There’s no place like Christmas Con! There's no place like Christmas Con! There's no place like Christmas Con!
Every Christmas fan’s favorite convention came to Kansas City — a.k.a, Hallmark’s home base — for the first time ever in 2023. From June 9th to the 11th, Christmas lovers flocked to the Overland Park Convention Center for a festive weekend filled with games, parties, seasonal delights, and all their favorite Hallmark, Great American Family, and Lifetime holiday movie stars.
That’s 4 Entertainment’s Christina Figliolia and Liliana Kligman held the very first Christmas Con in New Jersey in 2019. Jam-packed with Hallmark Channel’s biggest actors, fun games and events, and lots of seasonal treats, the weekend was a huge success. So much so that they expanded to the West Coast in 2022, taking over California’s Pasadena Convention Center that August. And finally, after so many requests, they brought this jolly-good weekend to a third location this year. As Figliolia and Kligman said in an earlier interview, they knew exactly where to go.
“We have constantly been asked to bring Christmas Con to the Midwest and what better place to host a Christmas convention than the birthplace of Hallmark, Kansas City.”
Just like every other Christmas Con, this one brought back some of our favorite Hallmark Channe and Great American Family stars. including host Jonathan Bennet. Guests also got to meet Melissa Joan Hart, Andrew Walker, Barbara Eden, Danica McKellar, Cameron Mathison, Jesse Metcalf, Autumn Resser, and many others. And along with all the celebrity guests came plenty of panels, photo ops, and some fun and festive events.
As usual, Bennet kicked things off on Friday June 9th, 2023 with Christmas Con’s Tree Lighting Ceremony — joined by Kimberley Sustad and Paul Campbell. Saturday brought even more with an Ugly Sweater Showdown at 1pm — featuring guest judges Taylor Cole, Benjamin Ayers, and Cindy Busby. Then, 7pm brought out the red carpet for the premiere of Hallmark Channel’s Field Day, starring Benjamin Ayers and Rachel Boston.
Finally, Sunday the 11th wrapped things up at the panel stage for KC 102.1’s White Elephant Party. The radio station had preselected ten winners to pair up with ten celebrity guests and brought out ten gift-wrapped gifts ranging from a Christmas CD to cash or even concert tickets. What a way to wrap things up.
Unfortunately, the Rent-A-Christmas Elf Squad was too busy planning holiday displays across the country to attend in our usual capacity, but we were happy to send along a few beautiful pre-decorated trees, including the one used for Friday's Tree Lighting Ceremony. We'll be sharing soon how you can get your own Rent-A-Christmas Pre-Decorated Tree worthy of your very own Christmas Con style tree lighting. Until then, you can always get in the holiday spirit by watching some Christmas In July holiday movie marathons on either Great American Family or Hallmark Channel.
We are looking forward to being part of Christmas Con New Jersey 2023 in December, and can’t wait to see where the summer edition of Christmas Con will head to next year!
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