Holiday performances and events
Mayor's Holiday Celebration
6-8 p.m. Nov. 30 Downtown Houston will celebrate with holiday music, Santa and fireworks at the 99th annual Mayor's Holiday Celebration and Tree Lighting presented by Reliant, an NRG Co. A towering pine with a stunning star topper will light up Hermann Square at City Hall. Free.
A Christmas Carol’
Alley Theatre, through Dec. 30 Alley Theater hosts its annual ghost story of Christmas, a family-friendly retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic, following Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey with the three ghostly spirits who visit him on Christmas Eve.
Christmas is Comin’ Uptown Musical
The Ensemble Theatre, through Dec. 30 The holiday classic “A Christmas Carol” gets jazzed up in this colorful adaptation where Scrooge is a Harlem slumlord about to foreclose on a tenement house and a church, before some groovy ghosts show up to get him to reconsider.
‘The Nutcracker’
Through Dec. 29 Houston Ballet’s production returns to the Wortham Theater to join Clara in holiday revelry as she journeys from her home on Christmas Eve, through a magical Christmas tree and into the whimsical Kingdom of Sweets, accompanied by her Nutcracker Prince. Check out the VIP experience this year.
Pentatonix
Smart Financial Centre, Nov. 26 The Grammy-winning acappella group and YouTube favorite brings its Christmas-themed performance to Sugar Land.
A French Baroque Christmas
Mercury Houston, Nov. 29-Dec. 2 Mercury takes its small-scale concert of French Baroque and Renaissance Christmas music on the road, presenting at the MATCH, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Dosey Doe in The Woodlands.
Holly Jolly Jingle
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Nov. 29 This festive event includes a holiday musical celebration by local student performers and winter activities for kids.
Christmas Brass and Harp
South Main Baptist Church, Dec. 1 Houston Masterworks Chorus presents Tom Jaber conducting works by Rutter, Pinkham and Britten. Bryan Anderson, organ.
Holiday Festival
Levy Park, Dec. 1-2 Family festival features live music, a holiday market, craft stations, a photo booth and an ugly sweater contest for dogs.
Katy Old-fashioned Christmas Festival
Historic Downtown Katy, Dec. 1 Holiday market with produce, arts and crafts, antiques, handmade goodies, carolers, food trucks, entertainment, a beer garden and a snow park.
Pedrito Martinez
Da Camera, Dec. 1 Afro-Cuban percussionist Pedrito
Martinez Wortham Cullen Hall. will Center’s The be founder playing beautiful in of the Afro-beat band Yerba Buena and winner of NPR’s Best Jazz Album in 2016, Martinez is an infectious soloist and bandleader who will make you want to stand up and dance.
Chanukah Festival
Bellaire Town Square, Dec. 2 Bellaire hosts a festival featuring a dinner buffet, activities for the kids, performance by magician and comedian John O’Bryant and the lighting of a menorah.
‘Home Alone’ with live orchestra
Houston Symphony, Dec. 14 It’s not just the fact that John Williams composed the score to this hit film about a boy accidentally left by himself to fend off two incompetent robbers. It’s that the music helped enshrine “Home Alone” into the minds of an entire generation of ’90s kids, a score that was sweeping, holiday-centric and heartwarming.
‘Hansel & Gretel’
Rec Director Room, Matt Dec. Hune’s 2-22 experimental imagining of the classic fable “Hansel & Gretel” was an unexpected smash last year. It took the bones of a very familiar story and turned it into a multigenre experience, blending elements of opera, immersive theater and dance all at once.
Girl Crush Holiday Market
The Studio HTX, Dec. 2 Holiday market features local female vendors, artisans and workshops.
The Wondrous Gift is Given: Christmas at the Villa
Chapel at the Villa de Matel, Dec. 7-9 Houston Chamber Choir’s holiday concert features the Treble Choir of Houston and Apollo Chamber Players.
Zoo Lights
Through Jan. 13 The Houston Zoo is a winter wonderland for animals and humans during TXU Energy Presents Zoo Lights. Visitors can stroll through the grounds, sip hot chocolate and see the show of lights.
Gust
Through March 21 Discovery Green hosts Gust, an interactive art installation created by Cocolab, a Mexico City-based studio. The public art project uses 1,600 handmade pinwheels to visualize the invisible patterns of the wind. Brown Promenade is activated with vivid color and subtle motion. Free.
‘Ice Land’
Through Jan. 6 Galveston’s Moody Gardens creates an “Ice Land” journey from the North to South poles that includes a giant ice slide, icy polar bears, penguins, humpback whales, snowy owls and reindeer — all hand-carved out of 2 million pounds of ice. Be sure to dress warm.
Magical Winter Lights
5-11 p.m. daily through Jan. 6 The 52-day festival returns to Gulf Greyhound Park in La Marque and is even open on holidays. It’s the largest lantern festival of its kind in the U.S.