HALLMARK EXPERIENCE was a real treat!

This past weekend I traveled to Kansas City not for an anime convention, as I so often do, but for something else entirely…well, maybe not THAT different. 
The Hallmark Christmas Experience held its first-ever weekend extravaganza in the Crown Center in the heart of Kansas City, continuing until December 20-22.
I went with my mom to what is, essentially, a “Hallmark Comic-Con” featuring vendors, light shows, and panels featuring the weekend’s selection of Hallmark stars which for weekend 1 included their heavy-hitters like Erin Cahill, Jessy Schram, Jonathan Bennett, Kristoffer Polaha, Melissa Peterman, Warren Christie, Wes Brown, and the stars of the Hallmark’s Channel’s big weekend blockbuster, “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” Hunter King and Tyler Hynes.
We got to attend several panels featuring celebrity guests which included Bennett, Polaha, Cahill, Peterman, Brown, and Hynes as they talked about what it was like to make these movies and we also attended a meet-and-greet photo-op which was a surreal experience, especially getting to shake Polaha’s hand and tell him how much I enjoyed him in WONDER WOMAN 1984. 
My mom and dad were huge Hallmark Channel fans, and after my dad passed in March we made it a point to attend this event. 
I admit I didn’t “get into” Hallmark movies until a few years ago, and if you are under the misconception that these feel-good love story movies are just casual watches for old folks, you’d be dead wrong. 
People of every age, race, and gender were in attendance for this event. Screaming fans shouting for the celebrities, cheering when the audience would get a sneak-peek of some new Hallmark movie. It truly was like being at an anime or comic book convention. 
If you’ve never been to the Westin Hotel or Crown Center, you need to make it a point to attend one of these events. The Westin is a gorgeous brutalist hotel and convention center and the Crown Center is host to a decadent square, 3-story shopping mall, and of course the Hallmark Headquarters which includes a self-guided museum tour which my mom and I took part in. 

The Crown Center Square was made up to look like a Hallmark Christmas village with vendors, food stands, and a towering Christmas tree. You wouldn’t think it could get any more “Hallmark” than that, but Saturday morning we woke up to see the entire square blanketed it snow which was surreal. 
Upcoming stars include Andrew Walker, Benjamin Ayres, Lacey Chabert, Andie MacDowell, Chris McNally, Ashley Williams, and Barbara Niven and their full roster and schedule can be seen here: https://experiencehallmarkchristmas.com/