Midtown's Holiday Season Runs Between Main Street and West 39th

This Saturday, November 7, the doors at 3816 Main St. open at 11 a.m. for KC Zine Con #11. It's free, and it runs until 5 p.m. Inside a toy shop full of blind boxes and Japanese capsule machines, zine makers will set up tables. There are free workshops at 11:45 a.m., 1 p.m., 2:45 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Crybaby Cafe is on the schedule for food and DJ Blush Beat for music.

That afternoon kicks off about six weeks of holiday dates in Midtown. Almost all of them happen in two places: a two-block stretch of Main Street and the West 39th Street corridor. Most are run by people who make things. That means a clay center whose 26 rentable artist studios are all taken, a toy shop where a Kansas City Art Institute instructor helps host trading nights, and a row of independent shops on Main that hold their own monthly shopping nights. Westport's bar district has its big day too. It's just one Saturday.

Two blocks of Main hold three of the season's dates

Bubble Wrapp's move is the reason this stretch of Main has a toy shop at all. KCUR reported in October that the shop moved into a bigger space at 3816 Main, close to the KC Streetcar line, after its Westport Road lease ended. It opened there in April. The owners, Kitty and Nate, started Bubble Wrapp as an online store in early 2021. Today it hosts artist exhibitions, pop-ups, trading nights and workshops. Nate teaches a toy production class as an adjunct professor at the Kansas City Art Institute. "We believe toys are art, collecting should be fun, and community is just as important as the toys themselves," Kitty told Startland News in the story KCUR ran.

A block south, the 3900 block of Main anchors Westport East Third Thursdays. The next two are Thursday, November 19, and Thursday, December 17, both from 6 to 8 p.m. You get one raffle ticket for every $10 you spend at a participating business. Prizes include a $100 Visa gift card, and you don't need to be there to win. Midtown KC Now lists the participants for November:

• On Main Street: Cheval at 3940, Tailleur at 3933, Midwest Cyclery at 3951 and Phoenix Herb at 3957
• On Westport Road: Passions at 208, Wonderland at 307, Pop! Vintage at 312, Xclusiv Barber & Salon at 315, Gilded Chaos at 314 and Wearhouse Vintage at 318

The December list is the same, and so are the raffle rules. Zine Con, two Third Thursdays and a toy shop that runs its own events add up to three dated evenings or afternoons within a two-block walk of 39th and Main. That's before counting what's going on a few streets west.

West 39th now has one of the country's biggest clay studios

The KC Clay Guild spent decades in Waldo before outgrowing the space. In September it cut the ribbon on its new Ceramic Arts Center at 500 W. 39th St. The building is 18,600 square feet, nearly four times the size of the old one. KCUR covered the opening, and Executive Director Louis Reilly told the station the move puts the Guild "in the top five largest ceramic art centers in the country, and that includes universities."

The headcount changed even more than the floor plan. The old space had a couple of rentable artist studios, and the new one has 26. Reilly told KCUR that all of them were rented within a couple of weeks of the announcement. This December is the first holiday season since those studios filled.

The Annual Holiday Sale and Studio Tour runs December 4 through 6. The Guild says all the sale spaces are full. The tour application closed October 15. The sale page doesn't list hours or a location yet and asks visitors to check back.

You can also get your hands dirty before then. On Sunday, November 8, from 3 to 4:30 p.m., there's a beginner-friendly Parent/Child Turkey Handbuilding Class for kids ages 6 to 12. One ticket covers a child and an adult. Four-week beginner wheel classes are open for registration for November and December, including a Tuesday session from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the 39th Street building. A December wheel class means you can make your own gifts instead of buying them.

The season, date by date

Put together, the dates are spread out. There's one big Saturday early on, then mostly weeknights in the middle, and the Guild's sale weekend falls a week before Westport's busiest day.

The November 19 luncheon fits the theme of the season. Its speakers are Steve Waterman and Dan Wehmueller, who will talk about the Nelson-Atkins project, and the toy and small-appliance drive for reStart Family Lodge gives guests a reason to shop before they show up. Midtown KC Now's event page has the details. That evening, the Third Thursdays shops open at 6. If you're up for a full day, you can go from the luncheon to the Main Street shops.

Westport's own calendar is where the bigger crowds gather. The Westport events listing puts the Christmas Market, the Santa Dash and 12 Bars of Charity all on December 12. That's the Saturday after the Clay Guild's sale weekend and the Thursday before the last Third Thursdays of the year.

Where to eat between stops

West 39th got a new lunch spot with a wine window this year. The Pitch reported that Joe Amigoni opened a Tuscan-inspired sandwich shop and wine and spritz bar in the old Gilhouly's space. Its own website spells the name Panino Divino and lists the address as 1721 W. 39th St. It says every panino starts with fresh-baked schiacciata and that the wine window is modeled on Florence's. Hours are Tuesday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It's closed Mondays. Earlier pre-opening coverage listed Monday hours, so the website is the one to go by.

Farther along the street, FOX4 reported in April that Beirut Taco had opened in the former D'Bronx space with Lebanese-Mexican food, including shawarma tacos.

For a weeknight after Third Thursdays, two new spots opened in August. GreenHorn Bar & Grill replaced the Green Room on the lower level of 4010 Pennsylvania Ave. Owners Matt and Tessa Ortiz kept the bar, restaurant and live entertainment setup, and Chambre Coffee is still upstairs, KCUR reported. North on 31st Street, Brian Roberts opened Social House at 325 E. 31st St. It's an aperitivo and cocktail bar that pours local and Black-owned spirits alongside pizza from nearby Orange By: Devoured, according to KCUR.

The streetcar starts its second holiday season

This is the Main Street Extension's second holiday season. The 3.5-mile line opened October 24, 2025, linking UMKC to the downtown route, and it's still free to ride. A UMKC story marking the anniversary reported 3.5 million passenger trips from January through August 2026. That's more than three times the trips over the same months of 2025. June set the monthly record at 698,705 trips, and July 11 set the single-day record at 55,973. In its first month, KSHB reported trains every 10 to 12 minutes.

Bubble Wrapp and the Westport East shops on Main sit near the line. Zine Con on Saturday and both Third Thursdays evenings are a short walk from the line.

Tracking these blocks is part of our job at Livin KC, and that includes which Main Street storefronts change hands and what each new opening on West 39th does to the street around it. If you live in Midtown or Westport and want to know where your home stands as the area changes, we'll put together a valuation based on the specific blocks you live on. Get Your Home Valuation.