{"id":953843,"date":"2026-07-23T11:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/953843\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T11:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:10:14","slug":"top-things-to-do-in-fort-worth-this-weekend-july-23-26-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/953843\/","title":{"rendered":"Top things to do in Fort Worth this weekend July 23-26, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ambitious new holiday venue is coming to Fort Worth from an acclaimed entertainment team. Called Saint Nicks Ranch<\/strong><\/a>, it’ll be a massive, immersive walk-through Christmas attraction situated on a 75-acre property, 15 minutes outside of downtown Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

Construction is already underway. They’ll reveal the exact address after they get nearer to completion, and will open in time for the holiday season in 2027.<\/p>\n

The concept is a new partnership between Tell Family Lights LLC \u2014 the family-run Christmas lights company that has earned many a nod for their annual displays \u2014 and hospitality veteran Emil Bragdon, the prolific founder of Funky Lime Hospitality (Reservoir, Whiskey Garden, No Vacancy, and more).<\/p>\n

Bragdon and Tell Family Lights founders Jeff and Jennifer Tell bonded over their shared desire to create not only a cutting-edge destination<\/a> but also a legacy project they hope will outlast them both.<\/p>\n

“Our vision has always been to create that extra special thing that bonds us all together during the holiday season,” they say. “We wanted to build a destination where families could make memories for generations \u2014 something our children, your children, and countless families after them could experience together.”<\/p>\n

The venue<\/a> will offer capacity for 15,000 guests, with parking for 3,000 vehicles \u2014 a larger-than-life walk-through holiday destination with lights and immersive experiences.<\/p>\n

The Tell family has been lighting up their own home in far north Fort Worth since 2018 with a synchronized Christmas lights show that annually makes CultureMap’s lists<\/a> of must-see<\/a> displays. In 2022, they expanded<\/a> with a venture called Sugar Lane Lights, a not dissimilar endeavor featuring a mile-long drive on rented land in Haslet with 2 million LED lights synced to holiday songs.<\/p>\n

After Sugar Lane Lights came to an end in 2024, Tell partnered up with Bragdon, who’d been a fan of their annual light show and had approached them previously.<\/p>\n

Key to their success was finding a plot of land they could buy and own, which they found after much searching off a buzzy freeway. They’re not ready to share all the details, but in the past four months, they’ve built a barn, planted trees, and installed infrastructure including power and irrigation, with the park and parking lot still to come.<\/p>\n

The Tells have served as consultants for other major lights displays in Texas and the U.S., but Jeff says they’re saving the best for this very personal project.<\/p>\n

“Every part of this we have designed to be custom \u2014 nothing off the shelf, from start to finish,” Jeff says.<\/p>\n

Bragdon is a wellspring of creativity whose past projects include No Vacancy, a subterranean bar in the West 7th District he built<\/a> from scratch. At Saint Nicks Ranch, he’ll lend his hospitality expertise with an innovative food & beverage component, name and concept still TBA.<\/p>\n

“We’ll be integrating a food program that pushes the envelope, part of a package of amenities at the park,” Bragdon says.<\/p>\n

Christmas will be the pinnacle, but they’ll expand into other holiday installations, as well as activations outside of the holiday realm, including music festivals, outdoor events, and rentals.<\/p>\n

“We’ve already had requests including someone who wants to get married there and do a wedding with a holiday theme,” Bragdon says.<\/p>\n

The immersive experience field has expanded greatly in recent years with international companies like Exhibition Hub and Fever trotting out installations at a regular clip. Bragdon and Tell want to offer a locally-grown concept.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to do something special for the Metroplex, something that will be here for generations, even if Jeff and I are long gone,” Bragdon says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ambitious new holiday venue is coming to Fort Worth from an acclaimed entertainment team. Called Saint Nicks…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":953844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,26874,1144,5497,15275,2104,8364,7371,7372,53,975,358,1148,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-953843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-america","tag-barbecue","tag-comedy","tag-concerts","tag-event-planner","tag-festivals","tag-food-drink","tag-fort-worth","tag-fortworth","tag-movies","tag-music","tag-texas","tag-theater","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}