A big, established Wichita-area operation with real infrastructure (train rides, Santa, a mystery dinner theatre business on the side), but you'll need to call ahead since no 2026 pricing is published and weekday hours shrink to almost nothing.
Not published on farm website; historically included choose-and-cut and pre-cut options at varying prices by size/species.
Prairie Pines has been a Wichita-area fixture for more than 40 years, and the record makes clear it’s built as more than a single-purpose tree lot. The same operation runs a mystery dinner theatre and a lavender farm business, which tells you what kind of visit to expect: more infrastructure, more staff, and more going on than a small family field with a saw rack by the gate.
The season is set for November 27 through December 20, 2026, following the farm’s consistent pattern of opening the Friday after Thanksgiving. Cut-your-own is the headline offering, with saws provided and fields reached by hayrack rather than a walk-out lot — useful to know if anyone in your group would struggle with an uneven field on foot. For visitors who’d rather skip the field entirely, precut Fraser fir and Noble fir are sold on site, alongside Austrian pine, Virginia pine, White pine, and Concolor fir grown in the fields.
Beyond the tree itself, the activity list is longer than most Kansas farms in this research batch: hayrack rides, a tractor-pulled train, Santa visits, a sleigh backdrop for photos, school tours, a gift shop, and wreaths for sale. There’s also a separately ticketed mystery dinner theatre event, which is a genuine point of difference — this isn’t just a tree farm with a hot cocoa stand, it’s a small entertainment business that happens to sell Christmas trees as one of its seasonal draws.
The one detail every visitor needs to plan around is how much the hours shrink outside the first weekend. Opening weekend (the Friday after Thanksgiving through that Sunday) runs 9am-5pm, with Sunday cut to noon-5pm. After that, weekday hours drop to roughly 2-5:30pm, and the final week of the season is compressed further to noon-4pm. If you’re planning an evening trip after work, or a visit in the closing days before December 20, call ahead rather than assume standard hours apply — a wasted drive to a closed gate is the single easiest mistake to make here.
No source checked publishes a dollar figure for either the choose-and-cut or pre-cut trees at Prairie Pines. The record notes only that pricing has historically varied by size and species, which tells you the pricing structure exists but not what it actually costs. That’s a real gap, not a small one — per-foot or per-species pricing on the sizes and varieties listed here (Fraser and Noble fir tend to run pricier than pine at most farms) could mean a meaningful difference in what you pay depending on what you pick. The honest move is to ask when you arrive, before your family gets attached to a specific tree, so cost isn’t a surprise at checkout.
Prairie Pines offers a genuinely bigger day out than most of the smaller Kansas farms in this area — trains, Santa, a real gift shop, and a choice between cutting your own or grabbing one pre-cut — but the tradeoff is a farm that assumes you already know its rhythms. Weekday hours are short, the season is only about three and a half weeks long, and there’s no published price to plan a budget around. First-time visitors are better served calling ahead than showing up cold on a weeknight.
Opening weekend (Nov 27-29, 2026) runs the longest hours of the season at 9am-5pm (Sunday noon-5pm), which also means it's the busiest. If you want a quieter visit, the record shows weekend hours settle to 10 or 11am-5pm afterward, with weekday hours dropping to roughly 2-5:30pm.
Not stated directly, but a farm running hayrack rides, a train, Santa visits, and school tours alongside the tree fields suggests planning for more than a quick in-and-out trip, especially on a weekend with other families around.
Not stated directly, but a 40-plus-year operation that also runs a mystery dinner theatre and lavender farm business on the same property is a sizable destination, and sizable destinations draw bigger weekend crowds than a small family lot. Opening weekend after Thanksgiving is the likely peak.
Not described in the record.
Not addressed in the source. Choose-and-cut fields are reached by hayrack, which is worth knowing if walking a field isn't an option for someone in your group.
Skip this one if you need a firm 2026 price before committing to the drive, since none is published anywhere checked, and skip a weekday evening visit unless you've called first, since hours shrink to roughly 2-5:30pm outside weekends.
No specific nearby-farm comparison is available in this record.
Yes. The record confirms cut-your-own is offered, with saws provided, reached by hayrack out to the fields. Pre-cut Fraser and Noble fir are also sold for anyone who doesn't want to walk the fields.
Not published anywhere checked. The record notes pricing has historically varied by size and species for both choose-and-cut and pre-cut trees, but no dollar figures were found.
Opening weekend (Nov 27-29, 2026) runs 9am-5pm, Sunday noon-5pm. After that, weekends run roughly 10 or 11am-5pm and weekdays drop to about 2-5:30pm, with the final weekend shortened to noon-4pm. Confirm before a weekday visit.
Yes. The record lists hayrack rides, a tractor-pulled train, Santa visits, a sleigh photo backdrop, school tours, a gift shop, wreaths for sale, and a separately ticketed mystery dinner theatre event.
November 27 – December 20, 2026. Fri-Sun (weekdays limited hours early in season). Hours: Opening weekend 9am-5pm (Sun 12-5pm); weekdays ~2-5:30pm; weekends 10/11am-5pm; final weekend noon-4pm.
Pricing was not published when we last checked. Not published on farm website; historically included choose-and-cut and pre-cut options at varying prices by size/species.
Yes. It's cut-your-own, and a saw is provided.
4055 N Tyler Rd, Maize, KS 67101, in Sedgwick County. It is one of 5 farms we track in Wichita Region.
We track 5 farms in Wichita Region, 5 of which let you cut your own tree. The farm has not published a starting price, so it cannot be compared on cost — call before you budget.
Its season runs about 24 days against a regional average of 24, so it is broadly in line with the rest of the region.
What sets it apart locally: it has a hayride or sleigh ride, which most Wichita Region farms on our list do not.
There are 2 other farms we track in Sedgwick County. All Wichita Region farms →
prairiepines.com · pickyourownchristmastree.org
Checked September 2026.