2 weeks Ago By Ashley Brantley
There’s no more iconic thing for a diva to do than stand onstage at the Ryman — unless, of course, it's to have a public breakdown on that stage. That’s precisely what my then-2-year-old did last year upon meeting Santa there, and the photos are now my favorite Christmas decoration. My child meets Santa at the Ryman But even if your kids are old enough not to cry, tomorrow is an A-plus day to take them to the Mother Church.
On Saturday, Dec. 7, simply buy each adult a self-guided tour ticket — $32.65 with taxes and fees — and kids under 12 get in free to see Santa.
Take yourself on a tour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.
m., drop in on the big guy from 10 a.m.
to 3:30 p.m., and grab your souvenir photo, which is included with your tour ticket.
(Prints are always an added cost, so this is a really nice touch.) Tip: When you’re onstage with Santa, be sure to take a selfie facing the other direction so you get the stained-glass windows in the background. It’s the most gorgeous view of the Ryman, and one you may never get again.
While you’re there: Watch the “Soul of Nashville” video , which is a quick, kitschy primer on the theater’s history told via in-the-round video experience. (The volume is always way too loud, but kids never care.) Buy reasonably cool presents for that person in your family who “loves Nashvegas” but whom you care enough about to stop from wearing a deeply stupid BNA hat.
(If you can’t tell me why the airport is called BNA , don’t put those letters on your head.) Listen to live carolers , which I’d personally rather do only slightly less than letting a white guy with an acoustic guitar play at me but others enjoy. Pet Santa’s reindeer , which I’d rather do than anything else.
Visit the Rock Hall at the Ryman to see memorabilia from folks like Diana Ross, R.E.M.
and Ray Charles. The Rock Hall is a collaboration with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (RRHoF) that underscores the fact that the Ryman is an important rock - music venue in addition to being a country-music venue. In fact, it was recently named one of just 12 historic landmarks by the RRHoF .
On that note, I am legally required to continue pointing out that this Hall of Fame is ridiculously in Cleveland rather than Memphis or L.A. or New York or any more logical place.
I appreciate the fact that the Ryman finally made the list — albeit in 2022 — but I also find it highly suspect that half of the places on the list are in Ohio and there is nary a one in New York City or Chicago or, again, friggin’ Memphis. At least I’m not bitter about it. Thrift stores overwhelm me.
Digging through racks and racks of clothes to find that one magic item gives me PTSD from all the Halloweens and theme parties and bar golfs of my 20s. But Garage Sale Vintage has fixed the formula. Garage Sale Vintage They’ve got: Curated, clearly organized sections for everything: clothes, candles, vinyl, silly socks, Zodiac-themed rocks, Clueless greeting cards and magazines with important cultural fixtures like the correct Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the cover.
(That’s SMG from the TV show, obviously, not Kristy Swanson from the embarrassing movie.) A full bar where you can chill or grab tiny, tasty tacos and tequila. They have a great happy hour from 3 to 7 p.
m. weekdays, a shotski for the bachelorettes and surprisingly solid margaritas made with fresh lime juice and served in cute green dotted glasses that I bought and took home. (The internet tells me these are probably Fortessa Jupiter Double Old-Fashioned glasses , but they don’t cost nearly this much at GSV.
) Buy/sell/trade appointments if you have awesome old things you’d like to make some money or store credit off of. Convenient locations in downtown’s Fifth + Broadway and East Nashville’s Highland Yards , the latter of which makes a killer place to wait on your table at Kisser . Most of all, they’ve got fun stuff with real local flair (a Rites of Spring T-shirt from 2006, anyone?) but without the pretentious pricing of other outfits.
The only bachelorette party locals are excited to see: senior gals shooting tequila via shotski at noon on a Monday. While we’re on the subject of clearing out awesome things you no longer use, let’s talk about The Arc of Davidson County & Greater Nashville . Founded in 1952 to help children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the Nashville chapter of The Arc protects and advocates for this underserved community.
More than 700 people in Middle Tennessee are enrolled in their programs, which offer: Financial support for specialized equipment, medical supplies, respite care, or transportation. Support coordinators to help people to plan for and access medical care and services to improve self-sufficiency and social opportunities. Help finding employment and housing .
Advocacy by way of educational workshops and webinars on topics like special education, voting rights, estate planning and emergency preparedness. What does this have to do with that box of Dad’s leisure suits you just found while digging out the Christmas decorations? The Arc will gladly take that off your hands — and even come to your house to do it. Their pickup service is their primary source of non-governmental money, netting them more than $150,000 annually through sales at Southern Thrift stores.
Simply: Fill out this form . Pick a date they’ll be in your neighborhood. Put your goods to work doing good.
If the world were fair, every parent who wanted one would have a nanny. I consider myself lucky to have a regular babysitter I can afford, whom my child adores — we love you, Kaitlyn! — and who is thoughtful enough to bring my daughter Buc-ee’s gear and give her the bracelet off her own wrist. Not everyone has that.
When more than 20 percent of Americans spend their entire paycheck on rent , and Nashville has its very own child care crisis , fair is a faraway concept. That’s where The Children’s Playroom comes in. I’ve waxed rhapsodic about them before, yet I still meet people weekly who’ve never heard of them, so here are the details: TCP is a state-licensed drop-in day care with two locations in Nashville: one in Belle Meade and one in Brentwood .
All staff are CPR- and First Aid-certified caregivers who undergo state-provided training annually. Kids can stay for seven hours a day, up to 20 hours per week, enjoying the indoor playground, video games, activities or devices. You can order food and drinks on site via tablet for stupid-reasonable prices — a $1.
50 hot dog or $3 Lunchable — and you can opt kids into special events like pizza parties. You can also BYO if you prefer. You don’t need a reservation for kids older than 15 months, but they do offer care for infants — just call ahead so they can schedule extra staff.
This was a job- and sanity-saver when my daughter was newborn. I contacted 47 day cares — not an exaggeration — but it still took me six months to find a slot for her, despite the fact I’d only arranged three months of maternity leave. TCP helped fill that gap.
Parents can drop off kids ages 6 months to 12 years for $11 to $13 an hour, and it’s just $4 more for a second child. If you are a parent, you know this rate is not dirt cheap; it is subsoil-bedrock-and-everything-below-dirt cheap. Despite the affordability, the quality of care is consistent and excellent .
TCP has been in business for 25 years under its current ownership, and both locations have Google reviews over 4 stars. They’re both open spaces with windows you can see in from the outside, video surveillance, and electronically locked doors. As a parent in a city where child cares are shut down for everything from abuse to teachers bringing in guns to death , transparency — literal and figurative — matters.
Most importantly, kids like it ! And why wouldn’t they? At Halloween, they bring in costumes. Around Christmas, they do crafts all month long. On rainy days or snow days, young kids can opt for a playground over a screen, and you never know when you’ll show up to find an impromptu bounce house party or movie night .
Plus, if you’re a regular like me, the caregivers know your child. Monica , the director of Belle Meade, has been there for 23 years. She knows what she can get my daughter to eat (not a small talent), which toys she wants to play with, and the right way to spell her name.
And my daughter knows Monica is always excited to play with her, which is priceless. The best part of The Children’s Playroom: They’re only closed 8 days a year. Once I drop my daughter at TCP, where do I go? Typically to work or run errands or write hard-hitting pieces of journalism like this one.
But if I want to treat myself, I hit up nearby Sperry’s, which leads us to our final way to ring in the holidays: kindness-shaming someone. If you haven’t heard by now, Dax Shepard recently told a story on a podcast about visiting Sperry’s last year . While he was at the salad bar, a furious man went to the manager and complained that Shepard was wearing a T-shirt.
Now, as a curmudgeon who also thinks people should generally dress better — society jumped the shark at Crocs — I can see myself complaining about this ...
to the person I’m eating with. What trips this over into True Asshole territory is this guy thinking a dress-code infraction was egregious enough that he needed to pull a manager into it. Have you ever been to Sperry’s during the dinner rush? The manager has shit to do, sir! And that shit does not include policing a grown man’s outfit and crowning you the official Head Asshole of Sperry’s Belle Meade.
But the beautiful part is this: When Shepard asked his wife — the Kristen Bell of Frozen and Veronica Mars and The Good Place and loads of other awesome stuff — what to do, she said, “Buy his dinner.” Shepard did it, and when the table was told, Shepard apologized to the man for offending him with his T-shirt, promising to dress better next time. At this point, Asshole’s wife instantly recognized Bell, setting off a reckoning from hell for Asshole that’s probably still going on.
Does Asshole apologize? Absolutely not. He gets up and slinks out the side door, which led Shepard to deploy our new marching orders: “Fuck [someone] up with generosity and kindness.” So the next time you’re at the Green Hills mall and someone snatches the last sweater right out of your hands, lean in and say, “I’m so glad you grabbed that.
You’ll look much better in it than the Angel Tree kid I’m shopping for.”.
