Holiday happenings

Coca-Cola Holiday Caravan rolls new Christmas experience into San Antonio

The Coca-Cola Holiday Caravan is rolling into San Antonio.

Photo courtesy of JW Marriott Resort

Coca-Cola is trucking in a new holiday attraction to the San Antonio area, this year trading its sprawling Christmas light experience for a lit-up red truck and a themed hotel suite. The Coca-Cola Holiday Caravan will stop at JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, which is also debuting a Coca-Cola Christmas Suite as part of its annual Hill Country Christmas celebration.

A nationwide collaboration between The Coca-Cola Company and Gaylord Hotels and select JW Marriott resorts launches November 20, according to a release.

The Coca-Cola Holiday Caravan will visit the San Antonio-area resort for a short time only: November 30-December 3, from 2-8 pm.

For the uninitiated, the Caravan is a red truck that has traveled across North America for decades, bringing holiday festivities to communities along the way. During its San Antonio-area stop, visitors can enjoy free interactive activities, sample Coca-Cola products, pick up gifts, and take photos with the iconic Coca-Cola Polar Bear.

The JW Marriott Resort's limited-timed Coca-Cola Christmas Suite offers a holiday-themed overnight stay with festive décor, a themed Christmas tree and other seasonal touches. Each stay includes a Coca-Cola keepsake, in-room Coca-Cola products, holiday treats, complimentary parking and four tickets to the resort's signature Ice! attraction.

The suite is available November 20, 2026,-January 3, 2027. A limited number of stays are available, with reservations at SoMuchChristmas.com.

This is the third year Coca-Cola has brought a holiday event to San Antonio. In 2024, the company teamed up with Social House Entertainment to debut Coca-Cola's Classic Christmas, an immersive holiday light show at Toyota Field. The attraction returned in 2025 with an Alpine Adventure theme, featuring ice skating, snow slides, holiday movies and visits from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

“We’re thrilled to partner with The Coca-Cola Company to bring even more holiday magic to Hill Country Christmas,” Doug Gennardo, JW Marriott San Antonio general manager, says in the release. “This collaboration brings together two iconic holiday traditions to create memorable moments for families and guests of all ages, adding another layer of wonder to our festive offerings this season.”

JW Marriott San Antonio is one of eight Marriott properties nationwide getting the Coca-Cola Christmas treatment. The group includes six Gaylord resorts and two JW Marriott properties, the other being JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. The Caravan will also visit Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, December 6-9.

The Coca-Cola additions are part of the resort's larger Hill Country Christmas celebration, which centers on Ice!, the blockbuster immersive attraction featuring hand-carved ice sculptures, walk-through scenes, and two-story ice slides. Master artisans from Harbin, China are hard at work carving 2 million pounds of ice into 10 holiday scenes pulled from the 1964 stop-motion animated film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The resort also transforms its grounds and interiors with elaborate seasonal décor and other holiday offerings under the theme "So Much Christmas."

JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa is at 23808 Resort Pkwy., about 20 miles north of downtown San Antonio.

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Spurs spotlight

Victor Wembanyama shares 6 surprising insights in 60 Minutes interview

Victor Wembanyama, NBA, San Antonio Spurs

Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images

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From his obsession with foot strength to his fascination with chess, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama delivered a bucketful of off-the-court insights during his 60 Minutes interview with Jon Wertheim.

Here are six takeaways from the interview, which aired Sunday, November 1 on CBS.

Why San Antonio is the right fit
The Spurs drafted Wemby, as he’s affectionately known, in 2023. Reflecting on this tenure with the team, the 7-foot-4 forward-center cited three reasons why San Antonio was the right place for him:

Greg Popovich, head coach of the Spurs from 1996 to 2025, reigns as “the greatest coach of all time.”
The Spurs have strong ties to his native France. The most notable example: former guard Tony Parker, who was raised in France.
The Spurs boast a “winning culture,” including five NBA championship titles.

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich Wemby called Gregg Popovich “the greatest coach of all time.” Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Wemby’s fascination with feet
Whereas some NBA stars might concentrate on cardio or lifting weights, Wemby focuses on feet. Good foot strength promotes knee, hip and back health, along with good posture, he said.

Wemby, who wears size 20 shoes, said he goes barefoot as often as possible. Even at practice.

“Big men have always had feet problems. I … find more and more that feet are responsible for so much more that goes on,” he said.

Meditating in China and on the court
In the summer of 2026, Wemby visited China to learn kung fu and meditate with Buddhist monks. The meditation took a toll. He was locked into a silent meditation session that lasted nearly an hour and 45 minutes. Thirty minutes in, he wondered: “How much longer is it gonna go on for?”

He doesn’t knock the value of meditation, though. Before shooting free throws, he meditates briefly. That’s helped contribute to his roughly 82 percent free-throw mark, well above the historical under-70 average for NBA centers.

Chess king?
It’s hard to picture, but Wemby plays pickup games of chess at parks in New York City’s Manhattan borough.

He also runs an annual summertime tournament in France that combines chess and basketball. Wemby recalled losing a chess game at this year’s tournament to a 9-year-old named Louise. She beat him in just 16 minutes.

“I find that chess is a lot about decision-making,” he said. “And that looks like basketball a lot, at least in theory, because there are some theoretical good moves.”

His take on America
Wemby acknowledged he leads an abnormal life in the U.S. as a wealthy professional athlete.

“It’s not the life of a regular American,” he said. “But it’s the best country to be an athlete in.”

However, it may not be the best country in a different arena.

“I think the social interactions are more shallow here — not as in-depth — as what I’ve seen in other countries,” Wemby said.

Letting his guard down
In early 2025, Wemby suffered a blood clot that changed his outlook on life.

“After that, it’s like, ‘Life is so short.’ I don’t even wanna waste it being somebody else, you know? Simple as that,” he said.

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Spurs spotlight

Victor Wembanyama shares 6 surprising insights in 60 Minutes interview