In short, this is Christmas Central for Houston’s west side, and beyond. ![]() On Christmas Eve day they open at 10:30 a.m. According to co-owner Nina Hendee - who runs the restaurant with her husband, Edd, and assorted younger family members - Thanksgiving kicks off a crush of celebrants who fill the tables from lunchtime right through to closing at 10 p.m. Silly me, I had no idea what Christmas at Taste of Texas unleashes in Houstonians’ hearts. I had to climb down a grassy knoll, skirting trees wrapped in little white lights, to reach the rambling limestone Taste of Texas building. The parking lot had been a madhouse, so full that the security guard in his cart advised me to depart the site, circle the block, and park in the Bed, Bath and Beyond lot. ![]() It was 6:30 on a Tuesday night, hardly a hot ticket in normal times, but the rest of the week had been booked nearly solid when I checked online. It felt like winning an unexpected lottery. I chatted with Santa, posed with him looking somewhere between amused and nonplussed, then my friend Misha and I were led through room after highly embellished room to our corner table. But then I looked around at the dizzying ornament overload, plugged into the air of holiday pandemonium in the lobby, and surrendered to the experience. “You should talk to him,” urged my partner in crime. I gazed around the lobby at never-ending ribbon swags, greenery, shiny balls, antique sleds, furbelows, framed portraits of 19th-century Santas…and, hey! That’s a real Santa over there in front of the stone fireplace, posing with a young woman in a clingy date-night dress while her beau takes a photo. Well, everything within my line of vision had been decorated for Christmas. The question churned in my mind as I gazed up at a row of towering rifles held upright by a wooden hutch that had been decorated for Christmas. (Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographer) Taste of Texas is decorated with co-owner Nina Hendee’s new and antique Christmas artifact collection. Taste of Texas is decorated with co-owner Nina Hendee’s new and antique Christmas artifact collection.
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