Mike Lewis
On a perfectly blue and sunny Tuesday in November, Southlake’s Town Square’s usually calm Rustin Park is abuzz with activity. Trucks and trailers bearing garlands, ornaments, fence parts and greenery line the streets. In a short eight hours, eight workers will efficiently assemble the myriad pieces into what will soon be instantly recognizable as this year’s iteration of the city’s beloved holiday display.
Every year, the Christmas season officially kicks off in Southlake at the annual Home For The Holidays tree lighting. Along with hundreds of residents, Town Square welcomes carolers, street performers, carriages and even Santa Claus, himself. But getting the square ready for St. Nick’s arrival isn’t a one-day affair. In fact, each year initial decorations begin weeks before trick-or-treating even gets underway.
“It always makes me happy to see them putting up Christmas lights before Halloween,” Southlake Mayor Shawn McCaskill says. “That’s how you know it’s coming, and that’s when the anticipation starts building.”
As we all know, perfection takes time. It takes nearly a month to achieve that Hallmark-esque setting that we’ve all come to love. Christmas by Zenith, the company contracted to get our downtown Christmas-card-ready, starts rolling out the decorations in mid-October.
If you can take your eyes off of the Christmas tree, notice the detailed decorations adorning each building, light pole and tree in the city center. The Zenith team takes great care to strategically place every single bauble, as well as creating the stunning display inside of Town Hall.
According to operations manager Kelli Roper, “We always start with the [exterior of the] buildings first, and then we move on to all of the trees, getting them lit up and ready to go. Then we spend about three full days here with the city’s Parks and Rec department to make sure all the plugs and all the outlets work and everything is ready for the tree lighting event.”
Then, it’s all about making sure the tree is pitch perfect.
“The Southlake tree is 30 feet tall. Basically, we bring it out in pieces,” continues Kelli. “First, we build the frame and then fluff out all of the greenery, all the branches that go on it. Then we add the ornaments. We use a lift to put the topper on the tree and get the top rolling.”
According to the City of Southlake’s communication director Pilar Schank, “The Santa Claus secret here is that we run a test the night before [the tree lighting]. We leave the lights on for about five minutes to make sure everything is happening the way that it should. Generally speaking, we’re able to pull it off year after year because of all of that preparation.”
While every holiday season is special, this year’s celebration marks a major milestone. As of 2024, Home For The Holidays has officially been spreading Christmas joy for 25 years.
“It’s still part of our holiday tradition,” Mayor McCaskill says. “Even as those years passed and the event’s gotten bigger and bigger, it still retains that small-town, old-fashioned feel to it, which is really nice in the middle of the DFW Metroplex.”
The first Home For The Holidays event shared its founding with another Southlake staple. Shortly after the newly built Southlake Town Square was unveiled to the public in 1999, the city council came together to plan a holiday celebration that everyone could be a part of.
Mike Lewis
“It’s been quite the journey,” former city councilmember Carolyn Morris (2002-2015) says. “Back then, Southlake was just this small little town, and we were trying to build this as a way to bring the community together.”
For Mayor McCaskill, his first Home For The Holidays experience came in 2003 when he and his family moved from Arlington to Southlake.
“I don’t think it’s really changed much,” Mayor McCaskill says. “It’s become bigger and more features have been added over the years, but the overall look and feel of it has really stayed the same.”
During this year’s celebration, city vendors filtered into the streets to get ready for the holiday event. Colorful houses were put up as part of Santa’s Christmas Village inside Rustin Pavilion, and arts and crafts stations were placed on the lawn for families and their children to make homemade gifts and ornaments.
When it was time for the festivities to begin, hundreds of holiday revelers flocked to Town Square to spread tidings of goodwill. The Uptown Carolers, a singing troop that has been featured multiple times on “Good Morning America,” made their way around the square singing from a catalogue of over 70 jingles while dressed in elegant Victorian costumes. The Southlake Community Band returned to perform their own tunes in front of Town Hall. And annual fan-favorite, The Olde Tyme Carriage Co., ferried revelers around the square in their horse-drawn carriages around town.
While Texas is well known for its lukewarm winter weather, that doesn’t prevent this seasonal staple from having its own icy attractions. Prior to the event kickoff, a 12-foot-tall snow hill was constructed for children to slide down, while ice sculptors carved bold and stunning pieces from 150-pound ice blocks. For its 25th year, Home For The Holidays introduced a brand-new ice skating rink that will run through Jan. 18 and cost $15 through the Geoji ticketing app.
“Every year, we always try to come up with something different,” Mayor McCaskill says. “As Home For The Holidays grows bigger, it’s important to keep introducing new and unique entertainment options to keep things fresh and interesting.”
But some of the best things are often left unchanged. The evening tree lighting is always the main event, and this year it shined brighter than Rudolph’s nose. Not only did the beaming white lights illuminate the entire square, but the display took cues from Stars & Stripes and launched a spectacular fireworks show for the grand finale.
While there are many beloved traditions at Home For The Holidays, Mayor McCaskill’s favorite is seeing children’s faces light up at all of the holiday cheer — they remind him of holiday memories of taking his own kids to the Christmas tree lighting many years ago.
“We have four Dragons, and my earliest memories prior to joining city council was taking my family to Home For The Holidays,” he says. “Two of my kids have since graduated from Carroll ISD and gone on to college, but they still come back home for this event. It kind of brings the whole thing full circle.”
Alas, the holiday fun can’t last forever. The Christmas by Zenith team comes back in early January to store Town Square’s goods at their warehouse in Fort Worth until next year.
Kelli tells us, “We will come back to take down the tree and the greenery on the outside of Town Hall during the first week of January. It usually takes us about two weeks to take everything down.”
Between the many seasonal experiences, Christmas tree lighting and meaningful memories families share with one another, Home For The Holidays is the gift that keeps on giving.
Mike Lewis