KC’s Best Christmas Lights
2022 Edition
Kansas City sparkles in holiday splendor with magnificent displays across the metro! These are our top picks for the best Christmas lights in KC!
Most displays operate from Thanksgiving through Christmas, sunset (5:30) to 10:00; however, there are a few exceptions. Check websites to verify times.
Tips to enjoy your drive-through Christmas Lights:
- Let the kids wear PJs during the trip. Bring cookies and cocoa in travel mugs.
- Play your favorite holiday songs and sing along in the car!
- Make sure you have a full gas tank and use the restroom BEFORE you head out on your adventure.
- Save your favorite light-sights in your GPS so you can visit them again easily!
- Share your experience on social media so your friends can also discover the best lights in town... link to our guide making it even easier!
NEW LOCATION! Winter Magic: Nov. 3 - Jan 1 at Kessler Park. Come one, come all, to Winter Magic, the most fantastic of drive-thru holiday events in Kansas City. Truly, a world of winter wonder awaits you! Wear your pajamas and bring your hot chocolate, if it pulls your sled. WinterMagicKC.com! Tip: We're giving away 25 Family Passes to enjoy Winter Magic or Holiday Light and Magic this season. Enter to win today!
Holiday Light and Magic near Legends Shopping Center Nov. 17 - Jan. 1: Holiday Light and Magic is a Christmas lights experience out by Legends Shopping Center. The family-fun holiday event is held nightly from mid-November to the new year. Don't miss this opportunity to create memories that will last a lifetime. HolidayLightandMagic.com. Tip: We're giving away 25 Family Passes to enjoy Winter Magic or Holiday Light and Magic this season. Enter to win today!
GloWild: Kansas City Zoo. See the zoo in a different light with a new, completely unique and immersive nighttime experience, GloWild. The lanterns will be spread throughout the topside of the zoo thru Dec. 30. Guests will walk a one-way pathway through the display. KansasCityZoo.org
Crown Center Mayor’s Christmas Tree: Crown Center Square (2450 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO, CrownCenter.com). The 100-foot-tall tree is adorned with 7,200 lights.
Legendary Christmas: Legends Outlets Kansas City (1843 Village West Pkwy., Kansas City, KS, LegendsShopping.com). Legends Outlets Kansas City. Unique lighting display on a 45-foot holiday tree created by a world-renowned technology-driven holiday lights team, all synchronized to music.
Festival of Lights: Thu.-Sun., Nov. 10- Dec. 30 at Powell Gardens (1609 NW U.S. Hwy. 50, Kingsville, MO). Festival-goers walk a mile-long path spread out over 25 acres through the gardens featuring a variety of immersive light displays. NEW IN 2022: Featured Artist: Kevin Heckart. Kevin Heckart makes new media works that play in the feedback-loop of internet culture while sourcing technology to capture the attention of millions. He utilizes coding to construct dreamy interactive light installations. Heckart received a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute in 2019 and has been a Kansas City resident for over 10 years. While Heckart has often collaborated with local artists, his work is exhibited widely including most recently at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Tokyo Culture Art and published in WAD Magazine, The New York Times, and MTV. Look for Verticalis in the Conservatory and Garden Office in the Garden Galleries. Merry & Bright Selfie Station: Daily | 4-10 p.m. Education Building (in Children’s Garden) A *must not miss* photo opportunity, squeeze your best buds, family, and partners into the larger-than-life Adirondack chairs and strike a pose. New to 2022, this destination on the path is the perfect spot to capture mementos. Don’t forget to tag @powellgardens and use #festivaloflightskc to share your festive selfies! Light Labyrinth: Daily | 4-10 p.m. Missouri Barn & Silo. Explore the quilt-like pattern of the Villandry garden beds as you tackle navigating a labyrinth of light. Transitioning color blocks represent the changing seasons of fall, winter, spring, and summer. Travel to the top of the Silo to watch others try their hand at navigating the path for themselves. This immersive experience is fun for all ages; please accompany small children.
Tanganyika Wildlife Park's Safari of Lights: Nov. 25 - Jan. 1. Bring your family together this holiday season for our second annual Safari of Lights! Buy tickets online to enjoy the drive-thru holiday light display that is synchronized to your favorite holiday tunes. Hot cocoa and popcorn are also available for purchase, so you can make this an evening to remember! TIME: Begins at 6:00 pm DAILY with extended hours on Friday and Saturday PER CAR RATE:$20 Sunday - Thursday$25 Friday - Saturday. All proceeds go to keeping the animals of Tanganyika warm and fed over the closed winter months! We will be offering COLLECTIBLE MAGNETS again this year on a first-come, first-serve basis. Be one of the first to join! TIP: We're giving away FIVE Free passes to Safari of Lights! Enter today!
Northern Lights at Zona Rosa (8640 N Dixson Ave, Kansas City, MO). Zona Rosa's magnificent display features Kansas City's historic holiday crowns and majestic 55' Christmas tree!
Christmas in the Park: Longview Lake Park (I-470 & View High Drive, Kansas City, MO, 816.503.4800). Christmas in the Park features more than 500,000 lights, 175 animated figures and splashes of Christmas color. This enchanting drive-thru winter wonderland’s magic will delight the entire family.
Lee's Summit Magic Tree: Lee's Summit Magic Tree is located at I-470 & View High Drive. The tree is lit with more than 12,000 LED lights in every color of the rainbow.
Country Club Plaza Holiday Lights: Country Club Plaza (Info Center: 4745 Central, Kansas City, MO, CountryClubPlaza.com). Take in the lights Thanksgiving through mid-January. Enjoy more than 80 miles of illuminated strings of bulbs. This year, in celebration of the Plaza's Centennial, the lights will shine thru Feb. 19, 2023.
SEA LIFE Kansas City Aquarium will shimmer with winter holiday spirit this December with the Sea of Lights experience! Guests can explore the Sea of Lights event, the only underwater light spectacular in Kansas City. Visitors can, safely, prepare to be dazzled as they walk through thousands of twinkling holiday lights across SEA LIFE’s undersea wonderland for a one-of-a-kind holiday light extravaganza. Sea of Lights will feature Scuba Claus Dive shows on select days and times. The Sea of Lights Experience is included with General Admission tickets. VisitSeaLife.com
Holiday Lights on Farmstead Lane: At the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, 138th & Switzer in Overland Park. The display will run each night Thanksgiving through early January. The 38-minute show is synchronized to music.
Downtown Marriott Light Display: Downtown Marriott (200 W. 12th St., Kansas City, MO) The 20-story hotel provides an animated holiday display showing your favorite holiday characters and greetings featuring a synchronized display of 30,000 bulbs and 16.7 million colors.
ALTA Sciences Animated Lights: Alta Sciences (101st & Metcalf, Overland Park). From mid-November through Christmas, the 175,000-LED light display is beautifully choreographed to music for an animated light show your children will love!
Sar-Ko-Aglow Dec. 3-Jan. 17, Sar-Ko-Trails Park. Take a nighttime stroll around Rose's Pond to view the beautiful annual lights display in Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park throughout the holiday season. Lenexa.com
Paulie's Penguin Playground - 2022 is FINAL YEAR for this display: (16617 Indian Creek Pkwy., Olathe). This Penguin-themed Christmas display is an unforgettable explosion of holiday decor.
Stagecoach Park (1205 E. Kansas City Rd., Olathe). The show features 41,000 lights and more than 16 million color combinations.
Lakeside at Chapman Farms (117 SW Shores Dr, Blue Springs, MO). This free drive-through display features 39 animated displays you can find with a scavenger hunt (provided on their Facebook Page).
Gardner's Christmas in the Park: Cornerstone Park (215 N. Center, Gardner, KS). Christmas lights decorate Cornerstone Park.
Christmas Acres: Christmas Acres will open in mid-November. 5pm- 10pm. Come out and join us for our 24th year of bringing Christmas to the country. Directions to the location in Knob Noster, MO.
BONUS: A Branson Christmas Light Extravaganza
Christmas at Silver Dollar City: This 1880s-style park’s “An Old Time Christmas” event features the largest concentration of lights in Branson … 6.5 million to be exact! Between November 5 and December 30, visitors can stroll among the incredible displays of twinkling lights while enjoying live holiday shows, eating seasonal foods, and checking out the wares of the park’s demonstrating craftsmen. The two-month-long holiday event boasts some impressive statistics such as over 6.5 million lights (that’s 680 miles of brilliance!), 1,000 decorated Christmas trees, 600wreaths, and over 3 miles of garland and ribbon. Christmas In Midtown bursts with the colors of 1.5 million LED lighted tunnels and displays up to 9 stories.
AMAZING STREETS / NEIGHBORHOODS:
Candy Cane Lane: Outlook & 79th Street in Prairie Village. This neighborhood decorates with amazing displays. See candy canes, giant Christmas trees and beautifully lit homes.
Christmas on Bradshaw: 13810 Bradshaw Street, Overland Park, KS. This entire street and cul-de-sac are decorated with amazing lights synchronized to a holiday soundtrack that broadcasts on 99.9FM. The entire neighborhood is beautifully lit. And, this is only a few miles from Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead.
Christmas Place: 8705 W 131st Place, Overland Park, KS. Over twenty homes in the Terrace Place subdivision are decorated and coordinated with the same festive theme. The kids especially love the Grinch display and Frosty, the Snowman!
69th Street off Ward Parkway: There are many streets in the 60s and 70s blocks along Ward Parkway that are entirely decorated with Christmas lights. This is a perfect addition to your visit to see the Country Club Plaza Lights.
Christmas Card Lane: Ridgeview & 151st Street in Olathe. This neighborhood decorates with beautiful Christmas lights and giant wooden Christmas cards.
Animated Light Display Benefitting Children's Mercy (326 E 70th Terrace Kansas City, MO). The show is launch-able from a website (Swobodalights.com) and I’m also using that site to help fundraise for Children’s Mercy. Hoping people that enjoy the show may be willing to donate a few bucks (optional).
40+ Inflatables and Lights: 4903 W 155th Terrace Overland Park, KS. 40+ inflatable and then lights too!
Johnson's Walk Thru Christmas Lights: 25310 E 258th St Harrisonville, MO. Dozens of delightful painted wooden Christmas scenes all lit for the holidays.
Holiday Park and the South Pole in St. Joseph, MO: Beginning in 1981, members of the East Hills Optimists Club approached the Parks and Recreation Director with an idea to decorate Krug Park (3600 St. Joseph Ave. Saint Joseph, MO) for the holidays. These individuals envisioned a lit entrance and drive around Krug Park with a house for Santa and other lit decorations. These members volunteered to find people to set up the displays and man a donation booth to collect money to be used to enhance the decorations at the park. A contest was held to name the new park in the local elementary schools with a first grader, Steven Haywood, submitting the winning name, "Holiday Park". The South Pole was founded some years later when the Southside Progressive organization approached the Parks Department about decorating Hyde Park (402 E Hyde Park Ave, St Joseph, MO) for the holidays. Today, parks maintenance division employees work diligently from mid-October until the week of Thanksgiving decorating both parks. Lighting ceremonies are held the first Friday after Thanksgiving to officially open the parks to visitors. These winter wonderlands will remain open through January 2, with visiting hours from 6-10 pm, each night, weather permitting.
Lane of Lights: The Lane of Lights is located along Lovers Lane in East Valley Park in Excelsior Springs, MO.
If you have an addition to our guide, please email kristina@kcparent.com.