Let's After-Party

After the Dallas Holiday Parade, head to Verizon Village for more magic

Keep the party going at Verizon Village.

Photo courtesy of Verizon

Every December, downtown Dallas transforms into a swirl of color, music, and holiday energy as thousands gather for the beloved Dallas Holiday Parade.

This year, all roads lead to one especially sparkling destination: Verizon Village at Main Street Garden, the gold at the end of the parade.

As the parade's presenting partner for the third year, Verizon is once again bringing its signature spirit of community, creativity, and joy to the city’s biggest one-day outdoor event. And if the parade is the heartbeat of the holidays, Verizon Village is where that heartbeat turns into a dance party full of interactive fun, photo-ready moments, and surprises designed to bring families, friends, and entire neighborhoods together.

A holiday tradition that keeps growing

Since rolling down its first route in 1988 — originally celebrating anniversaries for The Adolphus and Children’s Medical Center Dallas — the Dallas Holiday Parade has blossomed into a North Texas institution.

Dallasites now mark their calendars for the first Saturday of December, staking out their favorite spots along Commerce and Houston Streets as floats glide by, giant balloons sway through the skyscraper canyons, and marching bands fill the morning with music.

This year, the parade returns Saturday, December 6, with step-off around 8:30 am and the main event beginning at 9 am.

Once the parade winds its way through downtown, the fun continues just a few blocks away at Main Street Garden, where the New Verizon Village runs from 11 am-3 pm.

This is your chance to explore interactive booths, enjoy live entertainment like the Human Snow Globe, and capture those all-important holiday photos by snapping pics at the AI photo booth or posing with Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the Village's entrance.

Snag seasonal goodies and enjoy snacks from Comeback Cookie, Crunchy Munchy, RU Chocolate, Bakes by Sophia, and a hot chocolate and coffee truck.

Verizon Village is a full-blown celebration on its own that's designed for everyone, from toddlers with sugar-cookie energy to teens hunting for Instagram backdrops to adults who know good holiday vibes when they see them.

Lace up at CultureMap City Rink

As if Verizon Village didn’t already deliver enough good cheer, 2025 brings a brand-new attraction that’s turning Main Street Garden into a winter playground: the inaugural CultureMap City Rink, a holiday ice rink launched in partnership with Verizon and Downtown Dallas, Inc.

That’s right, an outdoor rink (made of real ice!) right in the heart of downtown Dallas, and everyone's invited to lace up. Skate after the parade or just kick back at the Apres Chalet and sip cocoa while taking in the city skyline. It’s the perfect holiday memory-maker, and it's all steps from all the Verizon Village action.

Tips to make your parade day shine

Gather your crew and plan to make December 6 an all-out celebration with these invaluable tips:

The parade is free! Want a guaranteed view? Limit bleacher seats are available to purchase in advance.
Take DART. Street closures and parking congestion come with the holiday territory — public transit makes the morning run a lot smoother.
Bundle up. Or don’t. This is Texas, so it might be frosty or it might be 65 degrees. Who knows!
Bring blankets or collapsible chairs if you’re not in the bleachers.
Plan to stay. The best part of the day happens after the floats finish at Verizon Village and the CultureMap City Rink.

With the Dallas Holiday Parade setting the tone for the season, Verizon Village and CultureMap City Rink turn the day into a true downtown celebration.

dallas holiday parade verizon village culturemap city rink culturemap ice rink downtown dallas ice rink promoted

Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films likeM3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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