a coastal christmas

Moody Gardens makes holidays bright with dazzling shows, lights, cruises, and more

Houstonians looking to celebrate the holidays and toast the new year have a one-stop shop at Moody Gardens in Galveston.

Winter holiday fun starts with A Christmas Wish: Holiday Spectacular. Created in partnership with Mirage Entertainment, this one-hour extravaganza is a rich tapestry of live musical theater-style songs, dynamic dance performances, daring stunts, and acrobatics, interlaced with comedic moments and a heartwarming holiday narrative.

A blend of Broadway and Cirque du Soleil, the show aims to enrapture audiences of all ages with its captivating visual and special effects. Guests can indulge in light snacks, explore all of Moody Gardens' attractions, and take in a dinner show performance

Admission to the show includes admission to the popular Festival of Lights, an illuminated walking trail illuminated with 2 million lights themed to holiday music.

Moody Gardens holiday Moody Gardens decks out for the holidays. Photo courtesy of Moody Gardens

Families will delight in the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 4D film, along with other holiday flicks in 3D. Swoosh down the Arctic Slide, catch a train ride, and enjoy that most popular of campfire cuisine, s'mores.

New Year’s fun, cruises, and more

One of the island's top attractions has multiple options, including the New Year's Palooza, NYE Silver Celebration celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Moody Gardens Hotel, a New Year's Eve Cruise, or a fine five-star dinner at Shearn’s.

Taking place all weekend long, New Year's Palooza is a multi-day party with games, tasty food, and activities for all ages.

Check out the entertainment in the Convention Center. No celebration would be complete without fireworks, which illuminate the sky over Offatts Bayou. The celebration concludes with a kids' New Year's Countdown and Beach Ball Drop, while adults can raise a toast with sparkling cider and bubbly. When the calendar flips to January 1, there's breakfast, games, activities, and a Mimosa and Bloody Mary Bar.

Colonel Paddlewheel boat on the water. Moody Garden's New Year's Palooza includes a series of events, including performances, dinners and more. Enjoy a performance of A Christmas Wish: Holiday Spectacular stroll through the Festival of Lights, set sail on the Colonel Paddlewheel, and enjoy an elegant dinner at Shearn's. Moody Gardens

Moody Garden's NYE Silver Celebration is a sophisticated, adults-only soiree. The Mambo Jazz Kings headline the show, where guests can ring in the New Year with dancing. The celebration also includes appetizers and an iconic champagne toastat midnight.

Guests who reserve their table at Shearn’s on New Year’s Eve can feel like VIPS. They'll indulge in a five-star meal and take in the fireworks display from the restaurant's panoramic 9th floor. The dinner package also includes tickets to the NYE Silver Celebration.

Those looking for something that feels like a trip back in time will enjoy the Colonel Paddlewheel boat's New Year's Eve Cruise, where guest will have a waterfront view of the Festival of Lights displays complemented by music, dance, gourmet hors d'oeuvres, and two complimentary drink vouchers. A midnight Champagne toast completes the evening.

Those spending the New Year's holiday at the hotel, or those wishing to drop by for a day or two, can also take part in the rest of the attraction's festivities.

Reservations and more information can be found on the Moody Gardens website.

hoop it up

Houston festival hosts dramatic reading of basketball-inspired TV show

Photo by Trent Wittenbach

Hoopzdreams tells the story of a gifted, multiracial athelete.

This year’s Houston Cinema Arts Festival (HCAF), which starts this Thursday, November 6, offers plenty of film screenings – both feature-length films and shorts – as well as panel discussions, Q&As, workshops, etc. But the fest will also have a staged reading of the TV pilot Hoopztown, this Saturday at 2 pm at Six Foot Studios.

Hoopztown centers around Maya Hernandez, a gifted, multiracial athlete on track to be considered for the inaugural WNBA in 1996. She moves back to her hometown of Houston, where it’s revealed that her mother, a janitor at Houston Medical Center, is diagnosed with cancer.

The project is created and written by Fleurette S. Fernando, an educator, director, choreographer, arts administrator, and founding director of the M.A. in Arts Leadership Program at University of Houston, where she serves as an associate professor. “I wrote this story for the women in my life; my mother, my sisters, my teachers, my colleagues, my girlfriends, my students and particularly for my daughter,” says Fernando. “Her journey as a student athlete and the relationships she built with the girls on her various teams through the turbulent and magical years of her youth was an inspiration.”

hoopztown Fleurette S. Fernando Elizabeth Sosa Bailey Collaborators Elizabeth Sosa Bailey and Fleurette S. Fernando.Courtesy of Elizabeth Sosa Bailey

Hoopztown has gone through multiple iterations. During the 2015 ATX TV Festival Pitch Competition, Fernando was a finalist for her concept of the project. From there, the pilot (originally titled Hoopz) and loglines for a 10-episode run were put into motion. That first episode, titled “Rebound,” focuses on Maya’s first day at her new job, coaching a girls’ basketball team at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school.

“Hoopztown is an ode to a woman’s journey through the lens of many races, ages and circumstances,” she says. “It’s a tribute to the underdog and a homage to a woman’s perilous path through a man’s world. Nowhere is this struggle more acutely demonstrated, mentally, emotionally, physically and economically, than in the arena of competitive sports in America.”

Since Fernando and her creative partner, Elizabeth Sosa Bailey, are both active members of

the Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) board, they knew they had to do a reading during this year’s fest.

“There is so much of myself that I see in this story, as someone who left a career to return home when my father was diagnosed with cancer and as a mixed race Latina understanding the duality of identity,” says Sosa Bailey. “Even the high school that Hoopztown is set in is much like my own. I attended Lamar High School, making me about a decade younger than the characters in the story. There are all of these wonderful little coincidences in Hoopztown.”

The project is a beneficiary of its second Houston Arts Alliance grant made possible through the

City of Houston Mayors Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA). The reading cast includes over 20 actors, with Eva Marie Thomas playing the main role. Open to the public with a Pay What You Can ticket structure, the event invites the audience to experience the first run-through of what is slated to be the first episode, filmed in Houston using local cast and crew. The audience can also provide feedback and contribute to the project’s fundraising initiative to get to the next stage of filming.

For tickets, go to the Houston Cinema Arts Festival website.

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hoop it up

Houston festival hosts dramatic reading of basketball-inspired TV show