Kansas City Holiday Guide
Kansas City comes alive during the holidays and there are endless ways to celebrate the cheer of the Christmas season! We are KC locals and love to do all the Christmas festivities we can possibly fit into what always feels like too short of a holiday season! But we do our best. Enjoy the festivities in KC!
For more festive fun check out our Kansas City Holliday Shopping Guide for things to do in KC and our Kansas City Holiday Bar Guide for the best holiday bars!
Save our google maps below for all the locations at your fingertips!
Visit Union Station
Union Station is my favorite place to be in Kansas City at Christmas time. Union Station is a gorgeous train station that is over 100 years old and is simply stunning on it’s own and at Christmas time it is all dressed up with Christmas cheer. There is a huge Christmas tree dolled up with ornaments and lights and wreaths hanging over the massive windows as well as giant ornaments hanging from the tall ceilings. It is the perfect place to grab a hot chocolate from the coffee shop inside and take in all the beauty and maybe even kiss under the mistletoe with your favorite.
The Conductor’s Club has great food and a pop up “Elf” the movie holiday bar right now! The Conductor’s Club has rotating pop up bars all year long with a variety of unique themes. It costs 5.00 to reserve per person but so worth it!
Crown Center
Crown Center is located very close to Union Station- you can easily walk there (walk through the Link-its an indoor bridge) and see the Mayor’s Christmas tree sitting in the square next to the ice skating rink. Close by you’ll find Crown Center Shopping where you can buy Christmas presents. Then walk out to ice skate and see the beautiful mayor’s Christmas tree. It makes the perfect outing!
Plaza Lights
Ohhh the plaza lights are the quintessential Kansas City Christmas must do. The Plaza is a shopping area with fountains and Spanish architecture and it so picturesque on its own and as you can imagine just gets that much prettier at Christmas time. On Thanksgiving there is a big lighting ceremony where they light up the entire plaza, it is the perfect way to start the Holiday season and you can even start your holiday shopping right then, after all you are at the Plaza.
Local Tip- Check out Made in KC for locally made products for the perfect gift.
Kansas City Christmas Lights
Candy Cane Lane is a neighborhood in Prairie Village (just 10 min. outside KC) that is beautifully decorated for Christmas. Longview Park has a holiday exhibit you can drive through that includes huge lighting displays and even includes lights that create moving scenes such as a snowball fight. Powell Gardens has a lighting experience you can walk through and experience up close.
Kansas City Christmas Bars
We love our Christmas Bars in KC. Some of our top picks are Miracle Kansas City, Reiger’s Sippin Santa (Tiki Santa Bar), Crossroads Hotel, among others. These Christmas bars are ceiling to floor of Christmas decor and have the BEST seasonal cocktails. This is a must when in KC at Christmas Time. Most will run from the day after Thanksgiving until the end of December.
Read more about the festive bars in our guide to Holiday Bars in Kansas City!
Crossroads Hotel is also a great hotel right in the action of the Crossroads Arts District. Other great accommodations are Hotel Indigo, Home2Suites, or Hotel Kansas City!
Strawberry Swing Holiday Shopping
Here comes Kansas City’s version of a European Christmas Market of course in Kansas City. This year the Strawberry Swing Market, which is a collection of local venders selling their goods, will take place in the City Market (our farmer’s market area of town). They will be running their Christmas Market every weekend from Thanksgiving weekend to the weekend before Christmas. It is the best! You can grab a fun drink and walk around and shop unique and beautiful local goods to find the perfect gift for everyone on our list. We always do lots of Christmas shopping here!
Location: Crown Center Square
Dates:
Saturday-Sunday November 25-26
Friday- Sunday December 1-3
Friday- Sunday December 8-10
Friday- Sunday December 15-17
Fridays (4-8 PM)
Saturdays (10-8 PM)
Sundays (10-4 PM)
West Bottoms Christmas Market
A new Christmas Market in KC is Westport’s Christmas Market. It is taking place just one day- on December 9th from 9 AM- 7 PM. There will be local makers, kids activities, holiday drinks, music, and even a special visit from the Grinch. It is sure to be a good time! And there are so many fun restaurants and shops to check out while in Westport!
Some cute shops to check out are Mid Coast Modern and Bunker.
CaVa and Westport Cafe are some great stops as well! Cava is a super cute champagne bar with small bites and Westport Cafe is a bar and restaurant that has great French food and cocktails!
West Bottoms Shopping
The West Bottoms is the antique and vintage go to area of town. This is the area of town during the Prohibition that was known as “Paris of the Plains” and the “Wettest Block in the World” due to prohibition not existing here. It was the wild west in it’s day and now the huge warehouses are floors and floors of antiques and are now filled with local goods, shopping, wineries, breweries, bars, and more! You will find great local gifts for the vintage or local goods lover!
Our Recommendations for shops:
Westbottoms Plant Co (great stop for lots of local goods and plants- love this one)
Fetch (vintage, and trendy home decor with a fun progressive flair)
Good Juju (vintage, antique)
Bella Patina (vintage, antique)
Hammerpress (stationary store)
Local Tip: Check out Campground and their holiday market- they have vendors set up in metal storage containers selling trendy unique local goods and an outdoor bar with AMAZING holiday drinks and food to walk around and shop with! It feels very much like a mini European Christmas Market, KC version. And fire pits to keep you nice and toasty, oh and the tequila in your hot chocolate will help with that too!
See Nutcracker Ballet
The Kansas City Ballet put on the Nutcracker ballet that makes the perfect Holiday activity for the family or a date night.
Kansas City Symphony
The Kansas City Symphony does Holiday performances set to famous Christmas Movies with the movie playing as well! This year the have Muppet’s Christmas Carol and The Nightmare before Christmas. They also put on a Christmas Festival where they play all your favorite Christmas songs. And to top it off the Symphony Hall is just gorgeous.
Christmas Festival runs from December 14th-17th this year
Muppet’s Christmas Carol runs from December 8th-9th
The Nightmare Before Christmas runs from December 21st-24th
You will have a blast in KC during the holiday season whether you are visiting or call sweet KC home like we do!
Looking for other things to do in Kansas City during the Holidays? Check out our Kansas City Holiday Guide!
and our Holiday Kansas City Shopping Guide, Kansas City Crossroads Brewery Guide, KC Coffee Shops, and KC Crossroads Arts District Guide and 16 Places to Visit for a White Christmas.
Follow us @ seekouttravel on instagram and @ Seek Out Travel Pinterest for more local Holiday tips!
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Our love list of travel resources:
Here are our favorite places to search and purchase all things travel from flights, rentals, accommodations, tours, and so much more!
Accommodations:
Booking– our favorite way to search for hotels, rentals, and hostels. When you book enough through booking you will earn a discount on all bookings which adds up quickly!
Hostelworld– our go to when searching for hostels
Vrbo– our favorite place to search for apartment and home rentals, it is usually cheaper than airbnb and has less hidden fees
Agoda– My new favorite for searching for accommodations, they have huge discounts making it a great place to search!
Tours and Activities:
Viator– book great tours and activities for your next trip, my favorite place for booking tours or travel activities. I love that they have such an easy app to keep all my tickets after booking.
Tripadvisor– Great place to buy and search for travel activities and tours
Get Your Guide– another great resource for searching for a huge variety of tours and attractions for your next trip
We go Trip– Self guided tours you can access from your phone and explore on your own! A game changer. You can explore at your own pace but still have an informational learning experience of the places you visit, all at your fingertips.
Thatch– search for your own personalized and premade itineraries, with map locations, information for each activity, and your trip all planned for you that you can access through their app and take with you! Check out our thatch guide for travel guides we have created that match our blog posts! There are tons of other great travel creators to explore their guides.
Rental Cars:
Discover Cars– Worldwide car rentals that allows you to compare different rental car companies to get the best price!
Flights:
WayAway– membership offering 10 % back on tickets, tours, and even hotels! Great way to find cheap flights.
Promo Code for 10% off membership costs: Seek Out Travel
CheapOair– great search engine for flights, hotels, and rental cars
Avisales– Cheap airfare through reliable agencies.
