Union Station's walk-through winter village is coming back to Kansas City for a seventh year, with Holiday Reflections set to fill the historic depot from Nov. 20, 2026, through Jan. 4, 2027. The indoor, holiday-themed experience will once again mix nostalgia with new additions, including a frozen wonderland of shimmering igloos, singing penguins and an ice throne.
According to FOX4KC, tickets are already on sale for the event, which takes place at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, and is hosted by CPKC. The 2026 lineup is reported to include live holiday entertainment, new immersive photo opportunities and an expanded holiday gift shop, along with returning favorites like Santa visits, singing reindeer, decorated trees, giant ornaments and animated shop windows.
Holiday Reflections is described as a walk-through, holiday-themed village inside Union Station, and this year's version is set to expand its Kansas City streetscape, celebrating holiday decor styles from the 1940s through the 1970s and beyond, alongside the return of Petticoat Lane. Overhead, visitors can expect nearly 2,000 square feet of animated light and large red-and-gold LED ribbons, according to FOX4. A holiday virtual-reality ride also returns as part of the experience.
Hours, Tickets and What to Expect This Year
The event is reported to run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. General admission is set at $10 Monday through Thursday and $12 Friday through Sunday from Nov. 20 through Dec. 20, then $12 daily from Dec. 21 through Jan. 4. Cheers members pay $9 for the entire event, children 12 months and under get in free, and Holiday Reflections tickets include a 10% preservation fee.
Beyond the main village, Union Station's own guidance lays out a couple of separate, walk-up ticketed add-ons. The Magical Sleigh Ride VR costs $6 for general-admission visitors and $4 for members per rider, while the Mini Holiday Express Ride-On Train, intended for children under 48 inches tall, runs $5 for general admission and is free for members, according to the Union Station Kansas City FAQ.
Planning Ahead: Advance Tickets and Accessibility
Union Station's guidance recommends buying tickets online in advance, warning that walk-up availability is limited and that evenings and weekends tend to sell out. The same FAQ advises visitors to plan on spending 60 to 90 minutes inside the display, and notes that Holiday Reflections is wheelchair accessible, with limited seating available throughout the walk-through for guests who need a rest. The exhibition does not allow re-entry once a visitor has left, per the venue's FAQ.
A Tradition That Keeps Growing
Holiday Reflections has been building its footprint for years. The attraction returned for its third consecutive year back in 2022, when it filled about 27,000 square feet and featured a 10,000-square-foot model-train display with dozens of moving trains in every scale, according to Union Station's own announcement at the time. That same year, admission ran $7 on weekdays and $9 on weekends, not including the preservation fee — well below the rates set for 2026.
The display has only gotten more elaborate since then. Last year's edition, reported by The Kansas City Star, introduced a reimagined 1920s Petticoat Lane, an all-new gingerbread village and an expanded gift shop, built over more than 10 months of design work and more than 10,000 hours of labor. The Star also reported that the event welcomed nearly 200,000 visitors the year before the 2025 season — a scale that helps explain why organizers keep pushing the square footage and the seasonal detail further each year.
The 2025 season, detailed by KMBC, featured a 30-foot twinkling tree, life-size gingerbread candy displays and the Jones Store mini ride-on train inside its Gingerbread Village, with hours running 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends that year. Whether every one of those past attractions carries over into the 2026 run has not been detailed in the latest announcement, but the 2025 season brought together Santa, trains, lights and a village built for wandering.
