It's Christmastime in the City

Celebrate this year with a holiday staycation, light viewing, dining with Santa and celebrating a Victorian Christmas at a holiday destination near you.

Favorite Christmas Lights

You will find dazzling light displays every night through December with many terrific displays to choose from. These are our favorites:

• The 100-foot-tall mayor’s Christmas tree (Crown Center Square) is one of the nation’s tallest and it is the only light display in the city surrounded by Toyland, a wooden playground with giant toys, trains, wooden soldiers and animals! Tip: Spend the day enjoying Crown Center and enjoy the lights at night!
• Christmas in the Park (Longview Lake Park at I-470 &View High Dr., Kansas City, MO,  816.503.4800. Sun.-Thu., 5:30-10:00; Fri. & Sat., 5:30-11:00) is worth the drive even if you live 30-45 minutes away. More than 300,000 lights with 200 animated holiday scenes create one of the best and most popular displays in the Metro. Tip: Make an evening of it with dinner at Next Door Pizza (3385 SW Fascination Dr., Lee’s Summit, MO), where kids eat FREE on Monday nights and they make their own pizzas!
• Kansas City’s landmark Country Club Plaza (www.CountryClubPlaza.com), opened in 1922, is perhaps most famous for its Christmas lights. The tradition began on Christmas Day, 1925, when Charles Pitrat, the maintenance supervisor for the Nichols Company, decorated the Mill Creek Building with a single strand of lights and a few small trees. Every year, Pitrat added to the display, and now the Plaza boasts more than 80 miles of lights creating a “nighttime fairyland” to enjoy through mid-January. Tip: The best view is atop the Halls Parking Lot! Enter from the Southeast corner (on Wyandotte) to drive to the top.
• The Ultimate Tree (In Overland Park, KS; visit http://TheUltimateTree.com/Directions.html for map) is a giant flat panel Christmas tree lighting display with thousands of LED bulbs. Watch a 30-minute light show synchronized to music.  Enjoy the display 5:30-10:00 (extends to 11:30 on Fri. and Sat.) every night through the first week of January. Tip: This display is more than 30 minutes long if you watch in its entirety. Bring some cocoa and cookies for the fun!
• Kansas City’s downtown was famously decked out with lighted 17-foot-wide bejeweled crowns throughout the holidays from the 1960s through the 1980s. Zona Rosa (www.ZonaRosa.com), one of the Metro’s premier shopping districts that feels like a city within the city, now decorates with replicas of the ornate golden crowns accompanying a 14-foot wreath and 50-foot Christmas tree through mid-January. Tip: The Grove in Zona Rosa offers a great soft play area for children–and it is FREE!
• Legends Outlets (www.LegendsShopping.com) creates Christmas magic in the courtyard with a 45-foot holiday tree bedazzled with animated lights synchronized to concert-quality music every 15 minutes throughout the season. Tip: Download the Holiday Seasonal Mobile App to redeem coupons, check gift card balances and transactions or access a full center map with the mobile app, and track latest store specials and promotions. And, use your smart phone to snap the holiday QR available on-site for access to daily specials, sales and coupons.

Take a Spin on the Ice

This winter enjoy one of Kansas City’s beautiful outdoor ice skating rinks!

• The Crown Center Ice Terrace (www.CrownCenter.com/Attractions-Theaters-List/Ice-Terrace), KC’s own outdoor rink, is winter enchantment at its best with views of the mayor’s Christmas tree. Tip: Save when you skate on Two-for-One Tuesdays.
• Johnson County: The Ice at Park Place (www.DestinationParkPlace.com), an urban shopping center in the heart of the suburbs, is known for upscale shops and quality restaurants—and is also home to Johnson County’s only outdoor skating rink. Spend a day at The Ice at Park Place, a picture perfect wintertime destination.

Sensational Santas

The jolly old elf will be visiting local attractions all month long, but these special events are the most magical of all:

• Crown Center (www.CrownCenter.com) rolls out the red carpet for Santa and his elves every holiday season! Begin at Santa's Crayola® Christmas Land (Level 1 near Coterie Theatre), a free attraction featuring super-sized Crayola® products creating a colorful soft play area for kids. After playing, children may visit Santa for photos. Be sure to explore the shops where you’ll discover Santa’s Gingerbread Village, a North Pole masterpiece that is truly good enough to eat, with three locomotives traveling through fanciful holiday scenes. On Saturdays, treat the kids to a free Christmas concert at Noon and 2:00 (Dec. 1, the La La's; Dec. 8, Dino O'Dell & The T-Rex All-Stars; Dec. 15, the Doo-Dads).
• What could be more fun than breakfast with Santa? On Dec. 1 & 8, Zona Rosa (www.ZonaRosa.com, 816.587.8180) hosts Breakfast with Santa with a kid-friendly breakfast and a gift from Santa for each child. On Dec. 1, 8 and 15, 9:00-Noon, Powell Gardens (www.PowellGardens.org, 816.697.2600) hosts Holiday Fun with Santa, a Chris Cakes pancake breakfast with Santa, story time with Mrs. Claus, barrel train rides (weather permitting) and a take-home craft. Advance reservations are required for all breakfast with Santa events.
• Santa visits his fellow North Pole pal Nikita the polar bear at Holiday Wild Dec. 1 & 8 at the Kansas City Zoo (www.KansasCityZoo.org, 816.513.5800). Special activities are included in zoo admission; free to FOTZ Members.
• Click here for Even MORE Santa Sightings in KC!

An Old-Fashioned Christmas

Kansas City’s historic sites offer wonderful holiday celebrations all month long, and these are just a few of our top picks:

• Independence, MO, (www.VisitIndependence.com) is a favorite holiday destination if you’re yearning for an old-fashioned Christmas experience. The Spirit of Christmas Past Heritage Homes Tour, offered through Christmas, gives visitors a chance to tour the Vaile Mansion, where they’ll see “A Fashionable Victorian Christmas,” the Bingham-Waggoner Estate and the 1859 Jail & Marshal's Home Museum, all decorated for the holidays. Admission is $15/person to see all three (or $6/adult, $3/child for one home). Then, visit the Puppetry Arts Institute (http://Hazelle.org/) where this holiday season they present The Gingerbread Man's Christmas on weekends.
• The Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Historic Site (www.OlatheKS.org/Mahaffie/about) in Olathe tells the story of the Santa Fe Trail with unique hands-on experiences depicting life in the 1860s. The home is decorated for the holidays, and special events are offered, including horse-drawn sleigh rides on snowy weekends (weather permitting).
• Candlelight at the Wornall House (Dec. 7 & 8, 6:30-8:30, with tours every 15 minutes; http://WornallHouse.org/) invites visitors to celebrate an 1800s Christmas with goodies, dancing, parlour games and Victorian holiday traditions on this hands-on interactive tour. For more details, call 816.444.1858.

Kristina Light cannot imagine Christmas without the Plaza lights and a visit to Crown Center for family photos.