CultureMap

Austinites can drop off their Christmas trees at Zilker Park to be turned into mulch. Photo from austintexas.gov.

Plain Bad Films

Months of holiday season buildup, preparation, and anticipation have culminated in Christmas Day. Now that this day is over, many Austinites are looking around at a house full of decorations to be packed up and a carefully decorated tree that has to go soon.

As folks in Austin digest their Christmas and Hanukkah meals, the restaurant scene also takes a bit of a siesta. That's good news for anyone who need to catch up on openings and closings over the next few weeks — or plan a nice meal on an upcoming day off.

Maybe it's the 2024 zeitgeist, but it's hard to find a theme in 2024's Austin restaurant and bar closures. Yes, local development is a bugbear, and rising costs continue to be a plague. But as everything from celebrity chef-backed showcases to shaggy punk clubs bite the dust, the only constant seems to be chaos. Before the mirror ball drops, we're looking back from A to Z.

The Year's Best Films

The original Nosferatu from 1922 is one loved by cinephiles, a silent German Expressionist film that is regarded by many as the most influential horror film from early cinema. A loose adaptation of Bram Stroker’s Dracula, it is now being remade for a modern audience by a singular filmmaker in his own right, Robert Eggers.

The trail won't just connect to the airport, but other networks for getting around Austin. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport/Facebook

The group estimates that it's gotten more than 1,000 dogs out of the shelter system. Photo courtesy of KVUE

Texas vehicle registration is changing in 2025. Texas Department of Motor Vehicles