📌 A 50-Year Parade Tradition Finds New Leadership in Conroe

📌 Entergy Texas Signs On to Power Holiday on The Waterway

📌 Día de los Fieles Difuntos Comes to Cantona Homestead in Tomball

📌 This Free Tai Chi Class Has Kept Students Coming Back for 12 Years

🌤️ Partly Cloudy with Isolated Storms · 90°F / 70°F

Still feels like summer out there. Layers optional, sunscreen still required.

Source: Vaisala Xweather

For half a century, the Conroe Christmas Parade has been one of Montgomery County's most familiar holiday traditions, organized year after year by the local Kiwanis Club. That chapter is closing. The Conroe Noon Kiwanis Club recently disbanded, and the Downtown Conroe Association has stepped in to carry the parade forward, keeping a beloved community event alive with a new home and a new sense of purpose.

The 2026 parade is set for Saturday, December 12, starting at noon. This year's theme is "Americana Christmas," marking the nation's 250th anniversary. Grand Marshal Rodney Pool will lead the procession. Former Kiwanis members will hold priority placement in the lineup, followed by local veteran organizations including the VFW, American Legion, and Disabled American Veterans. The transition was a collaborative effort involving the City of Conroe, former Kiwanis volunteers, businesses, and community partners.

The holiday season in downtown Conroe starts earlier than the parade. On Tuesday, December 1, Christmas Around the Square runs from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Heritage Place Park, including a 50-bicycle giveaway at 8 p.m. All free. A new walkable Christmas Light Display at Founder's Plaza will also run each Thursday through Saturday through December 26, with live performances and dining all within walking distance.

Why it matters: when a 50-year tradition loses its organizer, it could easily disappear; the DCA's decision to step in means something real keeps going.

Source/Credits: Hello Woodlands

The Woodlands Waterway's free holiday lights experience has a new presenting sponsor. The Woodlands Township has announced that Entergy Texas will back Holiday on The Waterway starting with the 2026-2027 season, giving the annual event a new title as well: Holiday on The Waterway, Powered by Entergy.

The event runs nightly from the Saturday before Thanksgiving through the first weekend of January, with more than one million lights stretching along the Waterway corridor and complimentary Township trolley service throughout the district. Last season the primary event corridor recorded more than 209,000 pathway trips, a nearly 74% increase from the prior year, plus nearly 39,000 complimentary trolley passenger rides. "Entergy Texas continues to demonstrate what it means to be a great community partner," said Township Chairman Brad Bailey. "Their support allows us to continue growing Holiday on The Waterway and creating an experience that families can enjoy together year after year."

As presenting sponsor, Entergy Texas will also back the annual Lighting of the Doves celebration. Full schedules and seasonal programming details will be released as the holiday season gets closer.

Why it matters: free community events don't sustain themselves, and a committed presenting sponsor for something this popular is good news for the whole community.

Source/Credits: Hello Woodlands

On Sunday, November 1, Cantona Homestead in Tomball is hosting a full Día de los Fieles Difuntos celebration on its 40-acre ranch, bringing together family altars, a Catrinas parade, live music, pan de muerto, and a Farmers Market in what the venue describes as a day rooted in outdoor, family-centered tradition rather than spectacle.

Doors open at 10 a.m. and the day follows a structured program: a welcome at 11 a.m., followed by the Catrinas parade and costume contest at noon with categories for adults and youth, then the Altar Contest awards at 1:30 p.m. Families and businesses can register to build an ofrenda on the ranch grounds, competing across criteria including tradition, creativity, meaning, presentation, and storytelling. A Camino de Cempasuuchil will mark the pathways for photos. Farm animals and children's play areas are open throughout the day.

General admission is $20 for adults and $15 for children ages 1 to 18, with children under 1 free. Contest participation carries its own registration: $25 for an altar space and $15 for the Catrinas contest. Vendor spots are $50. Tickets are available online and at the door, but contest registration closes October 25 or when spots fill. Free parking on site. The event runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 24706 FM 2978, Tomball.

Why it matters: this is the kind of cultural celebration that belongs in the community calendar, honoring a tradition that many families in The Woodlands area grew up with.

Source/Credits: Cantona Homestead

For 17 years, Sesco Saegusa has been teaching Tai Chi to seniors in The Woodlands area, free of charge, through a program built on one quiet observation: the people who stick with it long enough to understand what it actually is tend to stay. Some have stayed for nearly 12 years.

Woodlands Tai Chi serves Northern Harris and Southern Montgomery County, with classes at Woodlands Methodist Church, Kevin Brady Community Center, and Lone Star College's ALL program. A new beginner's session starts every four months and runs for 16 structured weeks. There are no drop-in options, no casual sampling. The program is run as a cooperative of volunteers, and it costs participants nothing.

The hardest part, Saegusa says, isn't the movements. It's the expectations people bring. Most arrive thinking Tai Chi is easy, something between a dance and a stretch class. They discover quickly that it isn't. "They don't understand that it's actually an exercise, and it is a little bit more difficult than what they anticipate," Saegusa notes. The students who push past that moment and commit to the full course are the ones who tend to keep coming back, finding that what looked simple continues to offer new layers year after year.

Why it matters: a 17-year-old free program that keeps seniors engaged for over a decade is exactly the kind of quiet, high-value thing most people don't know exists until someone tells them.

🗓️ Halloween Bash | Rob Fleming Park, 6464 Creekside Forest Dr | 6:30-9 PM | Children free · Residents $25 · Non-residents $35 | More info

🗓️ Woodlands Township Farmers Market | Grogan's Mill Shopping Center, 7 Switchbud Place | 9 AM-1 PM | Free | More info

🗓️ Cantona Homestead Pumpkin Patch | 24706 FM 2978, Tomball | 10 AM-5 PM | Children $18 · Adults $10 · Under 1 free | Reserve passes

🗓️ Cantona Homestead Pumpkin Patch | 24706 FM 2978, Tomball | 10 AM-3 PM | Children $18 · Adults $10 · Under 1 free | Reserve passes

🗓️ H-E-B Wine Walk | 2301 N Millbend Dr | 6-9 PM | GA $79 · VIP $135 | More info

🗓️ Trick or Treat Trail | Rob Fleming Park, 6464 Creekside Forest Dr | 1-5 PM | Free | More info

🗓️ Día de los Fieles Difuntos at Cantona | 24706 FM 2978, Tomball | 10 AM-3 PM | Adults $20 · Ages 1-18 $15 · Under 1 free | Buy tickets

Note: Dates and times are as announced online. Organizers may make changes. Always confirm before heading out.

In 2013, the Texas Legislature named a stretch of I-45 through The Woodlands the George P. Mitchell Highway, honoring the community's founder. Mitchell died that same year at the age of 94, just months after the bill was signed.

"Bless your heart." Translation: context is everything. It can mean genuine sympathy. It can also mean you've just said something very foolish. Texans always know which one they mean. So does the room.

Source: Texas Monthly

The first person to ride a horse had no way of knowing in advance whether it was going to work.

What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta.

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