Kansas City Symphony: Christmas Festival

Kansas City Symphony: Christmas Festival at Helzberg Hall - Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Holiday music takes on a different character when a full symphony orchestra settles in behind it. The Kansas City Symphony's Christmas Festival on December 17, 2026, at Helzberg Hall in Kansas City brings familiar carols together with the orchestra and Symphony Chorus.

Daniel Wiley conducts the Kansas City Symphony, joined by vocalist Jim Hogan and the Symphony Chorus under Betsy Burleigh's direction. The program balances Christmas classics with fresh arrangements, offering seasonal favorites shaped in ways that keep the evening from feeling like background music you've heard a thousand times. Something about hearing a known melody reimagined by a full orchestra makes you notice phrases you'd otherwise miss.

Santa makes an appearance, too—a playful touch alongside the full-scale music that makes this holiday concert inviting for families without treating the symphony as an afterthought. It's the kind of detail that makes the evening work for families without losing the musical scale that draws people to the symphony in the first place.

December can feel like a blur of obligations and to-do lists. An evening where the only job is to sit and listen—to music performed live, with care, at Helzberg Hall—offers a different kind of break. Celebrate the season with fresh arrangements, chorus and Santa's playful appearance; pick up tickets for the Christmas Festival.