Christmas

Each year, the Mayor’s Christmas Tree is displayed at Crown Center through the holiday shopping season. Its arrival, sometimes as early as November 3, is a harbinger of the season. A new resident and What’s Your KCQ? reader asked how long the city has had this municipal tradition. Its roots can be traced to the 1870s when the city was still young and hoping new rail connections could help shed its river town image and set it up as a vital connection between western livestock ranchers and eastern markets. At the time, the city’s mayor oversaw administering aid to less fortunate citizens, a duty that Mayor George M. Shelley apparently took seriously. Despite the city’s rapid growth in the 1870s, the winter of 1878 was reported to have been particularly hard on some of its citizens.

KCQ Reader Annette S. Bright asked The Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Public Library a question about an iconic set of KC holiday symbols. "What happened to all the Christmas decorations that used to be downtown, particularly the crowns strung across the streets with garland?"

’Tis the season for nostalgia: a time to reminisce about Christmases past and beloved holiday traditions. Many Kansas Citians have fond memories of the brightly lit Christmas Crowns that once illuminated the downtown shopping district and warmly recall festive department store displays. Shiny new toys under beautifully decorated Christmas trees, model trains chugging through snowy townscapes, and mechanical elves, reindeer, and carolers were hallmarks of the holiday shopping experience.