Whether you’re running around doing last-minute gift shopping, prepping for your New Year’s Eve party, or trying to figure out how December is disappearing so quickly, you’ve still got time to sneak away for an evening out. If you need ideas, keep reading, because we have holiday classics on a big screen, an adults-only Dr. Suess parody, acrobatics, and much more.
If sacred works of music by 17th-century Italian composers are what is missing from your holiday season, you’ll want to head over to Saengerhalle in the Heights on Thursday, December 18, at 7:30 p.m., when Mercury Chamber Orchestra presents Songs of the Virgin: An Italian Baroque Christmas. The ensemble, joined by countertenor Michael Skarke, will perform works by eight composers during the program. Tickets can be purchased here for $10 to $38.50. The concert is part of Mercury’s Neighborhood Series, so you can also catch the non-sold-out performances at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, December 20, and at Dosey Doe in The Woodlands at 7 p.m. Sunday, December 21. If you can’t make it out, you can also purchase virtual access here for $20.
Roger Ebert once wrote of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 feature film debut, Breathless, “No debut film since Citizen Kane in 1942 has been as influential.” On Friday, December 19, at 7 p.m., you can see own Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, the Houston-born director’s 2025 reimaging of the making of Breathless and an overall love letter to the French New Wave at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The film, which The New York Times described as “suffused with intoxicating glamour — the glamour of youth, of beauty, of grand aesthetic pursuits, Paris at twilight and, bien sûr, cinema itself,” will be shown in black-and-white 35mm. The film will also be screened at 7 p.m. Saturday, December 20, and 5 p.m. Sunday, December 21. Tickets to any of the screenings can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
The journey of Buddy, a human raised with Santa’s elves, to New York City to find his real father is required holiday viewing, and on Friday, December 19, at 7:30 p.m., you can see the 2003 film on a big screen with the Houston Symphony playing John Debney’s score during Elf in Concert at Jones Hall. Debney has said all he wants to do “is write emotional music,” and it was the film’s director, Jon Favreau, who pulled him back. He credits Favreau’s decision-making, saying “one of the beauties of this film is that it’s funny, it’s warm, but it’s never too…the emotion of the moment never takes over until the end.” The concert will be performed again at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 20, and 2 p.m. Sunday, December 21. Tickets are available here for $29 to $203.
In 2018, Matthew Lombardo’s Who’s Holiday! went to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where the court ruled against Dr. Seuss Enterprises (DCE), agreeing with Lombardo that his one-woman show about an all-grown-up Cindy Lou Who – who happens to be a drug-using, trailer-park-living jailbird – was a parody that did not infringe on Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s 1957 children’s book How the Grinch Stole Christmas. On Friday, December 19, at 8 p.m., Chaney Moore will return to the role of Cindy Lou Who for the second year in a row when The Garden Theatre officially opens Who’s Holiday! at the MATCH. Performances continue at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, December 20, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 21. Tickets are available here for $25 to $30.
John Denver tribute artist Rick Schuler will bring the music and feel of the folk-country singer to the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, December 20, at 1:30 p.m. during the Rocky Mountain High Experience: A John Denver Christmas. Schuler, who will perform Denver hits like “Rocky Mountain High” and “Annie’s Song” alongside carols from his Christmas specials and albums, has said, “People say all the time that ‘There’s no one like this person.’ But it’s so true about John Denver. There was no one like him. It wasn’t just about his music but about who he was as a person.” The show will be performed a second time at 7 p.m. Saturday, December 20. Tickets to either performance are available here for $50 to $62.
No one should need a special reason to watch Chris Columbus’ 1990 holiday classic, Home Alone, this time of year, but if you do want one, how about this? 2025 marks the film’s 35th anniversary. You can catch the movie, about that one Christmas little Kevin McCallister was accidentally left at home and had to defend it against two bumbling burglars, over at Discovery Green on Saturday, December 20, at 7 p.m. during Screen on the Green: Home Alone – Quote-A-Long. Bring a blanket or lawn chair, pack snacks or grab some food at The Grove Market & Park Provisions, plan to arrive early for games and activities, and don’t be afraid to don your most festive holiday apparel. The screening is free, and you can register here.
Houston-based artist and rapper Tobe Nwigwe founded the Black Angels Collective in 2018 to center Black artistry, and on Sunday, December 21, at 7 p.m., the Collective will stage its annual production, Heaven & Earth, for the third time to the Wortham Theater Center. The new holiday tradition is a full-length ballet production featuring original choreography by Carmen Jones-Marigny that spans both ballet and contemporary movement styles. In addition to original choreography, the Collective will incorporate fashion and design into the performance that also celebrate and highlight the performers and the city of Houston. Tickets to the performance, presented by Performing Arts Houston, can be purchased here for $28.75 to $86.25.
Spend Christmas Eve with a young girl named Clara – no, not that Clara – as she journeys into a fantastical world with high-flying aerial acts, jugglers and acrobatics while she waits to be reunited with her family during a snowstorm in Cirque Dreams Holidaze, a long-running holiday show Performing Arts Houston will bring to Jones Hall on Tuesday, December 23, at 4 p.m. The Broadway-style show promises more than 20 performers and more than 300 different costume designs, as well as new arrangements of popular holiday songs, including “Deck the Halls,” “Winter Wonderland,” and “Jingle Bell Rock.” Holidaze will be performed again at 8 p.m. Tuesday, December 23, and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Wednesday, December 24. Tickets to any of the performances can be purchased here for $46 to $129.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.