Families take in Thanksgiving Day at the Fort Worth Stockyards

Many families chose to kick off the holiday season at the Fort Worth Stockyards on Thanksgiving Day.

The beating heart of old Fort Worth has been all dressed up for the holidays, featuring an ice skating rink, a Christmas tree and twinkling lights up and down Exchange Avenue.

On Thanksgiving, hundreds of people walked – or skated - through the stockyards, taking their Thanksgiving Day celebration on the road.

“For us, just coming down to the Stockyards every chance we get to hang out,” Mike Ingram said. “There’s always something going on.”

Some traveled here from out of state, watching their grandchildren get outside their comfort zone.

“They’ll always have that memory in their mind of, what would you do, we would go ice skating,” Jeanne Madere said. “Especially in Texas.”

Now there may be an ice rink for the coming weeks, and all the glitz and glamour of the holidays - but a pack of riders on horseback was a reminder that this was still Cowtown.

“We ride every day, every other day we come out here to the Stockyards,” Chris Meza said.

Whether it was sharing drinks and a meal or just spending time together, some Fort Worth families told NBC5 this was just the holiday kickoff they were looking for.

But after all that stuffing – some were playing it safer than others.

“We just got done eating and really ate way too much, so the problem is going to be you get out there and fall, it’s not going to be good, not at our age,” Ingram said.

“If you saw me on ice skates, you’d also see me on my rear,” Sharon Mcgilbeoi joked.

On Black Friday the Stockyards will host Santa’s Grand Arrival parade and their annual tree lighting ceremony.

Santa will ride down Exchange Avenue with the Fort Worth herd of longhorns at 11:30 AM. The tree lighting is set for 6 PM.