Santa Arrives at a Restored Train Station This Year, and Kirkwood's First Festival of Trees Opens the Same Morning

At 8:40 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21, Santa and Mrs. Claus are scheduled to arrive in Downtown Kirkwood by train. This year the platform they step onto has been restored. Since last year's Holiday Walk, the 1893 station has gotten a new slate roof, a longer platform roof and a courtyard. From 9 a.m. to noon, Santa poses for photos inside the station.

A few blocks away that same morning, the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center opens its lobby for the city's first Festival of Trees. The festival lasts exactly two weeks. It starts with the Holiday Walk and ends on Friday, Dec. 4, the day of the downtown tree lighting. The trees stay on display in the KPAC lobby for that whole stretch.

The station Santa walks into has been rebuilt

When Kirkwood Mayor Liz Gibbons cut the ribbon on Sept. 15, the Webster-Kirkwood Times reported that grants and local donations covered the entire cost. The city has owned the station since 2003.

According to the same report, the project included a new slate roof with copper flashing, a new storage building, larger accessible bathrooms and a geothermal heating and cooling system. The rail platform roof was extended east, so the station looks the way it did in 1941. Murals by Kirkwood native Bryan Haynes were planned as finishing touches inside. First Alert 4 reported the station officially reopened that day with a restored 1940s-style platform, a new courtyard and a micro-museum of local rail history.

The building is still an active Amtrak stop. The Webster-Kirkwood Times counted 46 volunteers who staff it whenever passenger trains come in. More work is coming. Amtrak is paying for a multimillion-dollar upgrade to the rail platforms and crossings, scheduled to start in spring 2027, so this holiday season falls between the restoration and that next round of construction.

The Holiday Walk listing runs the day from 8:40 a.m. to 5 p.m. It includes free entertainment, refreshments and sales at Downtown Kirkwood's specialty shops, and the Lucille Rapp Tumblers and Dancers perform at Station Plaza at noon.

Santa's second stop that day is KPAC

The Festival of Trees has its own visit from Santa, from 1 to 2 p.m. on Nov. 21 at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center, with hot cocoa and coffee. A family can get a photo at the station before noon, have lunch downtown and see Santa again at KPAC after lunch.

The displays are trees and wreaths decorated by Kirkwood-area businesses, organizations and community partners. Some include gift cards, products or themed decorations. They're set up in the KPAC lobby. Raffle tickets cost $5 each and are sold online. You pick the tree or wreath you want each ticket to go toward. Proceeds go to the Kirkwood Arts Foundation and KirkCare.

Judges will give awards for Best in Festival, with one tree and one wreath, plus Best Theme, Best Cultural Tradition, Most Creative, Kirkwood Community Spirit and People's Choice. Once the raffle winners are drawn, the display with the most entries will be named the Community Favorite.

The festival page lists these viewing hours:

• Saturday, Nov. 21: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Monday through Friday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Saturday, Nov. 28: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• One hour before and during KPAC performances

There are only two Saturdays, and weekday viewing ends at 2 p.m., so the performance-hours window matters. Working parents may find their easiest evening chance to see the trees is arriving early for a show.

The raffle ends on tree-lighting day

The raffle drawing is at 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4. Winners take their tree or wreath home that day to keep up through the holidays.

That evening, the Kirkwood Business Owners Association holds its annual Kirkwood Tree Lighting at the Downtown Kirkwood Triangle from 5 to 9 p.m. The schedule includes photos with Santa, holiday music, treats and vendors, and Local Business Bingo. The tree and menorah are lit together at 8:30 p.m. Check that page the week of the event for the final schedule.

So on Dec. 4, the trees leave KPAC that afternoon and the Triangle tree is lit that night. Two weeks earlier, Nov. 21 had a Santa arrival at the station and a festival kickoff on the same day.

The two weeks in between

The festival runs over Thanksgiving week, and KPAC and the Kirkwood Ice Arena are both open around it.

The Nutcracker is on Nov. 28 and 29, the festival's last weekend. Because the trees are on display before and during KPAC performances, ballet ticket holders can see them that weekend whenever they arrive. Check KPAC's MetroTix page for showtimes.

KPAC's December shows come after the trees are gone. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat runs Dec. 11 to 13. Erin Bode performs "A Cold December Night" on Dec. 11, and Let It Be Christmas runs Dec. 17 to 19.

If you skate, the Ice Arena's November public-skating calendar shows the rink closed on Thanksgiving Day and open for public skating on Friday, Nov. 27. That's a good stop on the day after Thanksgiving, when the festival is open on its weekday hours. Session 2 of the arena's 2026–27 lessons runs through Dec. 19 on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday tracks.

The market's tree lot opens the same Saturday

The Kirkwood Farmers' Market began in 1976 as the city's bicentennial project, and 2026 is its 50th year downtown. The city owns the facility, and the Downtown Kirkwood Special Business District runs it. Its holiday season fits the same calendar. The market page lists the Christmas Tree Lot & Gingerbread Shoppe from Nov. 21 through Dec. 23, open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Call The Summit All Seasons Market at 314-984-9496 before you go.

So the Holiday Walk, the festival kickoff and the tree lot all start on Nov. 21, within walking distance of one another.

Two newer places to eat in Kirkwood

The Holiday Walk lasts most of the day, and Kirkwood has two places to eat that opened since last December.

Fox's Finest Meats, Seafood & Marketplace opened at 159 W. Argonne Drive, close to Kirkwood Station. The Webster-Kirkwood Times' Business Notes reported the opening in August. With Thanksgiving falling during the festival, a stop there fits a festival weekday or the Holiday Walk.

Chef Lona Luo opened a second Lona's Lil Eats at 612 W. Woodbine Ave. this summer, according to St. Louis Public Radio. It's an option for lunch between the morning at the station and Santa's 1 p.m. visit at KPAC.

If you live within walking distance of the station, the Triangle or KPAC, those two weeks are part of what your address is worth, and a buyer looking at your home next spring will hear about them. Whenever you want a number on that, the Julie Moran Team can tell you how homes near downtown Kirkwood are pricing right now. Get your free home valuation.