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. But this is sad: An 82-foot-tall Norway spruce would be about 85-90 years old. There will be a tree lighting December 3 from 6-7 pm.

Peace Plaza, Main Station in Grapevine

Grapevine, the self-proclaimed 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 on the tree will be 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 is located on the park's Activity Lawn and was lit in a ceremony on November 22.

Klyde Warren Park, Dallas

Downtown Dallas park will be home to a 52-foot-tall, 5,000-pound tree with nearly 40,000 LED lights. There'll be a lighting ceremony 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.

Garland Christmas on the Square, Garland

Downtown Garland has a 36-foot tree that they will officially light during the annual Christmas on the Square on December 5 at 6:30 pm. The lighting ceremony will be followed by live band performances from Q the Band and the Salvation Army Brass Band, carolers, and a scavenger hunt.

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

Movie Review

Shaun the Sheep gets PG-spooky in new movie for the Halloween season

Photo courtesy of Aardman / Sky UK LTD / StudioCanal 2026

Shaun the Sheep in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

Since his introduction over 30 years ago, the Aardman Animations character Shaun the Sheep has been almost as popular as the studio’s flagship characters, Wallace and Gromit. There is never a shortage of trouble Shaun can get into as he leads his flock and proves to be a thorn in the side of his farmer and Bitzer, the farmer’s loyal sheepdog.

His antics lead everyone down some slightly spooky roads in the new film, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. At first, things are only slightly awry as Shaun and the flock are growing a secret pumpkin patch to have their own jack-o-lanterns. But when the farmer accidentally destroys the pumpkin patch, Shaun tries to regrow it quickly with a Frankenstein-esque experiment.

However, disaster looms when Shaun uses an old bottle of Hair-Gro as the container for the serum he creates. Naturally, the balding farmer uses it on his head, and everyone soon discovers how truly successful it is, with pumpkins growing out of control and the farmer sprouting hair all over his body. Through a series of mishaps, the farmer becomes the titular beast, creating mayhem while Shaun and others try to stop him.

Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, and written by Mark Burton and Giles Pilbrow, the film goes down just as easy as every other Aardman project has. They get the Halloween vibes started from the opening credits, with things like the sheep doing the “Thriller” dance, and continue the fun throughout, referencing everything from Psycho to Friday the 13th in a nice, PG way.

With no script — every character is mute save for reaction noises — the movie relies on sight gags for its humor, and the Aardman team is endlessly inventive in that respect. Sometimes it’s small things like a sheep using toilet paper rolls as binoculars, and sometimes it’s something like forcing the Bigfoot-like farmer to be shaped into a rectangle as he escapes through a window. But there’s a never-ending stream of such moments, so even if one doesn’t tickle your funny bone, chances are the next one will.

The biggest benefit of the characters not talking is that there’s no need for deep character development. The filmmakers do a great job of giving the basic traits of each character, and then use those attributes to color everyone’s actions for the rest of the film. Shaun is the troublemaker, the farmer is a bumbling fool, Bitzer is preternaturally smart, and the town’s vet is empathetic, and the combination of those characters and others makes for a highly entertaining blend.

Like all Aardman creations, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a fun lark that doesn’t make its audience think too hard. With just enough references to keep viewers engaged but not so many as to be overbearing, the film puts its well-worn characters to good use once again, delivering a Halloween season story that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

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Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is now playing in theaters.

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