Hallmark to open immersive Christmas experience at Crown Center
Hallmark is starting a new holiday tradition that leverages its wildly popular holiday movies.
The iconic brand plans to open an “immersive” holiday at experience at Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo. (Crown Center is a real estate development company that manages the 85-acre hotel, office, entertainment and residential campus surrounding Hallmark's headquarters.)
The “Hallmark Christmas Experience” is being designed by Hallmark's creative team to bring a Hallmark movie town square to life. Free to the public, it will be open on weekends from Nov. 29 through Dec. 23.
The venue will include a Christmas market with event-exclusive Hallmark products and one-of-a-kind gifts created by Hallmark artisans and other seasonal merchants. Other offerings will include festive food, themed drinks, along with ice skating.
There will be nightly tree lightings of what Hallmark describes as one of world's tallest Christmas trees, card-sending and gift wrap stations, a Crayola community mural, and interactive light walks and photo ops.
Visitors will be able to upgrade the experience with exclusive ticketed activities, including events and photo ops with Hallmark stars, workshops with Hallmark artists, elevated dining experiences, breakfast with Santa and more.
The Hallmark Christmas Experience will serve as the marquee celebration for Hallmark holiday movies, with ticketed opportunities to hear behind-the-scenes stories from Hallmark stars, cheer them on as they compete in holiday-themed challenges and more. Hallmark movie fans can also enjoy Hallmark movie marathons.
"Creating ways to help people celebrate and connect is at the very core of our brand DNA at Hallmark, especially during the holiday season," said Lindsey Roy, senior VP, brand development at Hallmark. "We are so excited to bring this uniquely Hallmark experience to life, and can't wait to watch people find joy and make memories together."
Family-owned Hallmark Cards company operates a diversified portfolio of businesses. The Hallmark Global business designs and sells greeting cards, gifts, ornaments and gift packaging in more than 30 languages with distribution in nearly 100 countries, including a network of company-owned and independently-owned Hallmark Gold Crown stores in five countries.
Hallmark Media operates three cable networks — Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Mystery, and Hallmark Family — as well as Hallmark Movies Now, a subscription video on-demand streaming service.
Crayola offers a wide range of art materials and creative play toys designed to spark children's creativity around the globe.