KCKidsFun

It’s that time of year again! Time to bundle the kids up, buckles them into the car and start driving around to look at Kansas City’s Christmas light displays!

The list of great Kansas City-area lighting ceremonies and light displays seems to grow larger each year. Many of the lighting ceremonies took place last weekend or earlier this week, but there are still some good ones to take in. Including the biggest Thanksgiving night party of the year, the Plaza Lighting Ceremony!

Kansas City Lighting Ceremonies

11/25 (Thanksgiving night) – Country Club Plaza Christmas Lighting Ceremony, 5pm. Live Music, fireworks and a HUGE crowd!
11/26 – Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting at Crown Center, 5:30pm.

11/27 – Christmas Lighting Festivities at Mormon Visitors Center, Independence, MO – 6pm – Thousands of twinkling lights and a larger than life Nativity cutout display. Live music and entertainment.

11/29 – Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting, Belton, MO, 5:30pm. Along with Santa, food and more!

12/2 – Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting: Grandview, MO, 6:45pm. Santa and live music too!

12/3 – Mayor’s Tree Lighting – Mission, KS, 5pm. Hot chocolate, s’mores, caroling, popcorn and lots more fun!

12/3 – Christmas on the River in Parkville, 5:30pm. Live Music and Dancing, Santa and reindeer, fireworks, shopping and a TON of fun. (Free shuttles available from Park Hill South High School and South Platte County Community Center YMCA.)

12/3 – Holiday Lighting Ceremony – Raytown, MO, 6pm.

12/3 – Old Town Lenexa Lighting Ceremony, 6:30pm. Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive, entertainment and refreshments in the Lenexa Community Center after the lighting!

12/4 – Christmas Around Town and Mayor’s Tree Lighting -  Shawnee, KS, 4:30pm. Carolers, arts & crafts, Santa. Tree will be lit at 5:15pm with event to continue until 7:30pm at Shawnee Town.

12/4 – Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting – Merriam, KS, 5pm. Tree lighting, music and Santa!

12/7 – Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting – Blue Springs, MO, 7:30pm. Entertainment, refreshments, Santa and more!

After the switches are flipped, there are a TON of Christmas light displays – some commercial, some residential – that you and the kids won’t want to miss! (If we missed your favorite display, let us know in the comments and we’ll add it to the list.)

Kansas City-Area Christmas Light Displays

• Christmas Card Lane (through Jan. 1, 2011) north of 151st around Ridgeview and Frontier (Mission Ridge subdivision) in Olathe, KS.

• Christmas in the Park (through Dec. 31, 2010. Sun-Thur 5:30-10pm, Fri-Sat 5:30-11pm) at Longview Lake Campground on Raytown Rd. in Lee’s Summit, MO. Over 300,000 lights!!!

• Country Club Plaza

• Northern Lights at Zona Rosa (runs throughout the season) at I-29 & Barry Rd. in Kansas City.

• Legends Outlets features a light show, synchronized to concert-quality holiday music.  Located at I-70 and I-435 in Kansas City, Kansas.

• Downtown Overland Park, Briarcliff Village (KCMO), Old Town Lenexa, Brookside and Downtown Lee’s Summit have light displays.

• The Mayor’s Christmas Tree at Crown Center – at 100 feet tall, it’s one of the nation’s largest!

• “Christmas Place” in the Terrace Place subdivision, 132nd and Antioch, south Overland Park, KS.

• 75th Street and Falmouth, Prairie Village, KS. This is a completely over-the-top decorated home!! You must see the Babick house!

• Chicago Street Lights, Blue Springs, MO at Hwy 7 and Walnut. Animated story of Christmas in lights.

• Paulie’s Penguin Playground–Olathe, KS at Indian Creek Parkway and Mur-Len. This is a sight to see–more blow-up decorations than you ever knew existed!

• The Ultimate Tree, south Overland Park, KS – huge flat-panel LED Christmas tree display, synchronized to music. Runs from 5:30pm to 10pm weekdays, 5:30pm to 11:30pm on weekends, through first week of January. 6600 block of 131st Street at Deer Creek Golf Course

• Vince & Associates – 103rd & Metcalf, Overland Park – huge display, coordinated with music!

• Downtown Kansas City – don’t miss the amazing computer-generated facade of the Downtown Marriott hotel!

• Candy Cane Lane, 79th & Outlook, Prairie Village, KS

For a great list of Johnson County, KS residential displays, don’t miss Keith’s list at KansasTravel.org (and convenient driving maps) which even includes some photos!

It’s that time of year when Kansas City lights up the night sky with millions of Christmas lights! Obviously, the granddaddy of them all is the Plaza Lighting Ceremony. Sponsored by KCPL, this year (2008) marks the 79th year for the annual tradition. The switch will be “flipped” on at 6:30pm on Thanksgiving night (Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008) by none other than David Cook, American Idol winner and Blue Springs, MO native! The show, which runs from 6-7pm, features several local music acts and fireworks immediately following the flip of the switch.

Did you know that the Plaza lights started with a single string over a doorway in 1925? If you haven’t yet taken your kids to enjoy this Kansas City tradition…this might be a great year to start! For those who like to watch things from the comfort of their own homes…you can tune in to the lighting ceremony live on KCTV Channel 5.

Other 2008 lighting ceremonies around the Kansas City metro include:

• Mayor’s Tree Lighting in Downtown Overland Park – Thursday, November 20, 5pm to 8pm – Santa arrives at 5:30pm; tree lighting at 6:15pm; hayrack rides ($2) from 5pm to 7pm – carolers, bells and dancing!
• Downtown Lee’s Summit Lighting Ceremony – Friday, November 21, 6:30pm at Howard Station Park
• Zona Rosa Holiday Lighting Ceremony, Kansas City north, MO – Saturday, November 22 – and a Visit with the Kansas City Fairy Princess!
• The Legends Fourth Annual Lighting Ceremony, Kansas City, KS – Saturday, November 22
• Christmas Parade & Tree Lighting followed by the opening of the Hall of Trees at the Hall of Waters, Excelsior Springs, MO – Saturday, November 22 at 6pm
• Briarcliff Village Holiday Lighting Ceremony, KCMO – Sunday, November 23 at 7pm followed by fireworks
• Lawrence Christmas Tree Lighting – Lawrence, KS – Friday, November 28 at 5:30pm
• Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting at Crown Center – Friday, November 28 – performances by The School of Rock and more!
• Christmas Around Town – downtown Shawnee, KS and Shawnee Town – Tuesday, December 2 from 4pm to 7pm – caroling, carriage rides, Christmas Tree lighting and Santa!
• Brookside Tree Lighting Ceremony (Kansas City, MO) – Thursday, December 4 at 6pm – 63rd & Brookside Blvd. – music, refreshments, prizes and more!
• Winterfest & Olathe’s Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting – Friday, December 5 – 5:30pm – Olathe City Hall – choirs, talent and SANTA!
• Lighting Ceremony in Old Town Lenexa – lights, Santa, carols and hot chocolate! – Friday, December 5 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Other light displays not to miss:

• Christmas in the Park, Longview Park, Kansas City, MO – November 26 thru December 31 – over 300,00 lights and almost 200 animated figurines make this Christmas light display an event not to miss!
• “Christmas Place” in the Terrace Place subdivision, 131st Place and Antioch, Overland Park
• “Christmas Card Lane” in Olathe, KS, north of 151st St. and west of Ridgeview (Ridgeview and Frontier)
• Not sure if this one’s still going on…but I remember Mom and Dad driving us every year to a fantastically decorated, completely over-the-top house in Prairie Village, KS. It was located off of 75th Street and Falmouth, just east of Mission Road. You could peer into the attached garage-turned-Santa’s Workshop and also see hundreds of glass ornaments suspended from the ceilings of every room in the house. Readers, who remembers this? Is it still lit up?
• Another cool place to drive by is located off of 63rd Street, west of State Line Road. This is more of a modern light display–long lines of white lights, zig-zagging from treetop to ground and back up to rooftop.
• I recently drove by Vince & Associates, at 102nd and Metcalf in Overland Park. I can’t say that I’ve seen this display “turned on” yet, but it looks like it’s going to be bright. There’s not an inch of landscaping that hasn’t been covered by a light. Or lighted penguin, Santa or snowflake. Should be interesting!

If you know of another “don’t miss” neighborhood light display – please share it in the comments below!