Lite + Brite: 30 Solst-ish Austin Events 12/18

Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the Lite + Brite newsletter.

We’re impressed that you’ve opened this newsletter given that we are a very small number of shopping days before Christmas. If you’re looking for gifts, we’ve got 11 makers’ markets this weekend in our holiday market guide. Seeing as how the world will be slowly grinding to a tinsel-covered halt in the next seven days, there isn’t a TON happening in Austin. But this is one of those “quality over quantity” weeks, honestly. Some of our favorite and most Austin-centric events of the year happen this week. Half of Lite + Brite is departing Austin tomorrow for the family-rich hills of Appalachia, and we imagine many of you may also be traveling, but if you’re in town, we’ve got some good stuff for you.

Tonight and the next few nights is the Museum of Human Achievement’s annual Christmas play, which this year is The Summer Sauron Turned Pretty. We love MoHA’s ridiculous Christmas traditions and the world of JRR Tolkien in equal measure, so you better believe we have tickets to tonight’s show. Be sure to check out the 37th Street Lights for a combination of fun light displays, feline mayoral hijinx, and genuine Austin silliness. Besides those biggies, there’s screenings of Brad Neely’s ridiculous re-dubbing of Harry Potter, book swap / gift wrapping combos, witchy winter ballet, Christmas/Exorcist mashups, the Vortex’s annual all-dog Nutcracker Suite, one woman doing Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol all on her own, scary Christmas storytelling, a Solstice-adjacent parade w/brass band, vikings getting festive with medieval sports for Yule, carolers with cocoa and beer, carolers who are classically trained pros, + carolers who are actually tubas.

Whatever hijinx you get into or don’t get into, happy holidays from Lite + Brite! We’ll soon be ready to ring in the new year with a bunch of New Year’s stuff so don’t completely abandon your inbox.

If you’re not already a subscriber to this newsletter and you want to be, click here. We do one newsletter a week, usually on Fridays, plus a bonus edition around the start of each month. If you enjoy this newsletter, please support us by contributing to our Patreon and by forwarding this email to your friends who enjoy things like listening to music and leaving the house sometimes.

Let’s do fun stuff!

—Leila + Brian
liteandbriteatx.com

EVENTS WE’RE EYEING

Thursday 12/18

  • Kate Bush Christmas Special at We Luv Video
    Kate Bush’s Xmas special from ‘79 w/original music + witchy dancing
  • Christmas Extravaganza at Hotel Vegas
    Vegas has resurrected Elvis + paired him with bands, vendors, tats, + dj
  • Buzzed Spelling Bee at the Liberty
    Sure you can spell gud, but can you do it after downing a few bevs?
  • Hell’s Hoes at Valhalla
    Burlesque performances set to + inspired by heavy metal
  • Weird Science Theater at Elysium
    Drag performers explore turn-of-the-century horror cult classic film
  • Queer Film Theory at the Highball
    “Basically, we ruin films for straight people + yell about the characters that made us feel gay”
  • Nerd Nite at Barrel O’ Fun
    Hear nerdy high-caliber talks on a variety of quantifiable topics
  • The Summer Sauron Turned Pretty at the Museum of Human Achievement
    Xmas play reimagines LotR as Livejournal fanfic w/sexy wizards
  • The E(Xmas)ist at Crashbox
    “A campy queer Christmas parody of The Exorcist”
  • A Tuna Christmas at Genesis Creative Collective
    A theatrical sendup of Christmas in small town Texas

Friday 12/19

Saturday 12/20

  • The Jing-a-Ling Super Sing at the Vortex
    Seasonally festive tunes sung by classically trained vocalists
  • Holiday Lights Bike Ride at 808 Nile St.
    A social bike ride that ends at classic Austin holiday weirdness
  • PowerPints at the Highball
    “Drink + learn things” at comedic talks on a variety of esoteric topics
  • Depeche Mode vs. The Cure at Elysium
    DJs pit two 80s classics against one another + everyone wins
  • Viking Festival Yuletide Celebration at Valkyrie Ranch
    Pagan holiday fun w/medieval fighters, vendors, magicians, + archers
  • Hoppy Holidays at the Neill-Cochran House Museum
    Classically trained carolers in a fancy house w/hot cocoa + beer
  • The Summer Sauron Turned Pretty at the Museum of Human Achievement
    Xmas play reimagines LotR as Livejournal fanfic w/sexy wizards
  • Frostbite at East Side Performing Arts
    Ballet performers get frosty w/witches, undead, unicorns, + more
  • The E(Xmas)ist at Crashbox
    “A campy queer Christmas parody of The Exorcist”
  • A Tuna Christmas at Genesis Creative Collective
    A theatrical sendup of Christmas in small town Texas
  • The Muttcracker (Sweet!) at the Vortex
    An all-dog not-at-all-ballet production of the holiday favorite

Sunday 12/21

  • JK’s Just Kidding Variety Hour at Trinity St. Playhouse
    Variety show w/live music, drag, modern dance, + performance art
  • Viking Festival Yuletide Celebration at Valkyrie Ranch
    Pagan holiday fun w/medieval fighters, vendors, magicians, + archers
  • Hoppy Holidays at the Neill-Cochran House Museum
    Classically trained carolers in a fancy house w/hot cocoa + beer
  • Frostbite at East Side Performing Arts
    Ballet performers get frosty w/witches, undead, unicorns, + more
  • A Tuna Christmas at Genesis Creative Collective
    A theatrical sendup of Christmas in small town Texas
  • The Muttcracker (Sweet!) at the Vortex
    An all-dog not-at-all-ballet production of the holiday favorite

Monday 12/22

  • Tuba Christmas at the Texas State Capitol
    Dozens of tuba-ists play brass versions of your favorite carols
  • A Christmas Carol at Austin Playhouse
    Staging of the play w/“one woman, over 30 characters, in 60 minutes”
  • The Muttcracker (Sweet!) at the Vortex
    An all-dog not-at-all-ballet production of the holiday favorite

Tuesday 12/23

Wednesday 12/24

  • Mazel Ball at an unannounced location
    Celebrate Hanukkah belatedly w/DJ + photobooth,

NHA264
Wintry Weather Watch

WINTRY WEATHER WATCH: Expect lush synth beds like deep snowdrifts, expected accumulation: 60″ Take shelter in warm areas with appropriate beverages. Tune your radios to kpiss.fm for updates and wintry tunes.

Stream Wintry Weather Watch

Tracklist
Dollar – Give Me Back My Heart
New Musik – The New Evolutionist (Example ‘A’)
Soulwax – Gimme a Reason
Au Suisse – Control
Kleerup – Until We Bleed ft. Lykke Li
The Aikiu – Fools (the Shoes Remix)
Past Model – State
Being Borings – Love House of Love
L’Equipe du Son – Lesson 1
Caribou – She’s the One
The Lover Speaks – No More “I Love You’s”

No Humans Allowed is Brian Blackout’s award-winning, weekly robots-themed radio show on internet station KPISS.fm. Machine vibes 4 machines. Songs for robots, androids, mandroids, cyborgs, AIs, cylons, skinjobs, roombas, wifi routers, smart devices, anything colored Bondi blue, and virtual assistants. Humans not required. Broadcasts live every Wednesday at 6pm CT on kpiss.fm, with over 200 episodes now streamable in the archives on topics like and Beach Simulations, Roomba dance parties, undersea adventures + Cyber Texas.

PATREON THANKS

A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Kat, James Gray, Emily Heddleson, Andrew Creswell, Robert B., Roman Gonzalez, Nick Ivons, Molly Fonseca, Lilly Ettinger, Michael Sales, Zach, Gino Scaramuzza, Erica Speegle, Jarrett Holtz, Thomas Refferson, Bones Malones, Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Alexander Freed, Kristen Backor, and Timon A. We’re deeply grateful for your support, which allows us to do things like “pay our Mailchimp fee” and “spend hours researching Austin events when technically we should be working.”

If you’d like to support us on Patreon and get access to exclusive member-only benefits, you may do so here.

SOCIALS

Recent weeks found us attending a dance party in a storage unit, marching in a Greek mythology-themed Halloween parade thrown by a bat crew and a rat crew, and watching a troupe of gigantic leftist puppets from New England. Follow Lite + Brite on Instagram to keep up with our adventures. We’re now on Bluesky too. Yay federation! And come chat with us and the rest of the L+B community on our Discord server (where we sometimes post stuff early too).

ABOUT US

How do we choose which events to feature?

Honestly, it’s pretty random. We might include anything in Austin that we, personally, would conceivably want to go to, generally excluding normal concerts, comedy shows, and movie showtimes because there are many other good resources for finding those. (We especially recommend Showlist for live music, The Darker Side of Austin for goth and metal stuff, Concept Animals’ ATX Art for You for gallery openings + artist talks, ATX Theatre for plays, and the 60+ Weirdest Things in Austin for exactly what it sounds like). This list is by no means exhaustive; it’s just stuff that caught our eye this week. If you have an event that you want us to consider including, send it over.

Who are we?

We are Leila + Brian. We make this newsletter. We do our own events, most often No Lights No Lycra, + also BYOT, a party where we share very good YouTubes (here’s a playlist from the last one). We go very hard seeing bands at SxSW (here are playlists of our favorites from 2025). We once got called “local Austin couple” by KXAN. We do some other stuff here and there. We love going out to creative events in Austin, and we want you to join us. Visit us at liteandbriteatx.com, and support us on Patreon if you like what we do.

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK, CHAMPIONS

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