What's on around St. Louis

Saturday the 21st is the day the holiday season lands on St. Louis all at once. The Ameren Thanks-For-Giving Parade steps off downtown at two in the afternoon. The ice rink and the Festival of Lights open a few blocks away at Kiener Plaza the same day. Kirkwood holds the first Festival of Trees it has ever run, and the Blues host New Jersey at six. The holiday events around St. Louis open across three weekends this month: Garden Glow on the 14th, Winterfest and the downtown parade on the 21st, and Wild Lights and Christmas Traditions in St. Charles on the 27th.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in Missouri through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work out of Bluffton, South Carolina, so nothing here is a first-hand claim. Every date below comes from the organizer, the venue, the team or the library 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. I checked all of it on October 23, 2026. If you are looking at homes anywhere from the city out to Wentzville this fall, the St. Louis area buyer's guide covers the Missouri counties here, along with the municipal occupancy inspection that many cities require before you move in. It covers trust indentures too, which are the recorded subdivision rules that do the job a homeowners association does in other states.

Tuesday the 3rd is election day

Election day is Tuesday, November 3, and STLPR's voter guide walks through what is on the ballot on both sides of the river. Four state constitutional amendments and one statewide proposition are on it. Voters also decide whether to keep certain judges on the bench, which is the judicial retention part of the ballot.

Two countywide questions in St. Louis County are worth reading before you get to the polling place, and Call Newspapers laid both of them out. The county's own Proposition A, which shares a name with the statewide one, would remove the county auditor's term of office from the county charter. Proposition S asks county voters to levy five cents for every $100 of assessed property value to pay for services for residents age 60 and older. If the county you are shopping in raises its property tax, and your monthly payment is the kind that includes the tax, your lender collects the higher amount each month and pays the bill for you. So a question like Proposition S is worth reading before you settle on a payment you are comfortable with. Your Missouri property tax bill after a fall closing covers that side of it, including what happens to the bill that arrives in late November.

The county executive's race is on the same ballot, and it is the first since 1974 in which a sitting county executive is not seeking reelection, because Sam Page is not running again.

The film festival, a free music weekend and the storytellers

Cinema St. Louis runs the St. Louis International Film Festival from Thursday, November 5 through Sunday, November 15, and this is the 35th one. Explore St. Louis has the run and the theaters, and St. Louis Magazine's preview says opening night screens Martin McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine.

Free 4 All takes over Grand Center the weekend of November 6 through 8, and it costs nothing to walk into. The Kranzberg Arts Foundation counted about 100 local acts across more than ten stages. The festival's own site puts the main day on Saturday the 7th from noon to midnight, with a Friday kick-off and a Sunday matinee at The Key STL.

St. Louis County Library hosts the 47th St. Louis Storytelling Festival from November 8 through 15, and the library's festival page says every event is free and open to anyone. The Grand Showcase is Saturday the 14th at two in the afternoon at the Clark Family Branch, and the Voices of America show is Thursday the 12th at the Missouri History Museum.

The Veterans Day 5K run and walk is Saturday, November 7 at Soldiers Memorial downtown, and the race's own page says the proceeds go to St. Patrick Center.

Over in Forest Park, the Saint Louis Art Museum holds a public opening on Friday, November 6 for three things at once. Unsettling the City is built around Julie Mehretu's Epigraph, Damascus. Signs Under Pressure is a Jasper Johns lithograph show, and Art After 1945 has been reinstalled. Women Impressionists and the Land opened in October and runs to January 10, with more than 70 works centered on Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot and Marie Bracquemond. The museum's own calendar carries the hours. General admission is free every day, and the ticketed exhibitions are free on Fridays, which is the day the openings land on.

Veterans Day falls on a Wednesday this year

Veterans Day is Wednesday, November 11. The City of St. Louis has run a parade and a ceremony on the south steps of Soldiers Memorial in past years, and the city's event listing still carried last year's times when I checked on October 23. The hours on the third-party calendars I found belong to a prior observance, so I have left the city ceremony out of the dated list rather than print an hour I could not confirm. Several municipalities hold their own eleven o'clock observances, and you can find the one near you on your own city's calendar.

If you are buying here with a VA loan, VA loans in Missouri covers how the entitlement works across the state.

Comedy takes over the Delmar Loop for five days

The Flyover Comedy Festival moved to the Delmar Loop this year, which First Alert 4 reported in February, and it grew to five days with close to 150 performers. Announced names include David Cross, Roy Wood Jr., Dulcé Sloan, the Sklar Brothers and Dropout Improv. The venues are The Pageant, Delmar Hall, the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill, COCA's Berges Theatre and Fitz's, with one headliner show at Stifel Theatre and the improv staying at The Improv Shop in The Grove.

The festival's home page opens the run on Wednesday the 11th, and that is the span the festival gave the press when it announced the lineup: five days, the 11th through the 15th. Its own schedule and FAQ pages, and the Delmar Loop's listing, start it on Thursday the 12th. I have listed the 11th through the 15th, and I would check the festival's site before buying for the Wednesday.

Seven Blues home games at the Enterprise Center

The Blues are home seven times this month, and the team's own schedule release gives the dates and the Central times:

• Detroit, Tuesday the 10th at 7.
• Florida, Saturday the 14th at 6.
• Anaheim, Tuesday the 17th at 7.
• New Jersey, Saturday the 21st at 6.
• Edmonton, Sunday the 22nd at 6.
• Dallas, Friday the 27th at 1 in the afternoon.
• Washington, Saturday the 28th at 6.

National broadcasts move start times, so I would look at the team's schedule the week of a game.

The holiday lights, in the order they come on

The Polar Express goes first. The ride's own site opens it at Union Station on Friday, November 13 and runs it to December 30, with no trains on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Garden Glow opens the next night. The Garden's own ticket release puts this season at November 14 through January 2. Members get a preview night on Friday the 13th, there is an adults-only Jingle and Mingle on Friday the 20th, and the sensory night is Monday the 30th, which needs a Garden Glow admission ticket like any other night. The Garden's own Glow calendar has it dark on November 16 through 19 and again on Thanksgiving, so the opening weekend is followed by four nights with nothing on. mobot.org/glow is where I would confirm the night you want.

Then comes Saturday the 21st, the crowded one. The Gateway Arch Park Foundation opens Winterfest at Kiener Plaza for its 11th year that day and runs it to January 3. The rink is open from four to eight on Thursday and Friday evenings and from noon to eight on Saturdays and Sundays. Explore St. Louis carries the hours for the whole run, and the Foundation's own page says the rest of the programming, with its dates and times, is still to be announced. Opening day brings the Winterfest 5K and a one-mile fun run at 7:30 in the morning, and in the evening the Ameren Missouri Festival of Lights, when The Salvation Army tree of lights is lit. The hour for that had not been posted when I checked. New this year, per Hoodline's account of the announcement, are a Winterfest Curling Cafe with two curling bays and three more igloos.

Wild Lights at the Saint Louis Zoo is the last of them to open, on select nights from Friday, November 27 through December 30. The Zoo's own event page says Santa is there for pictures every night through December 23 and that the sensory-friendly night is December 7. The same page warns that the popular dates sell out, so I would buy the tickets before driving over.

The parade downtown and the first Festival of Trees in Kirkwood

The 42nd Ameren Thanks-For-Giving Parade runs downtown at two in the afternoon on Saturday, November 21. Celebrate Saint Louis, which presents it, has the musical floats, the dance groups, the drumlines and the marching bands on its page, along with Santa at the end of the line. The honorary grand marshals were still marked as coming when I checked, and watching from the sidewalk is free.

Kirkwood holds its first-ever Festival of Trees the same Saturday, and the trees and wreaths stay up in the lobby of the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center on East Monroe through December 4. Downtown Kirkwood's own page opens the kickoff from ten in the morning to four in the afternoon on the 21st, then keeps weekday hours of ten to two and extends them around performances at the center. The kickoff costs nothing and still needs a ticket. The Downtown Kirkwood Holiday Walk runs the same day, with cocoa and coffee along the street and Santa from one to two. Judges hand out awards in categories like Best in Festival, and the raffle for the displays is drawn on December 4 for the Kirkwood Arts Foundation and KirkCare.

Christmas Traditions opens on Main Street in St. Charles

Christmas Traditions opens along historic Main Street in St. Charles on Friday, November 27 and runs to Christmas Eve, and it is free to walk. VisitMO's listing opens the first day at noon and keeps it going to 8:30 in the evening. After that it holds Friday evenings from 6 to 8:30, Saturdays from noon to 8:30, Sundays from noon to 5, and a short Christmas Eve from 11 to 2. The Santa Parade comes down Main Street at noon on Saturdays and Sundays. Discover St. Charles says the opening day brings a procession of costumed characters to the KATY Depot for the opening ceremony instead of a full parade, which puts the first Santa Parade on Saturday the 28th.

The farmers markets have closed for the year, except Soulard

The outdoor markets around St. Louis finish before November gets going, and they do not all finish on the same weekend.

Soulard Farmers Market at 730 Carroll Street is the one that stays open. The city runs it year-round, Wednesday through Saturday, and St. Louis Magazine's guide to the area's markets puts Saturday as the busiest day of the four. I would ask the market itself about the winter hours before making a late-afternoon trip.

Tower Grove Farmers' Market's own vendor page has the Saturday season closing on October 31 after 31 markets, and the Tuesday season ending back in September. Kirkwood's outdoor market is seasonal too, opening in the spring; the 2027 date was not posted on The Summit's calendar when I checked. The Tree Lot and the Gingerbread Shoppe take the market's place on Argonne Drive starting Saturday the 21st.

Thanksgiving morning has three races and a football game

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The Kirkwood-Webster Turkey Day Run goes that morning with a three-mile and a six-mile option, co-sponsored by the Kirkwood and Webster Groves parks departments. Hoodline reported that the construction at the Kirkwood Amtrak station moved the start line to the corner of Adams and Taylor this year, with the finish in front of the Kirkwood library. The three-mile goes off at 7:30 and the six-mile at 8:10. The City of Webster Groves has the registration and puts packet pickup in early November.

The St. Louis Turkey Trot runs a 5K and an 8K the same morning, and its own race page has the start at eight o'clock. The Olivette Turkey Trot starts and finishes at Stacy Park at nine, with packet pickup from seven to 7:45, and its page says the proceeds go to the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry.

Kirkwood and Webster Groves first played each other in 1898, and the Turkey Day Game has been a Thanksgiving fixture since 1928, with a handful of interruptions along the way. The kickoff time and the host school for this year were not posted where I could find them, so I would look at the two athletic departments' own pages.

Shows at the Fabulous Fox

Boop! The Musical finishes its run at the Fox on Sunday, November 8, and the theatre's own page carries the showtimes and the accessible-performance listings for that last week. A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond musical, takes the stage from Friday the 13th through Sunday the 15th. Showtimes move, and the Fox's own calendar is the one carrying the current ones.

Events I could not confirm for this year

Three things that still turn up on November lists around St. Louis are not in the dated list above, because this year's date was not published by the organizers when I checked on October 23.

Winter Wonderland at Tilles Park has no 2026 season posted yet, and St. Louis County Parks is where the dates go up. The City of St. Louis Veterans Day parade and ceremony has only a prior year's listing. The Turkey Day Game kickoff time and host school are not posted either.

One more is in the dated list with a caveat on it. Flyover Comedy's own pages disagree about whether the festival starts on the 11th or the 12th. I listed the 11th through the 15th, which is the span the festival gave the press, and it is flagged above. The programming hours for the Festival of Lights on Winterfest's opening night are not posted yet either, so no time for it appears above.

On the roads, MoDOT's weekly St. Louis construction report is the page that carries the lane and ramp closures, which come and go week by week across the city and St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties.

New around the area this year

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's new campus in north St. Louis is open, and about 3,150 staff are moving into it during 2026. The agency's own page for Next NGA West describes 97 acres with a 700,000-square-foot office building, two garages and a visitor center. The team that built it calls the $1.7 billion campus the largest federal investment in the city's history. The staff are coming from the Soulard site. A job that starts or moves changes which documents a lender reads on your file. For a salaried position, we will need your offer letter and your most recent pay stubs. If you will be working for yourself once you arrive, we will need your complete income tax returns, all pages and schedules, for the past two years, for you personally and for any business that you may have an interest in. Either way, that is worth lining up before you are under contract. Getting pre-approved in Missouri covers what gets reviewed before anybody writes a letter, and self-employed mortgages in Missouri covers the returns side of it.

The Missouri History Museum put 100 moments of St. Louis baseball on the wall, and the museum is changing its name. St. Louis at Bat opened on October 3 and runs to September 7, 2027. The curator built it around 100 moments because 2026 is the hundredth anniversary of the Cardinals' first World Series win. Opening weekend brought a ribbon cutting with Fredbird, a vintage baseball and corkball demonstration, and player meet-and-greets the next day. Separately, STLPR reported in September that the museum becomes the St. Louis History Museum in the fall of 2027, to say plainly that its subject is this region.

The Brickline Greenway keeps opening a segment at a time. Great Rivers Greenway puts the whole project at $245 million, and it entered 2026 more than 64 percent funded; by August, STLPR reported it at about 68 percent. The 0.85-mile Market Street stretch from 22nd to Compton has been open since April 13, another segment starts construction this fall, and construction on the Cortex station to Forest Park piece is slated for early 2029.

Earthquake coverage is not part of a standard homeowners policy in Missouri. A policy here is written on its own, or added onto the homeowners policy as an endorsement, which is an add-on to the policy you already have. The deductible comes as a percentage of the insured value rather than a flat number. Earthquake coverage before you close walks through what that does to your payment and when to get the quote.

Common questions

What is happening around St. Louis at Thanksgiving 2026?

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The Kirkwood-Webster Turkey Day Run goes that morning in downtown Kirkwood with a new start line. The St. Louis Turkey Trot runs a 5K and an 8K at eight o'clock, and the Olivette Turkey Trot starts at Stacy Park at nine. Kirkwood and Webster Groves play the Turkey Day Game, which has been a Thanksgiving fixture between the two schools since 1928. Garden Glow is closed for the holiday, and Wild Lights at the Zoo opens the next evening.

When does Garden Glow open in 2026?

Saturday, November 14, and it runs to January 2, according to the Missouri Botanical Garden's own ticket release. Members get a preview on Friday the 13th, the adults-only Jingle and Mingle is Friday the 20th, and the sensory night is Monday the 30th. Glow is dark on November 16 through 19 and on Thanksgiving, so mobot.org/glow is the page to check for the night you want.

When does Wild Lights open at the Saint Louis Zoo in 2026?

Friday, November 27, on select nights through December 30. The Zoo's own page says Santa is there for pictures every night through December 23 and that the sensory-friendly night is December 7. The popular dates sell out, so I would buy the tickets before heading over.

When is the Thanks-For-Giving Parade in 2026?

Saturday, November 21, at two in the afternoon in downtown St. Louis, for the 42nd year. Celebrate Saint Louis presents it, and the honorary grand marshals were still coming when I checked. Winterfest opens at Kiener Plaza the same day, and the Ameren Missouri Festival of Lights follows that evening.

Are these events all inside the City of St. Louis?

Several are not. Garden Glow is in the city on Shaw Boulevard, and Wild Lights is in Forest Park. The Festival of Trees and the Tree Lot are in Kirkwood, the Olivette Turkey Trot is in Olivette, Christmas Traditions is in St. Charles, and the Flyover venues are along Delmar in University City and the city. The municipality an address is in sets the occupancy inspection and the building code here, and the taxing districts at that address set the tax bill, so a mailing address does not settle either one. The St. Louis area buyer's guide goes through that town by town.

I am moving to the St. Louis area this winter. Where should I start?

You'll want to start with the city and the county an address is in, because the City of St. Louis is its own government and is in no county at all. St. Louis County next door is dozens of separate municipalities, each with its own rules at closing. The school district's levy is a bigger slice of the tax bill than the county's own. After that, the Missouri page covers the statewide rules, including the deed recording. One of them is the form Missouri hands you at closing about owner's title insurance. It tells you in writing that the title insurance your loan pays for protects the lender and not you, and that you can still buy your own coverage for sixty days after closing. Then please give me a call and tell me which towns you are looking in, and I can tell you what your numbers look like in each of them.