I think Kansas City is the only place that a Christmas tradition includes a visit to the fairy princess.

For those few who are unfamiliar with the Fairy Princess tradition: each December, children from throughout the Kansas City area make the short pilgrimage to the Kansas City Museum to share their holiday hopes with the princess, as well as to enjoy stories, performances, and hands-on activities that have added to this uniquely Kansas City annual event. It is an experience today’s children share with their parents and grandparents, who in their turn, visited the Princess and made their own childhood wishes known.

From her beginning in 1935 at the Kline’s Department Store’s Toyland through the late 1960s, the Fairy Princess was a holiday highlight for Kansas City families. When Kline’s closed its doors in 1970, the princess disappeared from Kansas City’s holiday traditions.

For 16 years she lived only in the fond memories of those who had experienced her enchanting charm. Then in 1987, the Kansas City Museum gave the Fairy Princess a new home, reviving this treasured annual experience for current and future generations. Since 2006 she has also appeared annually at Zona Rosa Town Center, which, in partnership with the museum, has brought the Fairy Princess back to her retail beginnings.

During the first three Saturdays and Sundays in December, the Fairy Princess will hold court at the Kansas City Museum, just as she has done for the past three decades.  And of course, we had to visit the Fairy Princess.

 

The Kansas City Museum is under going renovation and is starting to regain its former beauty!