"No season passes are available, nor are there discounts for lodge guests or homeowners." That line sits in the FAQ on Old Kinderhook's ice rink page, updated in mid-October for the 2026-27 season. If you own a home inside the gate, it means you pay what a family driving in from Jefferson City pays: $12 a skate session and $10 for skate rental.
The Christmas Village works much the same way. The $5-per-child activity charge applies to "all non-hotel guests," and the page offers no separate homeowner category. Living here doesn't make the season cheaper. It makes it closer. You can catch the rink on a Wednesday at 4 p.m. without planning a trip, and you can choose which nights to go and which to spend elsewhere. The calendar below is built around that.
What a December evening on the ice costs
The Ice calls itself Central Missouri's only outdoor ice rink, and it opens on Wednesday, December 2, 2026. Every skater pays per session, and an adult has to complete a waiver before each session.
| Group | Sessions | Rentals | Total per visit |
|---|---|---|---|
| One adult | $12 | $10 | $22 |
| Two adults | $24 | $20 | $44 |
| Family of four | $48 | $40 | $88 |
| Family of four, three visits | $144 | $120 | $264 |
Since there's no season pass, the cost goes up with every visit. Three family skates come to $264, and a fourth adds another $88. Rentals are priced separately from sessions, and they make up $40 of each $88 family visit.
The weeknight window is the part that favors residents
The rink is open Wednesday through Friday from 4 to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 9 p.m., from December 2 through February 28. It is closed Monday and Tuesday. Old Kinderhook says hours can shift with weather or group bookings and points skaters to its Facebook page for ice conditions.
Wednesday and Thursday evenings stand out on that schedule. The Christmas Village runs only on weekends, so midweek the rink is just a rink: open ice, the outdoor fire pits beside it, and s'mores, which the resort's rink page also mentions. On the Christmas Village weekends, the ice is one part of a larger lineup that draws the public in.
Dinner is easy to fit around a skate. The Trophy Room opens at 4 p.m., the same time the rink opens on weekdays. It serves until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Sunday, and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The restaurant does not serve breakfast or lunch. So you can skate from 4 to 6 and have dinner at 6:30. On a Friday or Saturday, the later kitchen closing also lets you do it in the other order.
The resort's rink page also lists The Hook Cafe and Cabana as places to eat after skating. Check their winter hours with the front desk at (573) 317-4314 before you plan on them.
Christmas Village, weekend by weekend
The Christmas Village runs on the first three weekends of December, and its activities are based at the Creek View Conference Center. The Lake of the Ozarks Convention & Visitor Bureau's events calendar lists the three weekends this way:
- Friday, December 4 through Sunday, December 6. This is the first weekend, two days after the rink opens.
- Friday, December 11 through Sunday, December 13. This weekend overlaps with Old Time Christmas at the museum in Linn Creek on Saturday, December 12.
- Friday, December 18 through Sunday, December 20. This is the last weekend before Christmas.
All three weekends follow the same pattern. Fridays have hayrides and elf storytelling. Saturdays bring holiday movies, Santa's Workshop, cookie and gingerbread house decorating, games and crafts. Sundays are for Breakfast with Santa. The resort's full list also includes Christmas on the Square, pictures with Santa and his elves, DIY ornaments, Winter Bingo, Holiday ABC's and Letters to Santa.
Friday hayrides run from 5 to 9 p.m. They cost $10 per person, children 4 and under ride free, each ride holds 12 people, and blankets and Christmas music are included. For a family of four with two children over 4, a Friday evening of hayride plus skating comes to $128: $40 for the hayride and $88 at the rink. The $5-per-child activity charge, food, skating and rentals are all billed separately.
The full 2026 event schedule is posted as a Christmas Village PDF, and the rink's day-by-day calendars for December, January and February are linked from the rink page.
Before the ice: the last weeks of November
The four weeks before the rink opens have their own Old Kinderhook schedule. According to the resort's 2026 rate table, the golf course is open to the public year-round, at $65 a round in November and $55 in December. The Trophy Room is taking advance reservations for its 2026 Thanksgiving buffet. The menu is linked from the restaurant's page, and the front desk handles bookings.
Some of the area's holiday lights go up before the rink opens. The City of Laurie's Enchanted Village of Lights opens November 20 at the Laurie Fairgrounds, 269 N Fairgrounds Rd. It runs nightly from 5 to 9 p.m., stays open until 10 on weekends, and closes January 2, 2027. Thanksgiving weekend brings the Lake of the Ozarks West Chamber's 25th Annual Lighted Christmas Parade on Saturday, November 28, from 6 to 8 p.m. It starts at Central Bank in Laurie and ends at Laurie Terrace Mall.
When the better deal is down the road
The rink's per-person pricing makes the free time between skates more valuable, and several dated events in the region fill it. They are a drive from the gate, not a walk.
The best value for families is Saturday, December 12, in Linn Creek. The Camden County Museum at 206 S Locust holds Old Time Christmas at the Museum from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Santa is there from 11 to 1, and a children's play starts at 2. Admission is $10 per family. Compare that with Old Kinderhook's Christmas Village, where a family with three children pays $15 in activity charges alone. December 12 also falls on the Village's second weekend. You can do the museum during the day and be back for the 1 p.m. Saturday skate at Old Kinderhook.
Three light displays run past Christmas:
- St. Patrick's Festival of Lights, at St. Patrick's Church, 176 Marian Dr. in Laurie. Nightly 5 to 10 p.m. from November 26 through January 10, 2027, which makes it the longest-running of the three. Church website.
- Versailles Unity of Lights, at Versailles City Park, 910 W Newton. Open nightly until 10 p.m. from November 26 through January 1, 2027. City of Versailles.
- Enchanted Village of Lights, at the Laurie Fairgrounds, through January 2, 2027.
Versailles adds one more evening. Christmas Around Versailles and its lighted parade start at 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 29, on the Versailles Square at 109 N Monroe St. The Versailles Chamber has details. Like the rink, the light displays are open into the evening, so Monday and Tuesday, when The Ice is closed, are a good fit for a drive to Laurie or Versailles.
After the Village closes
The Christmas Village ends Sunday, December 20, but the rink stays open through February 28. From then on, every day the rink is open runs on the regular schedule: weekday evenings from 4 and weekend afternoons from 1, at $12 a session. The resort has said it will post dates and details for its Winter 2026-27 hockey tournaments in late fall, so watch the rink page as January gets closer. Private rink rentals for birthdays, reunions and corporate outings are booked through the front desk at (573) 317-4314.
Want to know which streets inside Old Kinderhook are a short walk from the rink, Creek View Conference Center and The Trophy Room? Spouses Selling Houses knows the community home by home. Contact us for a free consultation, whether you want to find a home within walking distance of the ice or get a valuation on the one you own.
