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Thanks largely to Super Bowl XLV and the Dallas Mavericks’ trip to the NBA Finals, 2011 was a celebrity-packed year for the Dallas nightlife scene.

Check out our absolute favorite nightlife photos of the year. Right here.

Our list of the most popular features on DMagazine.com in 2011 can’t help but make you hungry, as our dining coverage continued to be the best in the city.

See our top 10 most trafficked stories of the year right here.

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy for the Republican Party’s nomination to become the next president of the United States on August 13. Since that day, he’s catapulted to the top of the polls and then just as quickly fell back to the middle of the pack of contenders. With only a week left before the Iowa Caucuses on January 3, many observers wonder whether Perry’s campaign can survive if he doesn’t pull off an impressive showing there.

But instead of worrying that we won’t get to see Perry play on the national stage much longer, let’s appreciate the grand entertainment to which we’ve been treated these last several months. D Magazine‘s Zac Crain has covered Perry’s every step, in a way unlike any other journalist in the world. Follow the links for his recaps of the governor’s long, strange trip.

In something you probably will never see in a Major League Baseball game but probably would love to, Texas Ranger Yorvit Torrealba (who has been playing winter ball in his home country of Venezuela, has been handed a 66-game suspension for letting his hand get in the way of an umpire’s face. Or hitting him, whichever description you’re semantically inclined to adopt.

If you are bad at math, or do not know how long a season of Venezuelan winter baseball lasts, this will keep him from playing for about a season and a half. This also means he will be well rested and possibly gentler with the umpires when he comes back to Texas. According to ESPNDallas.com, Rangers GM Jon Daniels and staff will go over the details of the incident before deciding what if anything they will do about it. Penalties from Venezuelan winter ball (or Honduran, Colombian, Antartican, Panamanian, Arctic, Djiboutian or any other country’s winter ball) do not carry over to the MLB.

Some of you will want to do it big. Sequins, jackets, bottle service, the whole nine yards.

Some of you will want to celebrate casually. At your favorite bar. With your favorite beer. Wearing your favorite jeans. (I’ll be in a cabin, far away, enjoying the peace and quiet.)

No matter your disposition, here’s a list of everything we know is happening around town for New Year’s Eve. Feel free to check back for updates to the list.

And for New Year’s Eve meals and New Year’s Day brunches, check out SideDish.

This isn’t one of the treats that Jason is planning, but nonetheless … here’s the last of Jerry Merwin’s Christmas ties, 2011 edition. The St. Paul Place security manager got this one after his wife went shopping on Black Friday at the Dollar Tree in Richardson. “She came home and said, ‘I got you two new Christmas ties,’ ” Jerry recalls. “I said, ‘OK. Now I’ve got 10.’ Of course, that was before I got Sponge Bob.” Like his other new Dollar Tree tie — it has Christmas lights on it — this one plays Jingle Bells, very softly. “People like ‘Frosty,’ ” Jerry says, “because it’s Christmas-time.”

The D Empire offices will be closed through January 2. Posting on FrontBurner will be lighter than usual until then.

But we won’t neglect you entirely. We’ve planned a few treats to get you through the week.

Selecting the most memorable images from D Magazine this year was tough. At first it was going to be a list of the 10 best, but that proved impossible. Then it was going to be the best 12 or 13, but that still left too many out. So I included even more.

See for yourself. Click here for my review of the best pictures of the year.

Since apparently this and this wasn’t enough for you insatiable party animals, I’ve outlined a few extra activities for you to fall back on. Happy holidays, one and all.

Friday (Dec. 23)

If you haven’t done so already, get yourself over to the Kalita Humphreys Theater to see the Dallas Theater Center’s version of A Christmas Carol. Read FrontRow’s glowing review before you go.

Jim Schutze May Know the Sorority Rapist. Or not. But the Plano police seem uninterested, so it’s time to cue up the picture of him in his bathrobe mishandling a shotgun.

The Case of the Peculated Pole Trimmer. Spoiler alert: The cop did it – to himself.

Denton Police Save Christmas. Listen, it’s the last Leading Off before we all hie off to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child/eat an inordinate amount of food/open the piles of gifts Santa brought us. So here’s some Christmas cheer, courtesy the Denton police, who saved Christmas for a single mom who graduated college then went home to find her house had been burgled.

Good News, Bad News. The good news is that there is video of Dallas Deputy Marshal Julius Jones in a Santa suit dancing like James Brown. The bad news? You have to sit through Larry the Cable Guy to see it.

Wintry Mix! And not this kind, which would be awesome, but this kind. The kind, you know, that brings out the vehicular douche canoes. Y’all be careful out there, OK?

Three Dallas guys — Stu Hill, Wes Hendrix, and Brad Alesi — want to build an app that only publish reviews of restaurants and bars and suchlike in haiku form. Is it as silly as it sounds? Maybe not. They’re using Kickstarter to fund the project, which is explained in the video below. PS: Today is National Haiku Poetry Day, so there’s that.