On Saturday morning, the stalls inside the Green Street Market will be full for the first time since the farmers market closed its season on October 31. This time the tables will hold handmade gifts and stocking stuffers instead of tomatoes and sweet corn, and the doors open at 10 a.m. instead of 8.
This is Green Street's second holiday season, and the downtown calendar now leans on it more than ever. The tree lighting, all four Holiday Mart Saturdays and a December big-band concert are listed at the same address, 209 SE Green Street. Only a few years ago those events were spread across a park, City Hall and a parking lot. Everything below follows from that change, including where to park yourself on the one Saturday when the whole season piles up.
A building sized for summer Saturdays, booked for winter ones
Green Street covers roughly three acres in the heart of downtown, near SE Green and SE Third streets. The city held its grand-opening weekend August 15 through 17, 2025. The public side has three pieces: the indoor Green Street Market, the canopy-covered Green Street Lawn, and Saint Luke's Grove, which has public art, seating and a children's playground.
The scale is what makes a winter calendar possible. The market building is 17,140 square feet, with a catering kitchen and AV equipment. The canopy over the lawn stands 43 feet high and shelters 9,650 square feet of turf, with a movable stage and power hookups. When the market opened, KCTV5 reported that all 50 indoor stalls were rented and more vendors were on a waitlist.
All of this came with a price. Link 2 Lee's Summit broke the funding down as $9.5 million in public infrastructure, $29.7 million from the Downtown Market Fund, $4.2 million from the downtown CID one-cent sales tax and $600,000 left over from a 2013 bond. That adds up to about $44 million.
The farmers market itself is still seasonal. The city calls Green Street Market a seasonal indoor farmers market, with Wednesday and Saturday hours from April 4 through October 31. So from November through March, a building designed around produce stalls is free for whatever downtown puts in it. This year, that's the holidays.
Where the season used to happen
To see why this matters, look at where these events lived before. For about three decades, the Downtown Lee's Summit Farmers Market set up in the parking lot at 2nd and Douglas. It started there in 1991 and eventually outgrew the lot, according to the Lee's Summit Chamber. Holiday shopping moved around. In 2023, the Lee's Summit Journal, writing in the Kansas City Star, listed the Holiday Mart indoors at City Hall.
The Mayor's Tree Lighting had its own home too. The city's 2022 listing and a 2016 Downtown Lee's Summit announcement both place it at Howard Station Park. Last year it moved. The November 21, 2025 lighting was billed as Mayor Bill Baird flipping the switch on Green Street at 6:30 p.m.
So 2025 was the first holiday season on Green Street, and 2026 is the first one fully planned around it. The produce lot, the City Hall room and the park lawn have been replaced by a single site with a roof, a stage and a kitchen.
November 20 and the new 45-foot tree
This year's Mayor's Tree Lighting is Friday, November 20, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Downtown Lee's Summit Main Street describes the evening as the lighting of "our new 45-foot Christmas tree." For a sense of scale, the lawn canopy tops out at 43 feet.
The schedule uses every part of the site:
- 5 p.m. Doors open, with warm drinks, treats, holiday vendor booths and free keepsake ornaments at the sponsor booths. Free kids' activities run inside the market building, and live music plays on the covered lawn.
- 6 p.m. The live program starts, the tree lights up, and Santa arrives.
- 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Free photos with Santa and holiday music, while dozens of locally owned downtown shops and restaurants stay open late.
That's a half hour earlier than last year's 6:30 lighting. If you have small kids and an early bedtime, the main moment now comes before dinner. Security Bank of Kansas City presents the event with Downtown Lee's Summit Main Street and the City of Lee's Summit. Renew EPC, Renewal by Andersen and Thermal King Windows are supporting sponsors.
The full calendar, by address
Most of the season is at Green Street, and the rest is a short drive or a walk downtown. Here's how the dates line up from publish day through the week before Christmas.
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 14 | Farmers Market Holiday Mart | Green Street Market | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
| Fri., Nov. 20 | Mayor's Tree Lighting | Green Street | 5 to 8:30 p.m. |
| Wed., Nov. 25 | Summit Ice opens for the season | 120 NE Chipman Road | Opening day |
| Thu., Nov. 26 | Thanksgiving Skate | Summit Ice | Thanksgiving Day |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Holiday Mart, Small Business Saturday, Santa selfies | Green Street; downtown shops; Lee's Summit History Museum | Mart 10 to 2; selfies 3 to 5 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Holiday Mart, Santa aboard the Missouri River Runner, Santa selfies | Green Street; Lee's Summit station; History Museum | See below |
| Thu., Dec. 10 | An evening of Lee's Summit stories | Lee's Summit History Museum | Evening, free |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Santa selfies; Skate with Santa | History Museum; Summit Ice | Selfies 3 to 5 p.m. |
| Tue., Dec. 15 | Lee's Summit Jazz Orchestra holiday concert | Green Street | Evening |
| Sat., Dec. 19 | Holiday Mart and Santa selfies | Green Street; History Museum | Mart 10 to 2; selfies 3 to 5 p.m. |
The Holiday Mart is presented by Thermal King Windows and promises artisan gifts, seasonal food and local vendors. The vendor lineup will be posted on the Downtown Lee's Summit event page. The December 15 concert is a fundraiser for the Lee's Summit Jazz Orchestra, a 16-piece nonprofit big band that plays swing, standards and modern jazz charts.
December 5, when it all overlaps
Three different organizations' plans land on the first Saturday of December. The Holiday Mart is open. Santa photos run at the History Museum in the afternoon. And Santa rides Amtrak's westbound Missouri River Runner Train 311, which leaves St. Louis at 8:10 a.m. and reaches Lee's Summit at 1:03 p.m. On board, kids can take photos with Santa, make crafts and get a treat.
The event has no separate ticket. Riders buy regular one-way Amtrak tickets through MoRiverRunner.com, plus a second ticket if they want to come back by train. Downtown Lee's Summit's own sample plan for the day goes like this:
- 10 a.m. Shop the Holiday Mart at Green Street.
- 1:03 p.m. Board Train 311 in Lee's Summit with Santa and ride to Kansas City.
- 4:41 p.m. Return to Lee's Summit by train.
The free Santa selfies at the Lee's Summit History Museum run 3 to 5 p.m. that day, which mostly overlaps the train trip. Families riding the train can try for the last few minutes after the 4:41 return. Families who skip the train can go from the Mart straight to the museum. The museum photos repeat on December 12 and 19 if the 5th fills up.
If a Saturday doesn't work, Santa also rides eastbound Train 318 on Sunday, December 6. It leaves Kansas City at 8:40 a.m. and stops in Lee's Summit at 9:16 a.m. Riders can get on or off at route stops including Independence, Warrensburg, Sedalia, Jefferson City, Hermann, Washington and Kirkwood.
What still happens off Green Street
A central hub works best when it sends people into the blocks around it, and several of the season's best stops aren't at 209 SE Green Street.
Skating is one of them. Green Street has no rink. Winter ice is at Summit Ice, the city's facility at 120 NE Chipman Road, which opens November 25 and holds a Thanksgiving Skate on Thursday, November 26. In December it runs Tuesday Game Nights on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th, Thursday Theme Nights on the 3rd, 10th and 17th, and Skate with Santa on Saturday the 12th.
The Lee's Summit History Museum hosts the Saturday Santa selfies. It's free, all ages are welcome, and you bring your own camera. On Thursday, December 10, the museum also holds a free evening where a preselected group of longtime residents share stories about the city in an informal, intimate setting.
Then there's food after the Mart, and the tree lighting's late shopping hours are a good excuse to find a table. Link 2 Lee's Summit covered the opening of Vetta at 219 SE Main St., in the space once home to Calaveras. It's from Josh, Lanni and Jeff Edwards, the team behind Smoke Brewing Company. At 500 SW Third Street, The Paperback Bakery shares a storefront with SereniTea Boutique. The Star reported that Whitney Johnson owns the bakery and Angi Byer owns SereniTea, a tea-and-gift shop with loose teas and a daily coffee brew. A shop that sells both tea and gifts fits a Holiday Mart morning nicely.
Small Business Saturday on November 28 sends the same crowd onto the downtown storefronts. Downtown Lee's Summit Main Street is promoting a limited-edition tote for the day.
Some of us at The Benjamin Team will be at the tree lighting on November 20, ornament in hand. When a December evening on Green Street gets you thinking about which downtown Lee's Summit streets are an easy walk to the Mart, or about trading that walkability for a few acres farther out in Jackson County, we'd love to talk it over. Request a free consultation and home or land valuation, and we'll give you an honest read on what your place is worth this winter.
