More Bang for Your Buck

Top deals and discounts for holiday events around Dallas-Fort Worth

Don't pay full price for Six Flags' Holiday in the Park if you can help it.

Photo courtesy of Six Flags Over Texas

Holiday-themed events around Dallas-Fort Worth can be a lot of fun, but let's face it — they can also be very expensive, especially if you have a big family. To help our readers out, we've combed through event listings and Internet sources to find ways for them to save money during their holiday outings. We will update the list throughout the season as more deals are offered.

Gaylord Texan presents Lone Star Christmas
This holiday festival is unique in the area, as it has multiple options visitors can choose. Of course, you don't have to do all of them, but the more you do, the more the cost piles up. If you visit on "Value Days" (in general, Monday-Fridays, except for November 27 or December 18-26), you automatically save on the centerpiece event, I Love Christmas Movies, with each ticket level being discounted anywhere from $6-$8.

However, if you buy one of the Silver, Gold, or Platinum Play & Save Passes, you can save anywhere from 15-30 percent more off of I Love Christmas Movies and other events in the package. The catch is that you have to buy at least three of the events, which automatically makes the visit more expensive. But it's still better than paying face value for separate events when your kids beg you to do snow tubing or ice skating.

If you'd rather not buy multiple events at once, you can use the code REINDEER online to get 50 percent off on select dates for I Love Christmas Movies or $5 off Yuletide Bright, their walkthrough outdoor light attraction.

Texas Motor Speedway presents Gift of Lights
The annual drive-thru holiday event at Texas Motor Speedway was already set up to be pandemic-friendly, and visitors can make it a little friendlier on their wallets if they go on certain discount days.

November 30: Crazy Car Day - Anyone who decorates their car will receive $10 off at the gate.
December 1: Crazy PJs Day - Anyone who dresses in their pajamas will receive $10 off at the gate.
December 2: Military, First Responder, and Health Care Worker Night - Anyone with a valid ID from one of those professions will get in for free.
December 7: Bring Your Pet Day - Anyone who brings their pet will receive $10 off at the gate.
December 8: Crazy Christmas Sweater Day - Anyone who wears a crazy Christmas sweater will receive $10 off at the gate.

Luminova Holidays
There aren't many discounts to be found for this new event at Globe Life Field in Arlington, but the Family Pack gives you five tickets for $59.99 on non-peak days ($79.99 for peak days). Buying two individual adult tickets and two children tickets would normally add up to $70, so on non-peak days it's like getting $10 off for a family of four or $25 off for a family of five. Additionally, all military (active, reserves, and retired), EMS and Nurses, and First Responders get a $5 discount on any day.

Six Flags Over Texas presents Holiday in the Park
The annual holiday event at the theme park will take place on various dates, November 20-January 3, and you'd have to be a fool to buy your tickets at the gate, where the cost is $79.99 per person. Buying online saves you anywhere from $40-$60, depending on the day you want to go. If you plan on going multiple times, a season pass (starting at $59.99 per person) pays for itself in 2-3 visits.

Panther Island Ice
The annual pop-up ice skating rink at Coyote Drive-In in Fort Worth offers a $3 discount off the $13 normal price for active duty military, guard, reservists, veterans, and their families, as well as students and faculty of Tarleton State University. Both groups must show proper ID to get the discount.

SnowDay Dallas
The Instagram-friendly holiday event at Galleria Dallas has a significant difference between adult tickets ($22) and children's tickets ($8), but it also gives a $2 discount for seniors 65 and older, military, and first responders with proper ID.

shopping holidays lists

Movie Review

Oscar-worthy film A Complete Unknown digs deeply into Bob Dylan

Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown.

Music biopics never seem to go out of style, although they’re rarely very good because most of them tend to tell the same story. A musician/band gets discovered, rises to popularity, experiences trouble at their peak due to (insert sex/drugs/alcohol/ego), and either finds a measure of redemption once they’ve been sufficiently humbled or dies due to their lack of control.

Paradoxically, what few music biopics fail to do is properly showcase the music that made the person popular in the first place, a mistake that A Complete Unknown doesn’t repeat, becoming a smashing success in the process. The film follows Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) over a roughly four-year period from when he first arrived in New York City in 1961 to his then-revolutionary electric set at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

Dylan seeks out well-known folk singers Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and an ailing Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) when he first arrives, with Seeger taking him under his wing. Dylan starts to establish himself in the local club scene with his unique songwriting voice, meeting fellow singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), with whom he starts an on-and-off relationship. As his popularity grows, his reaction is antithetical to what’s expected, as he rarely engages with fans and focuses on his next song(s) instead of the ones for which he became known.

Directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line) and written by Mangold and Jay Cocks, the film may not be much of a revelation for Dylan superfans, but for casual fans or those who know nothing about him, it is one of the most effective music biopics in recent memory, if not ever. Not only does Mangold track the musical evolution of Dylan, but he gives the full context of the people who influenced him most, including Guthrie, Seeger, Baez, and more.

The film is not a musical in the traditional sense, but the amount of music in it makes it the next best thing. Rarely does more than a few minutes go by before someone is singing, either on stage, for someone close to them, or as part of the songwriting process. Whether you’re a folk music fan or not, the way the genre is showcased in the film will make you believe in its power and why it was so popular at that particular point in time.

Dylan is famous for his enigmatic personality, and Mangold does a great job of maintaining that elusiveness while still exploring what drove Dylan early in his career. His relationships with Baez and the fictional Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) give him some dimension, but why he continually went back-and-forth between them (or why they put up with him) is only lightly explored. The film keeps most of the drama focused on the music, and it’s this decision that makes it as compelling as it is.

Chalamet has been “The Next Big Thing” since his Oscar nomination for Call Me By Your Name, but the combination of the Duneseries, Wonka, and now this has firmly established him as the star he is. His Dylan impersonation (including singing) is subtle-yet-clear, and he has the cool factor that makes him completely believable in the role. The supporting cast is also off-the-charts good, with Norton and Barbaro making the best cases for awards notice.

While 2024 has had its fair share of great movies, A Complete Unknown - in this critic’s opinion - should now be the favorite to win Best Picture at next year’s Oscars. It bucks the trend of mediocre music biopics by giving moviegoers the transporting feeling of what it was like to experience Dylan’s meteoric rise, and why his early songs remain so indelible.

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A Complete Unknown opens in theaters on December 25.

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