses Janson in Nutcrackers.

A holiday-themed comedy seems like just what the doctor ordered right now, and the new Hulu film Nutcrackers steps up with a little mayhem, heartfelt sentiment, and a nod to traditions. But it doesn't add up to a memorable experience.

The film stars Ben Stiller as Mike, a high-powered Chicago architect with little time for anybody but himself whose sister and brother-in-law are recently deceased. He is supposedly there to place his four nephews - Justice (Homer Janson), Simon (Arlo Janson), Steve (Ulysses Janson), and Samuel (Atlas Janson) - into foster care. But social worker Gretchen (Linda Cardellini) informs Mike that the foster family has fallen through, and he needs to act as guardian until she can find someone else.

Whether they’re still reeling from their parents’ deaths or are just wild in general, the kids prove to be more than a handful for Mike, who always has one eye on the door, hoping to get back to his own life as soon as possible. But the longer he’s forced to stay, the more the kids grow on him, especially when he learns that at least two of them were students at their mom’s dance studio, giving him an idea to stage a version of a certain holiday classic.

Directed by David Gordon Green and written by Leland Douglas, the film would seem to have all the elements that make a holiday film memorable, but the vibe is off right from the start. First of all, the audience is thrown right into the mix along with Mike, with barely any introduction to the main characters. As their backstories are mostly missing, it’s difficult to feel anything - good or bad - about Mike or the kids, and so they just kind of co-exist for the first act of the film.

Green and Douglas can also never decide what kind of people they want the kids to be. The film starts with a scene of them sneaking into an amusement park and causing havoc, and subsequent scenes make it seem like they’re supposed to be hellions. But when the filmmakers start going back-and-forth between them wrecking things and being responsible, down-to-earth kids, the plot thread gets confusing and less interesting.

It’s also perplexing why they would cast Stiller, who’s been known to play straight-laced characters who go off the rails on many occasions, and then not let him do what he does best. Even when confronted with some of the kids’ worst behavior, Mike keeps his reactions in check, which may be good for a real-life uncle, but makes for a less-than-entertaining holiday family film.

Stiller still lives up to his star-billing at times, but the arc of his character is not that inspiring, even when a slight romance starts to bloom between Mike and Gretchen. The Janson brothers, who are making their collective film debut, are fun at times, but their lack of experience shows in their unpolished performances. Cardellini is a nice presence, but she’s not given enough to do to make a big impact.

Nutcrackers is an inoffensive movie in that it’s not so terrible that there’s no way to actually finish it. But there’s little in its story, characters, or attempt to be a holiday movie that can be recommended as a fun family watch, so it’s likely to fade away into streamer oblivion.

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Nutcrackers is now streaming on Hulu.

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Holiday News

A list of Christmas trees in Dallas, from tallest to shortest

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Ben Stiller wrangles with mayhem in Hulu holiday movie Nutcrackers

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