Weekend event planner

All the best things to do in Fort Worth this Christmas weekend

With Christmas falling on a weekend this year, it's almost all-holiday, all the time. There are only a handful of new events to check out, including a trio of concerts, a college football bowl game, and a one-night-only holiday production.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this Christmas weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events. Still looking for dining options on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or restaurants to take out-of-town company. Find those lists here and here.

Thursday, December 22

Holiday-themed theater productions
A quartet of local holiday-themed theater productions will wrap up their runs this weekend, including Artisan Center Theater'sThe Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Casa Mañana's A Christmas Carol: A New Musical Comedy, Stage West's Handle With Care, and Texas Ballet Theater's The Nutcracker.

Christmas lights
People love looking at lights this time of year, and there are options all over the Fort Worth area to fill that need. Choices include The Modern Lightsat the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, The Light Park at Hurricane Harbor Arlington, Lightscape at Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Radiance at the Ranch: A Holiday Light Spectacular in Weatherford, Sugar Lane Lights in Haslet, and Gift of Lights at Texas Motor Speedway. For a long list of spectacular lights across DFW, go here. For top homes and neighborhoods, check this out.

Cowtown Coliseum presents Legends in Concert: A Very Merry Country Christmas
Legends in Concert: A Very Merry Country Christmas features live tributes to favorite country music singers, including Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn, Shania Twain, Willie Nelson, and Kenny Chesney, along with the Legends in Concert back-up singers, dancers, and Rockin’ band. There will be two concerts on Thursday at Cowtown Coliseum.

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: Air Force vs. Baylor
Even though the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, now in its 20th year, takes place at Amon G. Carter Stadium on the TCU campus, the Horned Frogs have only appeared in it once, in its inaugural year. While TCU prepares for the College Football Playoff, this year's game will feature a matchup between the Air Force Falcons of the Mountain West Conference and Baylor Bears of the Big 12 Conference.

Bri Bagwell in concert
An eight-time winner of Female Vocalist of the Year from Texas Regional Radio Report, Bri Bagwell has seen her audience grow and diversify as she has progressed through the musical landscape. From her first full-length release, Banned from Santa Fe in 2011, to her 2022 release, Corazón y Cabeza (Heart and Head), Bagwell has masterfully commanded the stage for over a decade with her fun live performances and trailblazing artistry. She'll play at Billy Bob's Texas.

Friday, December 23

Cirque Musica: Holiday Wonderland
The all-new "Cirque Musica: Holiday Wonderland" is a musical journey that will transport audiences to a magical land far away for a holiday-themed show experience. The show, taking place at Dickies Arena, will feature acrobats, aerialists, hijinks, and holiday cheer. The show blends the spellbinding grace and daredevil athleticism of today’s greatest circus performers with a musical mix of timeless seasonal favorites.

Tanner Usrey in concert
Hailing from Prosper, Tanner Usrey is an emerging singer/songwriter with a vocal styling all his own, a soulful, Americana-rock artist who puts forth heart-wrenching lyrics and soul-touching vocals. His single "The Light" appeared on the Season 4 finale of Yellowstone. He'll play at Billy Bob's Texas in support of his 2021 EP, SOL Sessions.

Photo by Amitava Sarkar

Texas Ballet Theater presents The Nutcracker through December 24 at Bass Performance Hall.

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This week's hot headlines

High-tech Sam's Club leads this week's hottest Fort Worth headlines

Sam's Club

Sam's Club without cashiers.

Editor's note: A lot happened this week, so here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines. Looking for the best things to do this weekend? Find that list here.

1. Walmart opens high-tech Sam's Club in Grapevine without cash registers. Walmart is introducing a new kind of Sam’s Club in Grapevine that's different from the rest: It's an all digital store, without checkout lanes. The store is a reopening, of sorts, of a store at 1701 W. SH-114 that closed in 2022, when the roof was badly damaged by a tornado. The new store opened on October 17.

2. Comet visible to naked eye crosses Fort Worth skies this week. Fort Worth has more big things to spy in the sky: two comets coming in October, one of which is an extra-brilliant comet that rarely passes Earth. Both have complicated names.

3. Where to find the best trompo tacos, according to Fort Worth Foodies. In life, there are a few timeless questions: Why are we here, is there really a heaven — and who has the best trompo tacos. That last question was posed - and answered - on Fort Worth Foodies, the buzzy Facebook page with an astronomical 205K-plus followers.

cold beer cheeseburgers Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers, now being served in Euless. CB&C

4. Arizona chain Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers is coming to Euless, Texas. A burger-and-beer joint founded in Arizona has come to Texas: Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers, a casual restaurant serving exactly what the name says, opened its first Texas location in Euless at Glade Parks, 2221 SH-121, on October 16.

5. Where to drink in Fort Worth right now: 7 best bars for Halloween sips. Spooky season is in full swing, and Fort Worth-area bars are just as obsessed with Halloween as big local venues and haunt operators are this year. Halloween pop-ups with elaborate décor and themed cocktails have exploded in popularity, giving bargoers their own version of trick-or-treating fun. Here are seven bars to visit this month for a ghoulishly good time.