What makes a “very Vegas Christmas” besides family members stuck working on the Strip Christmas Eve and lit-up palm trees that would make Freud blush? Using locally revered performers to ring in the season. The Las Vegas Philharmonic leans into our musical community for its annual Christmas program, from Strip ventriloquists (Terry Fator) to jazz favorites (Michelle Johnson) to opera stars (UNLV grad Cecilia Violetta Lopez) to Grammy-winning crooners (Clint Holmes, pulling double duty at The Smith Center that weekend with his headlining show next door at Myron’s). There’s a reason Mannheim Steamroller isn’t playing Las Vegas this year — to quote Kendrick Lamar, they not like us.