Kansas City Symphony: Christmas Festival

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

Your favorite carols have room to surprise you at the Kansas City Symphony's Christmas Festival, where fresh arrangements meet a full orchestra and chorus. Daniel Wiley conducts the December 20, 2026, concert at Helzberg Hall in Kansas City, joined by vocalist Jim Hogan and the Symphony Chorus, directed by Betsy Burleigh.

This isn't background music piped through shopping mall speakers. A full symphony orchestra transforms familiar melodies into layered, textured performances that reveal new details in songs you've heard since childhood. The Symphony Chorus brings another layer to the arrangements, adding voices to the orchestra's take on familiar holiday music.

Jim Hogan's vocals add a personal touch to the Christmas classics, while Santa's appearance brings playful holiday fun into the mix. That contrast gives families more than one reason to make this concert part of their December plans.

The program balances the classics you expect with arrangements that offer something new, giving longtime symphony audiences and first-time visitors equal reasons to listen closely. Whether you know every carol by heart or simply love the warmth of live holiday music, the combination of orchestra, chorus, vocalist and seasonal spirit creates an evening worth leaving the house for.

Helzberg Hall's December 20 performance gathers all the pieces that make Christmas concerts work—tradition, talent, scale and a touch of North Pole charm. The Symphony and chorus give holiday favorites fresh life on December 20; get tickets for the Christmas Festival.