Crown Center is a popular setting for some of Kansas City’s favorite holiday traditions.
Photo: Roy Harryman
The festivities start with the opening of the Crown Center Ice Terrace, continue with the lighting of the 100-foot-tall Mayor’s Christmas Tree on Crown Center Square, and the full slate of live theater, entertainment, shopping, and dining at Crown Center.
Here are recommendations for enjoying Christmas at Crown Center. Many can be done without spending little or nothing at all.
Holiday Decorations at Crown Center
Take in these festive displays through January 3.
Giant Christmas Wreath (inside the Crown Center Shops Atrium): The wreath measures 18 feet in diameter and weighs 800 pounds. The greenery is decked in holiday finery and serves as the centerpiece of the festive indoor decorations at Crown Center.
Mayor’s Christmas Tree Ornaments (Crown Center Shops, Level 1, Atrium): A display case features all 41 of the Mayor’s Christmas Tree ornaments that Hallmark has produced and Crown Center has sold since 1981 to raise money for the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund.
EBT Santa’s Countdown to Christmas (Crown Center Shops, Level 1, Atrium): This life-size, mechanical Santa originated at the Emery Bird Thayer department store in downtown Kansas City in the early 1900s. EBT Santa has been part of Crown Center’s holiday scene since 1979. He chuckles roughly eight times a minute, and his countdown clock tells children the exact number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds until Santa’s arrival on Christmas morning.
Photo: Crown Center
Crown Center Square & The Mayor’s Christmas Tree
The 100-foot-tall Mayor’s Christmas Tree, one of the nation’s tallest, is the outdoor centerpiece for Christmas at Crown Center. More than 40,000 LED lights illuminate Crown Center Square where this spectacle stands all season.
The Mayor’s Christmas Tree comes on for the first time during a special lighting ceremony the day after Thanksgiving.
The 2024 Mayor’s Christmas Tree Ornament. O Christmas Tree is on sale beginning November 29. Proceeds benefit the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund to help the people of Kansas City during the holidays. The ornament can be purchased for $18.95, plus tax, from Crown Center Customer Service (Crown Center Shops, Level 2) or call 816-274-7251.
Photo: Crown Center
Santa Claus at Crown Center
A horse-drawn carriage delivers Santa Claus to the front of the Crown Center Shops at 10 a.m. on November 29. Santa makes his way to Santa’s Gingerbread Station (Crown Center Shops, Showplace, Level 1), where he resides through Christmas Eve, December 24.
Kids can visit Santa at Crown Center for FREE to share wish lists during the following times November 29 – December 24:
- Monday – Saturday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Sunday: Noon to 5 p.m.
- December 24: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
You can pay to have the on-site photographer take a picture for you, or save some money by bringing along a camera and taking your own.
Photo: Roy Harryman
Holiday Choirs at Crown Center
Beautiful music fills the halls of the Crown Center Shops as nearly 70 area school, church, and community choirs giving FREE performances daily in the Atrium through December 19.
Times and performers vary. You can keep current with this Crown Center Holiday Choirs schedule (updated regularly).
Crown Center Ice Terrace
Burn off Christmas cookies with some circles around the Crown Center Ice Terrace.
Crown Center Location and Parking
Crown Center is located at 2450 Grand Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri. Parking is available at 25th Street and Grand Blvd.
Two hours of FREE parking is available with validation from any Crown Center merchant. You can get an additional three hours of FREE parking when you show $50+ in same-day receipts from any Crown Center shop or restaurant at the Crown Center Customer Service desk. Just know that you must get the five-hour validation slip from Customer Service. Receipts won’t be accepted at the parking gate.
If you don’t have a validation slip, standard parking rates of $7 to $25 apply. Cash, credit and debit cards are accepted.
