Recommended by Rachael Carnes

I mean, poor Taylor. Or not? Why stop believing? Santa's been pretty great, so far! How do you get to 26, still harboring attachments to childhood myths? Because *parents* — Because they LOVE HER and like any good and decent parents, they just want her to be happy. Maybe it causes some relationship challenges for Taylor - but who cares? Love me, love my beliefs. A fun, festive holiday confection.

Okay, well, 'Crab Shack Jesus — He's a shoe whore' is kinda my favorite line in any holiday play, ever? Bless you, Kevin King for this irreverent confection. I snorted tea out my nose on page six. Like, fully. I had to stop reading and clean up my desk. This is wicked funny, and the perfect antidote to the forced treacle of the season. Gritting your teeth til 12/26? Well, belly up to the bar and enjoy a profane respite. I did!

The holidays are hectic. Stressful! And traveling - forget it. Still, Missy's a good sport as she and her fiancé Kris encounter a surprising traffic cop. (Actually, this character deserves their own minty spinoff! - I am now low-key obsessed with the idea of *them* living and working among us in regular jobs, thanks a lot Conley~) I digress: This warm, fun, light-hearted holiday tale ticks all the boxes and reminds us that the point of the journey is loving the one you're with.

And the chair lift loader spins round and round, and life's moments go up and down... Wyndham crafts a perfect moment here, revealing hopes, foibles, jocularities - And something deeper and sad. There's an Aristotelian elegance to this tight syllogism, drawing us in with laughs, and letting us sit with fear and loss. Perhaps the best character name in the history of theatre, or right up there, at least.

A family rift is temporarily healed, as new intrigues are uncovered in this page-turner. Nelms' dialogue spins us forward through a tightly-packed plot. No spoilers, but this one's got family dysfunction, darkly dramatic action, and is steeped in commentary on our perpetual news cycles.

Oh, such a vivid slice of life - exploring the distant past and deep, rich culture - in the present, and in the very real, very relatable sinews that tug at a mom and her teenage daughter. Ladva darts over and around language that trips through poetry and back to planet earth, and the rhythm of a contemporary family, as generations try to find and appreciate one another, even as they're growing and changing. Gorgeous!

A beautiful gem woven with light — and the incandescent awkwardness of teenagers. Syran crafts a lilting constellation that draws us into its tiny orbit and lets us see the heavens, in a moment. Just lovely!

A lovely, bittersweet moment that digs into loss and love. O'Neill-Butler finds wistful connection on an 18-minute ferry ride.

Relationships are hard. They take work, every day - or they can languish. And even if The Grinch had everything a girl was looking for, it's the maintenance, the **effort** that's missing now, in this airtight confection, chockfull of Christmas candy fun and wrapped up in dark humor. 'Tis the season!

Cracking dialogue plunges us right into the cold, deep end of academia, where an indiscretion blows up, leaving corpses and collateral damage. Kaissar explores the murky depths of institutional betrayal, picking at the inequities inside gender, race and power dynamics, as thoughts and ideas and worlds unravel. A chilling tragedy, that goes down so easy.