What's on around Kansas City, Kansas in November 2026

Up in Leavenworth, the Veterans Day parade steps off for the 107th time this November, and Visit KC's listing calls it the oldest continuously held Veterans Day parade west of the Mississippi. Anyone marching in it picks up staging instructions from a booth in the public library parking lot that opens at seven in the morning. Down at the other end of the Kansas side, out on 179th Street, the Arboretum lines its paths with luminaries the night after Thanksgiving.

November on the Kansas side of Kansas City turns on three dates: the election on the 3rd, the Leavenworth County Veterans Day Parade on the 11th, and Overland Park's Mayor's Holiday Festival on the 20th.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in Kansas through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work out of Bluffton, South Carolina, and I have not been to these myself. Every date below comes from the organizer, the venue, the city or the county that runs it, as each one has published it for 2026. Anything I could only find on a previous year's listing was left out of the dated list, and the ones I had to leave out are named near the bottom. I checked all of it on October 24, 2026. If you are looking at homes anywhere from Leavenworth down to the Linn County lakes this fall, the Kansas side buyer's guide covers the five counties here and the cities inside them.

Election day is Tuesday, November 3

Two sales tax questions on the Wyandotte County ballot are the ones a client shopping there should read first. KCUR's Kansas City election guide describes a quarter-cent countywide sales tax for health services, which the Unified Government has said could pay for a year-round homeless shelter, and a three-eighths-cent sales tax inside Kansas City, Kansas for parks and roads. Sales tax money would pay for the shelter in the first question and the parks and street work in the second, so each one is worth reading in full before you vote.

The Johnson County Election Office's own ballot page lists what Johnson County votes on. U.S. Senate and the Kansas 3rd Congressional District are on it, along with governor and lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and insurance commissioner. The state Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals and local judgeships are on it too. Kansans also decide a constitutional amendment stating that only United States citizens may vote in any election in the state. Polls are open from seven in the morning to seven in the evening. Advance voting, which is what Kansas calls voting before election day, opened on October 14.

A property tax bill is the other November mail worth watching for. The Johnson County Appraiser's important dates page puts the mailing of real estate tax statements on November 15, with the first half of the bill due by December 20 and the second half the following May 10. If your monthly payment includes the taxes, your lender collects that money through the year and pays the county for you. Kansas property tax due dates after a fall closing goes through whose bill it is when the closing lands this time of year. The revenue-neutral rate notice explains the letter Kansas sends when a taxing unit plans to collect more than it did last year.

The Yardley Hall season runs all month at Johnson County Community College

The Midwest Trust Center is the busiest room on the Kansas side this month, and its own events calendar carries the whole run. Youth Symphony Kansas City plays its fall concerts in Yardley Hall on Sunday, November 1 at two in the afternoon and again at seven. The Maronde Professional Recital Series keeps its noon Monday and Tuesday recitals going through November 10, in Polsky Theatre and Yardley Hall. Jason Kander takes the Yardley Hall stage on Wednesday, November 4 at seven for a conversation the college lists under its own events rather than the performing arts series.

Inlet Dance Theatre brings What Do You Do With a Problem? to Yardley Hall on Saturday, November 7 at ten in the morning, after two school shows on the Friday. 360 ALLSTARS follows on Thursday the 12th, with the ten o'clock school show sold out and a 7:30 public show that evening. The Blind Boys of Alabama play Songs in the Key of Life on Saturday the 14th at 7:30. TAKE3 closes out the month's series with Where Rock Meets Bach on Saturday the 21st at 7:30.

The 107th Leavenworth County Veterans Day Parade is November 11

Veterans Day is Wednesday, November 11. The parade's own site lines participants up at nine in the morning and steps off at 10:30. The staging booth opens at seven at the Leavenworth Public Library on Spruce Street, and that is where anyone marching gets their instructions. Watching it costs nothing. This year's theme is Honoring America's Veterans, and the entry deadline for anyone who wants to be in it is October 31.

Fort Leavenworth is the oldest active Army post west of the Mississippi and the home of the Command and General Staff College. Leavenworth, Lansing, Basehor and Tonganoxie are the towns nearest to it. How VA loans work in Kansas covers the entitlement and what a Kansas closing does and does not ask of a veteran.

Craft markets and the last outdoor Saturdays at the farmers markets

The KC Local Holiday Market takes the Thompson Barn on Lackman Road in Lenexa on Saturday, November 7 from ten to three, with crafts, fine art and a couple of food booths. The organizer's own site also carries a November 8 reference on another page, so I would confirm the day before driving over.

Overland Park's market page runs the farmers market on Saturdays from eight to noon, and the city's published 2026 schedule has the last outdoor Saturday on November 21, with no market on the 28th. Saturdays come back indoors in January and run to late March. Olathe's outdoor Saturday season ran through October 24, and the city's farmers market page has the Saturday run as April 25 through October 24 and the Wednesday market at Black Bob Park as May 6 through September 30.

The Kansas City Holiday Boutique is the big one indoors. Its own show information page runs it November 18 through 22 at the Overland Park Convention Center with about 300 vendors, opening with a VIP shopping night on Wednesday the 18th from five to nine. The holiday entertainment stage on the lower level has performances daily from nine to noon.

Lenexa moves its farmers market indoors for one Saturday. The city's holiday market page has it on November 21 at Lenexa City Hall on 87th Street Parkway, with the market's own growers and artists inside.

Overland Park lights its tree on the 20th

Visit Overland Park's festival page has the Mayor's Holiday Festival on Friday, November 20 from five to eight at Clock Tower Landing on Marty Street, with the program and the tree lighting from 5:30 to six. Mayor Curt Skoog throws the switch. Live music plays over at Thompson Park, and carolers work the downtown streets. Downtown OP's listing adds Santa visits, children's activities, vendors and food trucks across the district.

Two other Johnson County lightings land in December rather than November, so they are worth knowing about now and not driving to this month. The City of Olathe's Hometown Holidays page has the Mayor's Christmas Tree Lighting on Friday, December 4 from 5:30 to eight. Lenexa's Sar-Ko Aglow lighting ceremony is the same evening, six to seven at Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park, and the display at Rose's Pond then runs to January 18.

Thanksgiving weekend at the Arboretum and at Mahaffie

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The day before it, the Johnson County Museum runs one of its four free admission days of the year, on Wednesday the 25th, at the Arts and Heritage Center on Metcalf.

Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm fills the Friday. Its own calendar has Day After Thanksgiving Living History from noon to four on November 27, then a Backyard Horses Workshop on Saturday the 28th.

The Holiday Luminary Walk opens the same Friday. The Arts and Recreation Foundation of Overland Park runs traditional luminary weekends on November 27 and 28 and then on the first three weekends of December, at the Arboretum on West 179th Street. Tickets are sold for a specific date and a half-hour entry window, and the foundation's own FAQ says to buy ahead rather than turn up, because a night can sell out. The last entry time and the nightly hours are on that same page.

Two more things running all month

The Hallelujah Girls finishes its run at the New Theatre and Restaurant on Foster Street on November 15. Visit Overland Park's listing has the dinner and matinee pattern, which is nightly Tuesday through Sunday with lunch matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

Tipping Point, a show of Rebecca Beese's bird watercolors, is up at the Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center on Metcalf through December 5. Out in Olathe, Visit KC's listing keeps the Fall Festival at the KC Pumpkin Patch open through November 28, with more than sixty farm activities.

Events I could not confirm for this year

Six things that turn up on November lists around the Kansas side are not in the dated list above, because the organizer had not published this year's date when I checked on October 24.

The Legendary Tree Lighting at Tanger Kansas City at Legends has no date up for this year. Visit KC's annual events page still has it marked as to be announced for 2026, and the listing on Tanger's own events page is more than a year old. It has landed in the middle of November in past years out at Village West.

Olde World Christmas at the Strawberry Hill Museum is the other. The museum's plan-a-visit page puts its holiday season across November, December and the first two weeks of January, with guided tours on Saturdays and Sundays only, and the exact opening weekend for this season was not posted. The museum sells its tickets online and takes calls at 913-371-3264.

Prairie Village's own page says its Mayor's Holiday Tree Lighting is held every year on the Thursday after Thanksgiving, which would put it in December rather than November, and it has not posted the 2026 date. A tree lighting at Bluhawk in south Overland Park has no date up either. Paola, Louisburg, Bonner Springs and Basehor had nothing dated on their own calendars when I looked, so those city pages are where a date would appear. A November home match at the stadium out by Kansas Speedway was not on the schedule I found.

New around the Kansas side this year

The toll lanes on U.S. 69 through Overland Park have been open since February, and they are the first in Kansas. The Johnson County Post's own explainer describes 69Express as one tolled lane in each direction between 103rd and 151st Streets, with two free lanes kept in each direction and a toll that moves with congestion. The free lanes are still there and still free, so the toll is a choice rather than a new cost of living out there. If you are weighing two homes on either side of that stretch, it is worth making the drive at the hour you would normally be on the road.

The Rock Island Bridge opened over the Kansas River on April 1 and costs nothing to walk across. KCTV5 covered the opening of the 1905 railroad bridge, which now holds about 35,000 square feet on two decks with a restaurant, a walk-up window and a public trail. It lands in the Armourdale neighborhood on the Kansas side and the West Bottoms on the Missouri side. The Kansas-side levee trail connection and the wider trail network it is meant to anchor are still being built, with the full network reported for spring 2027.

Panasonic's battery plant in De Soto has hired more than 1,000 workers and is staffing toward about 4,000 at full capacity. The Kansas Department of Commerce's own release marked the grand opening in July 2025 and describes the $4 billion-plus project as the largest electric vehicle battery plant in the United States. De Soto's school district, USD 232, passed a $99.85 million bond in March 2026. A job that starts or moves changes which documents go on your loan file. For a salaried position, please provide your offer letter and your pay stubs covering the last 30 days, please. If you will be working for yourself once you arrive, please provide your complete income tax returns, all pages and schedules, please. We will need the past two years for you personally and for any business that you may have an interest in. Getting pre-approved in Kansas covers what gets reviewed before anybody writes a letter, and self-employed mortgages in Kansas covers the returns side of it.

Disagreeing with a Kansas value is still possible after the spring appeal window closes. The county appraiser's important dates page carries a payment-under-protest deadline alongside the December payment date, and that is the route left to an owner who did not appeal in the spring. Checking your county value after you buy explains why the number the county has on a home you just bought may not match what you paid for it.

Common questions

What is happening around the Kansas side of Kansas City at Thanksgiving 2026?

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The Johnson County Museum runs a free admission day the day before, on Wednesday the 25th. On the Friday, Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm in Olathe holds Day After Thanksgiving Living History from noon to four. The Holiday Luminary Walk opens that same evening at the Overland Park Arboretum and runs again on Saturday the 28th. Mahaffie adds a Backyard Horses Workshop on the Saturday. The Overland Park Farmers Market is closed on the 28th, which is the one Saturday in the season it skips.

When is the Holiday Luminary Walk at the Overland Park Arboretum in 2026?

Friday, November 27 and Saturday, November 28, and then the first three weekends of December, according to the Arts and Recreation Foundation of Overland Park. The Arboretum is at 8909 West 179th Street. Tickets are for a specific date and a half-hour entry window, and the foundation's FAQ says a night can sell out, so buying ahead is better than turning up.

When does Overland Park light its Christmas tree in 2026?

Friday, November 20. Visit Overland Park has the Mayor's Holiday Festival from five to eight at Clock Tower Landing on Marty Street, with the program and the lighting from 5:30 to six. Olathe lights its tree on December 4, and Lenexa's Sar-Ko Aglow ceremony is that same evening.

Are these events all in Johnson County?

Several are not. The Veterans Day parade is in downtown Leavenworth, up in Leavenworth County. The Rock Island Bridge lands in Armourdale in Wyandotte County, and the stadiums and Tanger at Legends are out at Village West in the far west of that county. Spring Hill is in two counties at once, Johnson and Miami, which means two appraisers and two county mill levies depending on the address. The county an address is in decides which appraiser values the home and which county mill levy goes on the bill, and the city decides the rest of the levy and the building code. A mailing address does not tell you the county or whether the home is inside the city limits, so both are worth looking up on the address itself. The Kansas side buyer's guide goes through that city by city.

I am moving to the Kansas side this winter. Where should I start?

You'll want to start with the state line, because State Line Road is the border and a home a block east of it is a Missouri purchase with Missouri rules. On the Kansas side there is no real estate transfer tax and no mortgage registration tax, which is unusual and good news at a closing table. After that, the Kansas page covers the statewide rules, including what the register of deeds charges per page to record your documents. Your insurance quote here will likely carry a separate percentage deductible for wind and hail, so it is worth asking for that number early. Then please give me a call and tell me which cities you are looking in, and I can tell you what your numbers look like in each of them.