61. Civil War Living History Weekend At Grant’S Farm
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (314) 843-1700
Address: 10501 Gravois Road
Description: This biannual event takes guests back in time, as the 8th Regiment Missouri Infantry performs living-history demonstrations throughout a weekend in mid-October. In addition to setting up camp in the meadow adjacent to Hardscrabble, the former home of Ulysses S. Grant and his family, the re-enactors demonstrate what life was like during the Civil War. Grant’s Cabin, nicknamed ”Hardscrabble,” is open for tours, and an interpreter from the U. S. Grant National Historic Site is on-hand to answer questions. Admission is free, but there is a $10 per car parking fee.
62. Deutsch Country Days – A Living History Weekend
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
63. Grant’S Farm Halloween
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (314) 843-1700
Address: 10501 Gravois Road
Description: Grant’s Farm Halloween includes activities such as taking a moonlight tram ride through the deer park (bring a flashlight), and participants are encouraged to wear a costume for the costume parade. Visitors can enjoy A variety of shows and activities, including the Mad Science Show—a spectacular science-themed show that will amaze and entertain the small fry, a Creature Feature Show, non-scary classic Halloween characters, and a DJ spinning tunes in the historic courtyard. $20 parking fee per car.
64. The Historic Haunting At Thornhill
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (636) 532-7298
Description: The estate of Frederick Bates provides the setting for this candlelit event. Enjoy storytelling and live animal shows, take a tour of the Bates mansion and family cemetery, and learn all about memorial and burial practices of the early 1800s during this two-day event in late October. Watch a blacksmith and wheat weaver as they demonstrate and explain the superstitions surrounding their crafts. Children can participate in harvest-time activities and make an old-world jack-o’-lantern. Reservations recommended. The cost is $8.
65. Halloween In The Central West End
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (314) 367-2220
Description: www.thecwe.com The daytime celebration is family-friendly and includes a canine costume parade followed by a kids-only costume parade. After dark the event changes into an adults-only party, with costumed grown-ups getting a chance to strut their stuff during a parade at 9:00 p.m. The assorted bars and restaurants throughout the CWE neighborhood all get into the Halloween spirit as well. Free.
66. St. Louis International Film Festival (Sliff)
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
68. Mid-America Holiday Parade
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: Held on Thanksgiving morning each year, the Midwest’s best holiday parade features marching bands, giant inflated balloon characters the Budweiser Clydesdales, cheerleaders, and lots of colorful floats, carriages, antique cars, dance teams, and even the Cardinals’ beloved mascot, Fredbird. Oh—and some guy named Santa Claus. The parade starts around 8:30 a.m. at Broadway and Spruce streets, marches to Market Street, turns west on Market for about 16 blocks, and ends at 20th Street. The entire parade lasts approximately two hours. Free.
69. Anheuser-Busch Brewery Christmas Lights Display
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (314) 577-2000
Description: From late November to early January, this display features more than 800,000 red and white lights that adorn almost every tree and building within the historic Anheuser-Busch brewery compound. Visitors can drive along the brewery’s main street, which includes the festively lighted Brew House, Clydesdales Stables, the Bevo packaging plant, and other historic buildings. Free.
70. Holiday Flower Show
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (314) 577-9400, (800) 642-8842
Address: 4344 Shaw Boulevard
Description: The Missouri Botanical Garden’s holiday flower show, held from late November to early January, includes dozens of life-size topiary animals at play in a formal patterned indoor garden. Surrounding a 16-foot moss Christmas tree are hundreds of colorful seasonal plants and flowers, including poinsettias, begonias, gloxinias, anthurium, peperomia, and rosemary. The holiday wreath exhibit is a popular event that features creations by many of the area’s top floral designers. The cost is $3 to $10.
71. Victorian Christmas
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (314) 655-1600
Address: 11 North Fourth Street
Description: This month-long event, which celebrates the holiday season as it was in the Victorian era, kicks off at the end of November with the lighting of a 25-foot Christmas tree with musical accompaniment by the Compton Heights Concert Band. The celebration continues daily with noontime concerts in the Old Courthouse Rotunda throughout December, museum galleries depicting holiday celebrations at different times in St. Louis’s history, and daily holiday tours and education programs. Free.
72. Wild Lights
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (314) 781-0900
Description: From late November through December, you can stroll through the St. Louis Zoo’s enchanting holiday wonderland and enjoy thousands of colorful lights, animated displays, seasonal music, and storytelling, and you can meet Blitzen and Miracle, two live reindeer who live at the zoo year-round. The “Winter Wizard” uses audience members to help tell his stories, and the Kids’ Corner offers hands-on craft-making activities for the younger set. The zoo’s Lakeside Cafe remains open throughout the event for dinner, snacks, and hot cups of cocoa and coffee. The cost is $4.
73. Chanukah: Festival Of Lights Celebration
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (314) 577-9400, (800) 642-8842
Address: 4344 Shaw Boulevard
Description: Chanukah is a traditional Jewish holiday celebration that includes festive music and a menorah-lighting ceremony. The daylong event includes stories of Chanukah told by puppets, storytellers, and musicians. An Israeli shuk (market) with an array of Chanukah merchandise, Chanukah cookie decorating, and children’s craft workshops round out the festivities. The cost is $3 to $8.
74. Lafayette Square Holiday Parlour Tour And Taste Of Lafayette Square
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (314) 772-5724
Description: During this one-day event in mid-December, visitors can take a self-guided walking tour of 12 homes and experience the elegance and gentility of St. Louis in the late 1800s with a glimpse of the Victorian “painted ladies” all decked out in their holiday finery. Lafayette Square has become one of the “hot spots” in town, thanks to a bumper crop of new restaurants and bars and revitalized loft and apartment living spaces. Activities during the holiday house tour include a Victorian teahouse, historic carriage rides, carolers, live music, and an art and antiques fair. The cost is usually $12 to $15.
75. Kwanzaa: Festival Of The First Fruits
City: St. Louis, MO
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (314) 577-9400, (800) 642-8842
Address: 4344 Shaw Boulevard
Description: Kwanzaa, named for the Swahili term that means “first fruits,” celebrates the richness of African-American culture and is centered around the feast table of the harvest. A Kwanzaa ceremony highlights a day of storytelling, craft and jewelry workshops, and authentic African drumming and musical performances. The festival is held in late December. The cost is $3–$8.