holidays

Every year during the holiday season, Kansas City's own Doug Frost joins Up To Date to discuss the state of the alcohol industry, recommend delicious options for the holidays and taste several wines.

Winter holiday festivals have become a regular way to grow revenue for America’s smallest towns. And with more people shopping online, those events are key to pulling people away from their screens and into stores.

Lawrence violist Mary Tuven and composer and bassist Charles Kelso Hoag often brought their daughter, Andrea Hoag, to their wintertime performances when she was just a small child. Now all grown up, Hoag brings those decades-old memories to life in her short story “The Christmas Musicians.”

Whether you’re gathering with family during the holidays, or catching up on the best of the year before award season, Up To Date invited Kansas City film critics to share some great movies and television series worth catching.

After Steven Allen discovered her singing in The Colony Steakhouse in Kansas City, Marilyn Maye would go on to appear on the “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson 76 times and sell out Carnegie Hall. She will perform next at the “Holly Jolly Follyday” on December 21 at the Folly Theater.

Kansas City jazz pianist Tim Whitmer is out with a new record for the second year in a row — and this time, he is hoping his music spreads holiday cheer. The album "Happy Holidays" features Whitmer's takes on timeless classics like "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

Some tree farms in the central U.S. are selling more potted Christmas trees as people seek out an eco-friendly option or look to get more than one use out of their evergreens.

Toys for Tots, the 80-year-old program run by the U.S. Marines, is seeing toy donations down by almost 20% this year. Staff Sgt. Christian Martinez was once the recipient of one of those toys. Now, as coordinator of the Kansas City chapter of Toys for Tots, he's worried that other little boys won't get the same joy he did.

Nothing beats a handmade gift infused with your love. For those who feel comfortable DIYing, here are six places in Kansas City to make a one-of-a-kind gift.

Every year just before the holidays, Scouting America troops across the country collect food items for local pantries, right off our front porches. It’s an effort started 40 years ago from here in Missouri.

The Country Club Plaza holiday lighting ceremony is a beloved Thanksgiving tradition in Kansas City. But even many lifelong residents don’t know that the lights actually turn on a day earlier, in a 2 a.m. test run that draws its own small crowd of onlookers.

The Kansas City Aviation Department expects nearly 400,000 people through the airport during Thanksgiving week, meaning an increased chance of local infections. One local group is helping travelers take proper precautions.