If FPL rate increases and/or a Scrooge of a next-door neighbor have put the kibosh on your Clark Griswold aspirations, you’ll need to get your over-the-top twinkle-light fix elsewhere. Instead of making the hike down to Santa’s Enchanted Forest, consider a journey through the Garden of Lights, which winds down…

There are many reasons to dread playing catchup with the family over the holidays, not the least of which is an overbearing aunt who won’t shut the hell up about the lack of a spouse at your side. Increase the odds that you’ll have someone special to name-drop, and take…

Check out the newly opened the Mexican in Boca Raton from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, December 21. The party is geared to business professionals ages 20s to 50s. The cost is $5 cash at the door, which includes a cocktail and light bites. Fri., Dec. 21, 6-8 p.m., 2012…

All those hours of killing time at work while playing “Words With Friends” have taught you how to wrench max points out of a four-letter word. Put those skills to use in the analog world with an old-school Scrabble Challenge featuring in-the-flesh opponents. Mr. Brown, a former Scrabble competitor, offers…

With Flupocalypse 2013 in full swing, everyone’s riding the handshake-shirking, Purell-toting train to Germaphobe Town. It’s a place that Howie Mandel knows well. Mandel may be the world’s most famous living mysophobe, and he isn’t afraid to draw attention to his struggles with OCD and ADHD or poke a little…

David Sedaris’ The Santaland Diaries is a biting and hilarious exposé on the hell of working as an elf in a department store’s Christmas “wonderland.” So yeah, don’t bring the kids along to catch Michael Mc-Keever’s stage performance of this real-life account of the beloved essayist’s time spent spreading holiday…

Taking the kids to see Santa at the mall is like navigating through a pack of wild animals, so you might as well move the party to a zoo. Enter the Palm Beach Zoo’s “Breakfast With Santa” program. Nosh on a breakfast buffet while the kiddies meet St. Nick, ride…

The charming little scamps from the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theatre challenge the notion that a “kid’s play” is something one begrudgingly attends in support of a cute (but talentless) nephew. The company will show off its singing and acting chops this weekend in a musical production of Charles Dickens’ classic…

If the adage “You are what you eat” were literal truth, most Americans would probably be wrapped in cellophane and stamped with a list of unpronounceable ingredients. The “You Are What You Eat” art exhibition and fund-raiser explores — in visual and spoken art form — how healthy food and…

‘Tis the season to give in to sentimentality and accept that tried-and-true traditions like Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker are as integral to the Christmas season as heartburn and rampant consumerism. Catch the Moscow Classical Ballet’s all-ages performance of the candy-colored stage classic this weekend in West Palm Beach. The Nutcracker will…

Saddle up for a rollicking night of food, film, and surf rock, to be hosted in Fort Lauderdale’s favorite alt coffee shop (which recently found spacious new digs). The Necrophiles will headline a musical tribute to the beloved spaghetti Western in the shop’s gallery. Meanwhile, classic films from the kitschy…