The holidays are around the corner, folks. Soak up the crisp (albeit, slightly humid) autumn air while experiencing the cornucopia of events that await in Houston this November! [Featured image: @brian.nicholas_]
1. Experience Magical Candlelight Concerts
Experience a magical fall here in Houston thanks to the amazing indoor and outdoor venues the city has to offer. Luckily, Fever Originals has brought its popular Candlelight concert series to beautiful venues for the season.
2. Enter Meow Wolf’s Radio Tave
The psychedelic wonderland that is Meow Wolf opens their long-anticipated Radio Tave exhibit in Houston on Halloween night! In addition to far-out realms, secret passageways, and otherworldly oddities, visitors can enjoy interstellar libations and home-cooked dishes – not like Momma used to make – at its resident dive bar, Cowboi Hevven.
3. Enjoy Concerts Under the Stars
As the sun begins its descent and the city’s lights steal the spotlight, an exquisite rooftop in the open air becomes one of the finest settings for embarking on an al fresco journey. In the current season, Houston’s Concerts Under the Stars are here to offer you all the urban rooftop charms you adore, along with live music spanning several decades.
4. Ice Skate Under the Stars
Discovery Green in Downtown, Houston is bringing their outdoor ice rink back for the holiday season. From November 15 to February 2, Discovery Green is hosting public skates at the foot of Houston’s skyline for the newly-dubbed Frostival.
5. Enjoy Dia de Los Muertos in Houston
This Saturday, November 2nd, Houston residents will have the opportunity to join the Dia de los Muertos parade and festival in the city. The event will take place from 2 pm to 10 pm at Sam Houston Park, located at 1000 Bagby St. The parade, with all its splendid grandeur, will commence and conclude at the same venue.
6. Breathtaking Places To See Fall Foliage In Texas
Let’s be real, the only way you can see fall colors in Houston is through filters and photoshop. Those that seek the upmost fall experience with breathtaking sights of blazen, changing leaves, will have to take their PSL to-go on a state-bound road trip. Here are the 10 best places in Texas to see fall foliage.
7. Have Second Breakfast at the Hobbit Cafe
You don’t have to journey all the way out to Mordor to enliven your Tolkien-esque fantasies. Here in Houston, just southwest of Montrose is The Hobbit Café. Since 1972, the café has served all the hobbits, elves, wizards, and dwarves the best food Middle Earth, Houston has to offer.
8. Experience HBG’s Winter Lantern Festival
To build excitement for the holiday season, the Houston Botanic Garden is set to re-introduce a new-and-improved Chinese light and lantern festival in November. Radiant Nature is set to feature a grand display of light installations including a life-sized Chinese palace, interactive dragon, iridescent dome, floral tunnels, and more!
9. Revel in Fall Festivals
Fall is here and it’s the time to dive into all the autumnal activities the season has to offer. In the Houston area, you can find a number of local farms that bring the best of the season – carnival games, pumpkin patches, and hayrides – into glorious fall festivals.
10. Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner at these Houston Restaurants
Whether you’re not trying to go through the anxiety that is cooking for big parties, want to pretend like you did, or just go out for Thanksgiving this year: leave it up to the professionals and either dine in or takeout from these Houston restaurants serving fantastic Turkey Day feasts!
11. Go on a Hike
Take advantage of the opportunity to explore, Houston. After enduring the most intense summer in Houston’s history, it’s a wise choice to relish temperatures below 90 degrees and discover the finest hiking spots in the Houston region.
12. Cozy Up at Houston’s Best Coffee Shops
Whether going for a coffee date, studying, cozying up with a book or just enjoying a cup of coffee – take a gander at our list of the best coffee shops in Houston!
13. Get Medieval at Ren Fest
The 48th Annual Texas Renaissance Festival, the largest renaissance festival in the nation, has returned to Texas with a kingdom of entertainment for the whole family.
Every year since 1974 the town of Todd Mission travels back to the 16th century, becoming a bustling village filled to the brim with stages, shops, artisans, vendors, and no shortage of characters – from kings, queens, and knights, to fairies and elven-kind. It’s annual attendance clocks in around 500,000 visitors – making it the Nation’s Largest Renaissance Festival.
14. Elevate Your Lifestyle at these Houston Rooftop Bars
Nothing quite says “living the highlife” like clinking glasses on a city rooftop. Touch the sky this season with a brunch, evening, or nightcap on the most jaw-dropping rooftops in Houston.
15-20. Eat Your Heart Out
Houston’s culinary scene is a vast, rich landscape populated with delicious eateries, scrumptious bakeries, and Tex-Mex as far as the eye can see.
- Whether it’s a classic Neapolitan-style Margherita, a traffic cone-sized slice, or some warped creation piled high with everything and the kitchen sink – we don’t discriminate when it comes to pizza. Any way you slice it, here’s 10 of the best pizza parlors in the Houston area!
- Not all buffets are created equal. When seeking out a local in which to stock up on calories to last you the winter hibernation, we recommend heading to one of our 10 favorite all-you-can-eat buffets in Houston.
- Whataburger, Taco Bell, McDonald’s – the usual suspects when it comes to late-night munchies. Sometimes, though, you got to broaden your horizons, especially when a glorious late-night food scene of delis, pizzerias, taquerias await in the city of Houston.
- Like breakfast tacos, kolaches are synonymous with breakfast in Texas. Savory, comfortable, portable – perfect for an on-the-go breakfast, or bought-by-the-dozen hangover cure. Unlike similar handheld breakfast staples such as donuts, bagels, and croissants, it’s not so easy finding kolaches outside of Texas. We’d probably travel more if you could, but for now, we’ll stay here in Houston with our favorite comfort breakfast food on the go.
- Grab a cup of coffee and a slice of pie at our favorite diners in Houston
21. Go for a Ride on the Polar Express
This year, there’s an extra reason for excitement in the Houston area amidst all the festive pop-up events, dazzling light displays, bustling markets, and more. Houston residents can eagerly anticipate the return of the legendary Polar Express to the Galveston Railroad Museum this November, offering an extended holiday season attraction for everyone to savor.
22. Wander through Magical Winter Lights
As the holiday season approaches, the organizers of Magical Winter Lights have unveiled their plan to return to Houston on November 15, bringing with them a 20-acre realm of luminous displays, lanterns, and festive winter entertainment.
23. Explore Santa’s Wonderland
Touted as “The World’s Largest Christmas Park”, Santa’s Wonderland in College Station is the closest thing to the North Pole in Houston. Kicking off on November 15, Santa’s Wonderland is a massive holiday experience that encompasses everything from train rides, to snow tubing, ice skating, Christmas shopping, Texas-sized food, and drinks, and more!
24. Nutcracker Ballet Market
Gear up for the holiday season at the 44th annual Nutcracker Ballet Market. Kicking off on Thursday, November 14, the festive extravaganza will feature four-days of non-stop holiday cheer with over 270 vendors, 50 booths, and special events.
25. See Constellations of Lights at Galaxy Lights
You wouldn’t expect anything less from Space Center Houston to feature the most technologically-advanced light display in Houston. The cosmic journey through the the display transports visitors through a universe of holiday lights and festive fun.
26. Go Winter Wild at Zoo Lights
Houston Zoo’s spectacular Zoo Lights holiday experience returns this November with a kingdom of holiday fun for the whole family. New features this year include cookie decorating at Twiga Cafe, an immersive Twinkle Trail in the African Forest, and Whimsical Wildlife Tree at the Reflection Pool.
27. Thanksgiving Parade
The 75 annual Thanksgiving Parade returns to Houston this November! Here, Houstonians can revel in all the pageantry, floats, festivities, and more in one of the city’s most longstanding traditions!
28. Coca Cola Classic Christmas
The holidays are going to be extra special this season with the debut of the new Coca Cola Classic Christmas. Kicking off mid November, the larger-than-life new winter wonderland is set to feature of 50,000 square feet of lights, activations, markets, ice skating, and live entertainment for the whole family!
29. POST Houston
POST’s spectacular Winter Wonderlawn returns for another year this November! Kicking off on November 4, the premier market will deck out its 5-acre Skylawn with 100,000s of lights, a towering 25-foot Christmas tree, numerous activations, and more!
30. Holiday Pop-Up Bars
Say cheers to the holidays at the most festive bars in town. Here, you’ll find themed cocktails, over-the-top decor, Christmas songs, and holiday cheer galore!
See also: 20 fantastic things to do at Christmas in Houston