DALLAS — If you're getting booze for the weekend, you better plan ahead — or hope Santa drops off a bottle.
Liquor stores are closed in Texas on Christmas Day, and on Sundays. That means it'll be a dry holiday weekend across the state.
Texans will face the same dire situation next weekend, on New Year's Day and the following day.
But fear not. A little planning ahead will go a long way, as liquor stores will remain open on Christmas Eve.
For the last-minute shoppers -- you know who you are -- several local liquor store chains, including Goody Goody, Sigel's and Total Wine, will be open into the evening hours, until 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. according to their websites.
Dry holidays are nothing new in Texas.
Texas' so-called "blue laws" restrict when liquor can be sold in the state, and it mostly applies to the ban on Sundays.
Christmas was added to the Texan Liquor Control Act in 1967, and Thanksgiving and New Year's Day were added in 1979, according to the Dallas Morning News.
And if those holidays fall on a Sunday, the ban extends to the following Monday.
The Texas blue laws date back to 1935, when the Texan Liquor Control Act was passed. And no, the Sunday bans weren't limited to booze.
For years, you couldn't buy pots, pans and washing machines on Sundays — at least, not until 1985. And many other states still ban the sales of cars on Sundays.