25 Days of Christmas Countdown: Kansas City Style
Instructions: Select 25 ideas your family would enjoy. Choose one list (Kansas City version or home version) or mix the two. Hang your ornaments from a garland on the mantle, hole-punch each ornament and tie a string to decorate a tree, or display with refrigerator magnets for a fun and festive touch. Download this printable Kansas City Advent Calendar.
25 Kansas City Christmas Countdown Ideas
- Drive through the Country Club Plaza Christmas lights, Kansas City’s “Nighttime Fairyland,” as it was known in the 1930s.
- Go sledding! Use our “Best Sled Hills of Kansas City Guide” to find the best snowy hill near you.
- Watch A Christmas Carol at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, now showing for its 34th season. Watching the play is much like enjoying a cup of hot cider on a cold winter's day: It is warm, delicious and a touch surprising, as the Rep strives to improve the show every year.
- Take a spin on the ice at the Crown Center Ice Terrace or The Ice at Park Place.
- Treat the family to a showing of The Nutcracker at the Kansas City Ballet. Enjoy Clara’s magical adventures with an enchanted Christmas tree, talented dancers, spectacular scenery and music by the Kansas City Symphony—plus, snow magically falls inside the theatre!
- Visit the Fairy Princess on weekends at the Kansas City Museum, a local Christmas tradition since 1935.
- Drive under the holiday crowns at Zona Rosa. The crowns were part of Kansas City’s downtown holiday celebration from the 1960s through the 1980s. When Zona Rosa opened as a new shopping district, they chose to restore the tradition.
- Ride through Christmas in the Park at Longview Lake Campground, featuring 300,000 lights, 175 animated figures and splashes of Christmas color. Tip: Avoid the crowd and visit Sun.-Thu.
- Visit Crown Center and play at Santa’s Crayolaland, enjoy the gingerbread village and window shop.
- Celebrate trains at Union Station, where you can see one of the largest model railroad displays in America. Trains of all sizes run through scenes of a festive winter wonderland set right in Kansas City. Enjoy a ride on the Jones Store Train, holiday décor, movies and more all season long.
- Journey to Judea at Countryside Baptist Church, where you can experience the sights and sounds of God’s story up close and personal as groups literally walk through the story of the Bible. Dec. 4-7.
- Munch on Topsy’s popcorn fresh from a Kansas City holiday tin.
- Experience Victorian Christmas magic on a tour of Vaile Mansion in Independence. The elegant rooms are decorated with elves, pixies, snowmen and fairies in a magical setting.
- Ride the rails with Santa aboard the Belton, Grandview and KC Railroad on Dec. 6.
- Take your family to Winstead’s (101 Brush Creek Blvd., Kansas City, MO) on the Country Club Plaza for a Skyscraper (giant 4-person ice cream soda) and a view of the lights. Then, walk, drive or enjoy a carriage ride through the Plaza for a great view of the lights.
- Visit Santa at the Kansas City Zoo during Holiday Wild on Saturday, Dec. 6.
- Enjoy the holidays at Powell Gardens with a luminary walk or breakfast with Santa.
- Celebrate an 1855 Christmas at Missouri Town on Dec. 13 as the Christmas customs of English, German and French settlers are brought to life in this historic antebellum community.
- Enjoy more than 250 powerful voices performing Handel’s Messiah as the Independence Messiah Choir joins with the KC Symphony and Symphony Chorus to continue a 98-year tradition.
- Eat breakfast with Santa. See Santa in KC calendar listings.
- Fall in love with the holiday’s most beloved misfit at the Coterie during Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical.
- Watch The Twelfth Day Dec. 5-7 at the Culture House. This holiday comedy is set at a quiet mountain inn that will never see a crazier Christmas. Based on William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
- Take photos aboard the KCS Holiday Express (Dec. 18-21) at Union Station. The six-car holiday train brings Santa and his elves to Kansas City.
- Make a gift for a loved one at a local shop. Search Make It-Take It on KCParent.com.
- Visit our Kansas City calendar and choose one new event to try this year.
25 At-Home Christmas Countdown Ideas
- Read the Christmas story (Luke 1 & 2).
- Trim the tree.
- Bake cookies.
- Decorate a gingerbread house.
- Sip egg nog.
- Watch A Charlie Brown Christmas.
- Sing your favorite holiday songs.
- Pop popcorn and drink hot cocoa.
- Make gifts for loved ones.
- Wrap gifts.
- Deliver treats to the neighbors.
- Eat candy canes.
- Write a Christmas poem.
- Adopt a child from Angel Tree.
- Send Christmas cards.
- Cut out snowflakes.
- Dance to holiday music.
- Do a good deed.
- Take funny family photos.
- Read A Christmas Carol.
- Bake gingerbread men.
- Make construction paper garlands.
- Surprise someone you love.
- Rewrite Jingle Bells.
- Put sprinkles on it.
Download this printable Kansas City Advent Calendar.
Kristina Light loves every holiday, but Christmas most of all. Her girls look forward to annual visits with the Fairy Princess, the Journey to Judea and, of course, the Plaza Lights.