Where in Kirkwood can you see holiday decorations up close on a weekday in early December? Downtown Kirkwood's season has always been a string of one-day street events, each with its own date: a walk, a market, a sale. Once the day ended, the event was over.
This year the Downtown Kirkwood calendar adds the first-ever Kirkwood Festival of Trees. It is a two-week display of trees and wreaths decorated by Kirkwood-area businesses, organizations and community partners, set up in the lobby of the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center. Because it lives in a theater lobby, its schedule works differently from anything else on the downtown calendar. That changes how the season can be planned from mid-November into December.
The trees keep the theater's hours
The festival opens Saturday, November 21, 2026, the same day as the Downtown Kirkwood Holiday Walk, and the displays stay up through December 4. The Downtown Kirkwood festival page posts viewing hours that look like an arts center's schedule, not a shopping district's:
| When | Viewing hours |
|---|---|
| Saturday, November 21 | 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. |
| Monday through Friday | 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. |
| Saturday, November 28 | 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. |
| KPAC performance days | One hour before and during each performance |
Read the table closely. On a regular weekday, viewing ends at 2 p.m., and only two Saturdays are listed. Outside those windows, the trees are open in the evening only when a show is on stage at 210 East Monroe Avenue. That makes the KPAC performance calendar the evening guide to the festival.
One listed evening falls inside the festival
KPAC's fall calendar is full, but most of it lands before the trees go up. Winter Opera's The Most Happy Fella plays November 6 and 8. The Rockin' Chair Eagles tribute is November 14, and Jesse Robinson performs November 17. Those dates are all earlier than November 21.
Two listed performances fall inside the November 21 to December 4 window:
- PINK'D on Saturday, November 21, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the Ross Family Theatre. This is the festival's opening day, so the daytime viewing hours, the Santa kickoff and an evening performance all happen in the same building.
- Carmen Bonner on Tuesday, December 1, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., part of KPAC's Coffee Concert Series, three days before the raffle drawing.
The Carmen Bonner concert is in the morning, so it falls within the regular weekday viewing hours. On the calendar as posted, opening night is the only time the lobby displays are open after dark, starting an hour before PINK'D takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Shows added later would open more evenings.
November 21 starts at the train station and moves to the theater
Opening day overlaps with Kirkwood's most established holiday tradition. On the Holiday Walk page, Downtown Kirkwood says Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive downtown by train at 8:40 a.m. on Saturday, November 21. Santa then poses for photos inside the train station from 9 a.m. to noon. The page also promises holiday shopping, free entertainment and refreshments, with many specialty stores running sales.
The festival kickoff picks up in the afternoon. KPAC hosts a celebration with hot cocoa, coffee and raffle ticket sales, and Santa appears there from 1 to 2 p.m. So Santa's morning at the station and his afternoon at the theater are separated by about an hour, and the lobby stays open until 4 p.m.
The Holiday Walk page still carries a detailed hour-by-hour schedule labeled 2025. Only the arrival time and the photo window appear in the current event text, so the rest of the day's timing is worth checking closer to November 21.
A raffle where the prize goes home on December 4
The festival is also a fundraiser. Each tree and wreath carries a label with the business or organization that decorated it and the name of the display. Raffle tickets cost $5 each and are sold online, and buyers choose which tree or wreath they want to enter for. The drawing is Friday, December 4 at 2 p.m. Each winner takes the tree home that same day to display for the holidays.
Proceeds benefit the Kirkwood Arts Foundation and KirkCare. A judging panel also picks winners in several categories, including Best in Festival for one tree and one wreath, and Best Name/Theme. Some displays may include gift cards, products or themed decorations, so the prize can be more than the tree. Tickets are sold by individual display, so the raffle rewards a look at the lobby before you choose.
The outdoor nights that come first
The festival arrives after a fall of single evenings outdoors. Here is how the Downtown Kirkwood events list runs from now through the festival's opening:
- Through October 18: Stages St. Louis performs Come From Away in KPAC's Ross Family Theatre, so the building is already busy before the trees arrive.
- October 15: Witches Walk and the Night Market on Argonne. The walk starts at the Farmer's Market, where participants sign in. The Bedlam Brothers play there from 5 to 8 p.m., and vendors line Argonne.
- October 23: Motown & More at KPAC, a concert benefiting The Meacham Park Scholarship Program.
- October 29: The Halloween Walk, with trick-or-treating downtown.
- November 7: The Wine Walk, billed as a chance to "sip, shop, and stroll."
The promotional images on some of these pages still show last year's dates. The Witches Walk graphic says October 17, and the Wine Walk graphic says November 8, 2025. The listed 2026 dates are the ones above.
Every item on that list is a single night. After November 21, the festival stays open for two weeks, which no event on the street calendar does.
Newer stops between the station and the theater
The festival is built around Kirkwood-area businesses, and several on the downtown map are new since last holiday season.
Fox's Finest Meats, Seafood & Marketplace opened July 22, 2026 at 159 W. Argonne, at the corner of West Argonne and North Clay, across the street from 4 Hands + Peacemaker. St. Louis Magazine reports that it is owned by Kirkwood father and son Kevin and Luke Beattie, and that it combines a butcher shop, seafood market, gourmet grocer and prepared foods.
The Greek Kitchen Shop opened September 17, 2026 inside the food hall at Schnucks Kirkwood, 10233 Manchester. The Webster-Kirkwood Times reports that Joe and Lisa Kandel run it, with a smaller Greek takeout-and-catering menu. The food hall dates from the store's 2021 remodel, so the vendors are what is new. China King is announced for the same food hall in October.
On South Kirkwood Road, two shops that opened in 2025 are back for another holiday season. Forai, open since June 2025, at 211 S. Kirkwood Road, sells hand-hammered silver and gold jewelry. The Kirkwood Call reports that the nonprofit provides work for immigrant and refugee women. Gooey Louie, at 343 S. Kirkwood Road, sells gooey butter cakes and shares its space with The Lou Charcuterie.
The second Saturday
The festival's other Saturday is November 28, which is also Small Business Saturday downtown. The KPAC lobby is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day. That makes it the second and last Saturday to see the full lineup of trees before the December 4 drawing. After the festival closes, the street calendar takes over again with Holiday Cheer on December 12 and the Snowflake Sale on January 2, 2027.
Aimee Simpson has followed Kirkwood's downtown calendar, from the Holiday Walk to this year's new KPAC lobby display, through decades of work in the Central Corridor. If the season has you thinking about a home near Argonne and Kirkwood Road, Aimee Simpson is available for a private consultation. Work With Aimee.
