Huge toys, scenic shops & festive fun: What’s inside new Kansas City Christmas festival
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It was 7:45 a.m., and I couldn’t feel my fingers.
I had successfully dragged myself out of bed early after hosting 12 people for Thanksgiving dinner in my one-bedroom apartment the night before — which I think should constitute a Christmas miracle — only to find a layer of frost covering my windshield.
Grumbling, I scraped it off and made the short drive down to Crown Center, where the Hallmark Christmas Experience kicks off Friday, Nov. 29. My car’s dashboard display told me it was 22 degrees outside.
Even as a self-proclaimed Christmas-lover, my level of festive cheer was pretty low as I joined the small media tour for an 8 a.m. sneak preview of the event Friday. The first thing that got me to crack a smile was the press credential handed to me by Hallmark spokesperson Aundraya Davis.
The iridescent badge was decorated with snowflakes and a pair of candy canes with silver bows on them — exactly the sort of effusive, slightly silly attention to detail I’d hope to see from the organizers of the new event, set to be one of Kansas City’s biggest 2024 Christmas celebrations.
When I say “big,” I’m not just talking about attendance numbers — although the event expects to draw up to 20,000 people per weekend for the four weekends leading up to Christmas.
In the middle of Crown Center’s central plaza, an enormous Christmas tree towers over 100 feet above visitors below. The tree is wrapped in a 360-degree screen showing festive messages, event schedules and Hallmark movie trivia questions.
Around it, larger-than-life toys are scattered through the square between rows of vendor tents decorated to look like a Christmas village. They include a massive upright tic-tac-toe board and a giant toy train that kids can climb aboard and pretend to drive.
Combined, the extravagant decor evokes the feeling of getting shrunk down to the size of a toy and wandering around beneath a massive Christmas tree.
As our small media group mounted the steps to the food court, I felt myself warming up to the whimsy of it all — even if my hands were still cold. And I was even more impressed to learn that anyone who stops by Crown Center during the four weekends before Christmas can have the same experience, free of charge.
Kansas Citians and visitors often find Crown Center closed off for ticketed events like St. Patrick’s Day, Boulevardia and Oktoberfest. But despite its metal gates and impressive decorations, the Hallmark Christmas Experience has one key difference: The majority of the attractions lining Crown Center Plaza are free to attend.
Free experiences for visitors to check out include the Christmas market, an outdoor food court where guests can warm up around fire pits, a giant wall mural that kids (and adults) can color with provided crayons, a photo station where kids can step “inside” a giant snowglobe, four tree lightings every evening (6:30, 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.), live musical performances and a card-writing station.
Anna Kambarami, our guide and a creative director at Hallmark, told me the card-writing station is one of the event’s most popular attractions. Guests can select one of six Hallmark holiday cards designed exclusively for the event and write a note to mail to loved ones or their favorite Hallmark Channel stars. Hallmark will stamp and send all the envelopes left in its two festive mailboxes.
Why have a mailbox especially for notes to actors you’ve seen on the Hallmark Channel? As it turns out, the Hallmark Christmas Experience doubles as a massive convention for Hallmark superfans.
Kambarami said Hallmark movie aficionados from all 50 states and eight countries as far-flung as Indonesia are flocking to Kansas City for the chance to visit the Christmas village, meet their favorite stars at panels and autograph signings, and buy exclusive Hallmark ornaments and merchandise — including a custom-designed hat and scarf seen in the forthcoming Chiefs holiday movie.
For those willing to spend more, ticketed events include dozens of panels with Hallmark Channel personalities as well as creative workshops with the writers and artists behind Hallmark’s signature greeting cards. The experiences range from a $5 stroll through a walkway illuminated with holiday lights to $50 workshops on hand-lettering and paper wreath-making to a $250 dinner at The American restaurant overlooking the festivities.
The Hallmark pop-up shop is by far the largest retail space at the event, and has the bonus advantage of indoor heating. As my fingers thawed, I wandered between racks of Christmas ornaments, stuffed animals, packaged chocolates and Hallmark movie merchandise, including branded slippers, throw blankets, popcorn buckets and a sweatshirt saying, “I’d rather be watching Hallmark Christmas movies.”
Back outside, many of the local vendors were setting up their displays for the day. I spotted plenty of local business names I recognized, including Paulina Otero jewelry, Made Mobb streetwear, the Modest Mallow homemade marshmallows and Rainy Day Books. Others included Great Scot Soapery, Museum of BBQ, CST Sweets, Nickel & Suede and Lil’ Dudes.
The Hallmark Christmas Experience is open to the public from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Sundays for four weekends: Nov. 29-Dec. 1; Dec. 6-8; Dec. 13-15; and Dec. 20-22. Parking is available in and around Crown Center, 2450 Grand Blvd. Event schedules are available online at experiencehallmarkschristmas.com.
The temperature hadn’t risen much by the time I started my walk back to the Crown Center parking lot — but my spirits definitely had.
As I wove between tents and giant toy tractors, past racks of pretzel toffee and owl-shaped bath bombs and dangly translucent earrings, I finally felt that familiar holiday feeling: the urge to do some Christmas shopping.
