It's Jolly Holiday Time

Your 2025 guide to Plano’s best holiday lights and seasonal events

Plano knows how to do the holidays right. Each year, the city lights up with more than 50 festive happenings, from twinkling light displays and live performances to artisan markets and family parades. Whether you’re here for a day or the whole season, there’s plenty happening in Plano to keep your spirits bright.

Festive Events

Lights at Legacy
November 23
Kick off the holidays at The Shops at Legacy East, where free train rides, live entertainment, toy soldier stilt walkers, and balloon artists will bring the fun. Enjoy complimentary bites and sips from local restaurants before the tree lighting ceremony at 6:30 pm. Snap a photo with Santa and Mrs. Claus for $30, with 50% of the proceeds benefitting My Possibilities.

Dickens in Downtown Plano
December 6
Historic Downtown Plano transforms into a vintage holiday village for this free annual celebration. Expect vendors, live music, a snow globe, and family-friendly activities, along with late-night shopping and the city’s official tree lighting.

Step back in time for Dickens in Downtown Plano.Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

Plano Holiday Parade
December 13
The beloved community parade marches through downtown with festive floats, marching bands, drill teams, and Santa himself. Arrive early to grab a good viewing spot for this long-standing Plano tradition.

Holiday Lights

Lights on the Farm
November 28-December 23
Take a magical quarter-mile stroll through more than a million lights at the Heritage Farmstead Museum. Meet Santa, sip cocoa, toast s’mores, and enjoy themed nights like Frozen Adventure and Grinch Night.

Lights on the Farm Plano Meet Santa at Lights on the Farm.Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

Make way for the Plano Holiday Parade.

Deerfield Holiday Lights
December 1-30
The Deerfield neighborhood’s famous light displays are a Plano must-see. Nearly every home joins in with dazzling decorations, synchronized music, and glowing holiday spirit for a free experience unlike any other.

Holiday Productions

The Gift of Christmas
December 5-14
At Prestonwood Baptist Church, this multimedia spectacular features a cast of nearly 1,000, a live orchestra, flying angels, live camels, and stunning special effects. It’s a Plano holiday institution that often gains national attention.

Prestonwood Baptist Church The Gift of Christmas No, this isn't New York — it's Prestonwood Baptist Church.Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
December 19-21
Listen (and watch) as the classic holiday film comes to life with this stage adaptation told through voices and sound effects, presented by Repertory Company Theatre and performing at the Courtyard Theatre.

Home for the Holidays with the Plano Symphony Orchestra
December 21
This year’s performance features celebrated vocalist Charles Billingsley, one of Christian music’s most distinctive artists with 24 solo albums and performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Joining the Plano Symphony Orchestra is the award-winning Plano West Senior High School Choir, under the direction of Sarah Council.

Holiday Shopping

‘Neath the Wreath Holiday Gift Market
November 6-9
The Junior League of Collin County’s annual fundraiser brings together more than 125 merchants offering decor, fashion, gourmet treats, and unique gifts at the Plano Event Center. All proceeds from the event benefit the local projects and programs of the Junior League of Collin County.

Plano Holiday Market
November 22-23
This free market at Carpenter Park Recreation Center highlights handmade crafts, home decor, jewelry, and small-batch foods — a great stop for thoughtful, locally made gifts.

Christmas Shopping Days Vendor Market
December 6-7
Find the perfect present at this community market filled with local artisans, festive eats, and plenty of small-business holiday cheer.

Legacy West
Luxury shopping, festive photo ops, and holiday sparkle define Legacy West this time of year. Look for seasonal pop-ups, live music, and more as you check off your list in style.

Downtown Plano Arts District
Shop small in Plano’s walkable historic district, home to indie boutiques, galleries, and cafes. December’s Mistletoe Market is the perfect time to find handcrafted gifts from local makers.

Plan your full festive itinerary at VisitPlano.com.

plano holiday video holiday lights holiday parade neath the wreath legacy west lights on the farm plano symphony orchestra lights at legacy dickens downtown plano deerfield holiday lights prestonwood baptist church the gift of christmas plano holiday market promoted

Movie Review

Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy - in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks - is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

movies film

It's Jolly Holiday Time

Your 2025 guide to Plano’s best holiday lights and seasonal events

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Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

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