weekend event planner

Here are the top 12 things to do in Houston this Christmas weekend

Cirque Dreams Holidaze leaps into town for a holiday spectacle.

Cirque Dreams/Facebook

Editor's note: By now, most in the Greater Houston area are ready to hunker down as the arctic freeze approaches. While we've listed events on Thursday (when the freeze hits) and Friday (another frigid day), many or all are expected to be canceled due to weather. Check social and event pages for updates.

As the weekend warms, holiday offerings abound, including movie fun and a visit from Cirque du Soleil before and on Christmas Eve and some quintessential H-Town events on Christmas Day.

Above all, we urge you to stay safe and warm. Whether you're staying in or venturing out, we wish you the happiest holiday season.

Thursday, December 22

Community Artists' Collective presents Ashé Holiday Market

It’s that time of year, when the Community Artists’ Collective helps out those who are still looking for last-minute gifts to give their loved ones on Sunday. The Midtown art temple will present its 15th annual Ashé Holiday Market, featuring artistic and unique gift items made by local artists. The market will be open to the public Thursdays-Saturdays, and by appointment through December 31. Noon.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents Animation Show of Shows

Timely, beautiful, and poignant, the annual Animation Show of Shows is back. This curated selection comprises the “best of the best” animated short films by students and professionals around the world. Featuring films from 10 countries (including Germany, France, Switzerland and, of course, the USA), the 22nd edition offers an array of highly imaginative, thought-provoking, and moving works that reflect the filmmakers’ unique perspectives and their relationships to the world. Recommended for ages 12+. 6 pm.

Improv Houston presents Ali Siddiq

One of Houston’s own will be giving people some holiday laughs before Christmas Day pops off. Ali Siddiq has traveled the comedy circuit for over 15 years using wit, thought-provoking punch lines, life experiences, and perfect comedic timing to engage diverse, racial, economic, and cultural audiences through standup as a headliner and through multiple other mediums as a writer, producer, and host. 7:30 pm (7:30 and 9:45 pm Friday).

Friday, December 23

Performing Arts Houston presents Cirque Dreams Holidaze

This annual tradition wraps a Broadway-style production around an infusion of contemporary circus arts. As lights dim and the music swells, audiences will have visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads as a fantastical cast of holiday storybook characters come to life. Singers, dancers, penguins, toy soldiers, and reindeer invoke the dreams behind a child’s eye on the most magical of nights. Amidst a backdrop of new sets, scenery, and storylines, this family-friendly production is sure to put a twinkle in your eye! 4 & 8 pm (11 am and 3 pm Saturday).

The Music Box Theater presents A Beatles Holiday Cabaret

Before this dips out next weekend, you might as well check out The Music Box Theater’s holiday-concert mashup of Christmas standards and Beatles classics. Song selections include some of the group’s original Christmas/Beatles mash-ups, such as “In My Life/Christmas Canon,” “O Come All Ye Faithful/Revolution,” “Golden Slumbers/O Holy Night/In the End” and “The Long and Winding Road/I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” 7:30 pm.

Psycho Killer Vinyl Release Party/Giveaway at Numbers Nightclub

DJ Wes Wallace will be up to his ol’ Classic Numbers shenanigans on Friday, but he’ll be adding a special treat. Just in time for Christmas, Wallace will be throwing a record-release listening party for his blue-moon marble vinyl Psycho Killer EP. He’ll also be giving away some deluxe vinyl packages and other goodies. New Christmas drink specials will be served until 10 pm, and yes – heat will be blowing all through this piece! 9 pm.

Saturday, December 24

Grinchy Celebration at Houston Farmers Market

This Saturday is the last chance for people to get all Grinchy with it this holiday season. The Houston Farmers Market has gone with a Grinch Who Stole Christmas vibe this year. Bring the kiddos, take your picture with the meanest citizen of Whoville, and see if the Grinch’s heart grows a few sizes. Hopefully, the Market will also play some music from that animated 2018 The Grinch, composed by – believe it or not! – Tyler, the Creator. 11 am.

The Muppet Christmas Carol Brunch at Wild Oats

Wild Oats, the Texas-inspired, family-friendly restaurant in the Houston Farmers Market, will host their Muppet Christmas Carol-themed brunch on Christmas Eve! Catch the classic movie at one of two showings. Make your reservations so your family and friends can enjoy the Muppet-themed menu, including Al-Gonzo's Texas meat and cheese board, smoked turkey legs with Kermit’s Joplin’ John with crowder peas and Miss Figgy pudding. $50 per adult ($35 per child, free for kids 3 years old and under). 11 am & 3 pm.

The Riot Comedy Show presents Saturday Night Late Show

This promises the most unpredictable and chaotic showtime in the comedy scene. Audiences will feel immersed in an intimate late-night crowd where everyone is loose and ready to have fun. The show will include a hot lineup of standup comedians both local and visiting. So, spend Christmas Eve keeping yourself warm by getting your laugh on! (There will also be a New Year’s Eve next Saturday.) 11 pm.

Sunday, December 25

Christmas Day Slabfest

If you have a lovely little ride that you’ve been meaning to show off this holiday season, here we have this Christmas Day block party that’ll be going down over at MacGregor Park, presented by Still Grinding Entertainment. All car clubs and bikers are welcome at this afternoon shindig. You can bring tents, lawn chairs, dogs, cats, whatever. Remember, there’s nothing wrong with spending the holiest of holidays checking out all the fly slabs that’ll be showing up. 2 pm.

Drink the Tree at The Rustic Post Oak

Over at The Rustic’s Post Oak location, come deck the halls and drink the tree! They will be open on Christmas evening for their annual celebration of eating hot tamales and drinking cold beer. Guests can “drink the tree” by choosing from an assortment of beers on The Rustic’s original, beer bottle Christmas tree, and their kitchen will be serving homemade tamales from open to close. Admission is free with an RSVP. 5 pm.

The Continental Club’s Annual Christmas Show

Now in its seventh year, the Continental Club has been throwing a free Christmas show guaranteed to get people jumping after a day of gift-giving, turkey-consuming and possible relative fisticuffs. The band that’ll be kicking the yuletide jams this evening will be Houston’s own Molly & the Ringwalds. Needless to say, they are a party band that specializes in ‘80s music. So, come spread cheer, joy, and mirth all in one evening. 8 pm.

welcome home, wes

Wes Anderson's Houston homecoming supports historic theater restoration

A fancy, eccentric-looking crowd showed up for the Wes Anderson Homecoming Soirée, held on Friday, July 17, at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts’s Zilkha Hall.

Fans of the Houston-born, Oscar-winning auteur paid hundreds of dollars to attend this benefit event. Guys dressed up like characters from The Royal Tenenbaums. Others wore red skull caps and low-top Adidas, like the characters from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Some people working the event even wore “Lobby Boy” hats, looking like the bellboy character from The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The people gathered for two reasons: 1) to get a chance to see Anderson in person; and 2) to raise money to renovate and restore the Garden Oaks Theater, a project spearheaded by local nonprofit Arthouse Houston. Top-tier “Founders Experience” ticketholders got a chance to meet Anderson onstage for pics. The St. John's School alum also received a proclamation from Mayor John Whitmire declaring it “Wes Anderson Day.”

After that, he and actor/fellow SJS alum Michael Maggart (who has appeared in several Anderson films) held a half-hour discussion where they reminisced about making Rushmore here in Houston, Anderson’s days working at the Bookstop on W. Alabama (now a Trader Joe’s), and how he and frequent collaborator Owen Wilson used to sneak into the River Oaks Theatre. (It involved pretending to lose a pair of glasses.)

Of course, the conversation shifted to Anderson coming back home to support the Garden Oaks project. “I always say you can't build an old building,” Anderson said. “First of all, I mean, a beautiful old place has history, and has people's experiences tied into it, and it has stories involved in it. And I think an old cinema — these things are kind of endangered all over the world, and it's not just an architectural thing. It's not even just a community thing. It's a sort of delivery system for something that’s, to me, deeply important to our country.

“It’s one thing we can access these things on all these devices,” he continued. “It's a different thing when you go to a place that's designed to help you share the experience of a movie together. It's such a powerful art form. And, anyway, for me, it's worth making a bit of an effort to try to save a place like the Garden Oaks.”

After the convo, he introduced the quintet of films he curated for the event. (Unfortunately the DCP file for his 2007 short Hotel Chevalier had some technical difficulties and was cut short.) “We wanted to do a screening here, and I don't have a new movie to show,” he said. “I don't have something hot off the presses. So, I thought I'd put together a little something that just was different from what anybody else will see. So it's a sort of mixture… This is just for Texas, this little collection.”

He eventually left the stage, leaving Arthouse Houston co-founder/director Maureen McNamara and Houston Public Media host Ernie Manouse to auction off perks & gifts and encourage the audience in helping revive another legendary, local movie palace. Among other items, attendees bid for treasures such as a special John Waters backstage VIP experience at his upcoming Christmas Show, dinner with John Cameron Mitchell, and a rare set of photo portraits of a young Anderson and friends, circa Bottle Rocket. Others paid $5,000 for select seats in the future theater and $5,000 to restore one foot of the venue's neon sign.

Photo by Alan Nguyen

Mayor John Whitmire declared Friday as Wes Anderson day in the director's honor.

So far, the effort has raised approximately $1.3 million of the $4 million required to begin the renovation project. The organization needs to raise $4 million by July 30 for the project to move forward. Those interested in securing naming rights will find more information here.

“River Oaks has 245 seats,” McNamara informed the crowd. “The Garden has over 700, and that is a place that we don't have in Houston. We have a need for that, for premieres, for performances in your life, for music, for a dynamic learning & exhibition space… So, we're building new on the shoulders of our history. I hope you guys will join us, and we need people to join us in a big way today.”

wes anderson garden oaks rushmore houston fundraisers