Precious Moments Park & Chapel

This is a strange place, but interesting. I am not a huge Precious Moments fan, but where else am I going to see a chapel completely decked out with Precious Moments paintings? Nowhere. And that is why we stopped. It is one of a kind. Obviously, if you love Precious Moments, you will love this place — especially because the gift shop is huge.
The story behind the creation of this place is interesting, and the tour guide was very helpful and knowledgeable bringing us up to speed (We arrived after the last tour concluded). The paintings are well done and interesting to look at. The gardens are nice and relaxing. All and all, a nice place to get out and stretch and see something you will not find elsewhere.

Let me start with some respectful comments. The people working at Precious Moments (PM) were friendly, welcoming, and clearly super fans of the PM brand. The owner/​designer of PM seems to have his heart in the right place. He seems like a good family man who devoted his life to PM. With these things considered…
If you’re scared of Children of the Corn or childlike figurines/​paintings/​mechanical dolls, this is not the place for you. As you walk in to the first building, you enter an «It’s A Small World» type hallway. In said hallway, mechanical child-​bots are hammering roofs, playing a fiddle, and eerily staring out of windows of a «village.»
Visiting on a cold winter day around opening time probably added to the overall horror story vibe of my visit. On the walk to the chapel, statues angel children line the walkway. I honestly felt a little scared to turn around and discover a statue in a different pose (think topiaries in «The Shining»). Before you enter the chapel, you find a literal tombstone by the entrance marking the future burial place of the still alive owner of PM.
Inside the chapel, you enter a giant room with floor to ceiling paintings of children. Wide, large, dead eyes stare at you, following you, judging you. Some are depicted as crying, while others smile (although the smile never reaches the giant eyes). Heaven is apparently inhabited almost exclusively by white dead eyed children and maybe a token minority. «Will you be ready when Jesus comes?» is painted on a wall. Yikes. I would not want to encounter these paintings at night. In fact, I can’t think of a more terrifying place to be locked in for a night.
Overall, I left amused and creeped out. Regardless, I would highly recommend this experience for the overall amusement factor (although don’t look too long into the eyes of the children or you may leave without your soul).
Please note, I don’t mean offense to anyone! Obviously, everyone will have a unique experience and interpretation.

Neat place and very pretty; but not what it use to be. They use to have a fountain show, RV park, the islands, now it is the visitor center and the chapel. The place is very cute and looks nice, but some of the stuff is very expensive and they don’t do sales often. I would say if you like Precious Moments go and see it, if you don’t care then don’t bother.

I’m very surprised by all the reviews here since I toured the Chapel and thought it was a very moving place. We didn’t see any of the other buildings since they were all closed by the time we left the Chapel, but we did walk the grounds and they were beautiful as well.
I appreciated all of the hand painted murals and stained glass in the Chapel and the time and thought that went into creating this beautiful place.
One of the murals shows children on their journey to heaven and there is a room behind the Chapel that has the real pictures of these children and how the artist incorporated them into the mural. I work with children, so maybe this was a little more emotional for me than others, but my husband even enjoyed the Chapel.
It was very neat to see the playhouse that he built for his grandchildren behind the Chapel. It is on an island and they are the only ones who can get there.
I left the Chapel realizing that this man is even more talented than just making his figurines. There was a PM meeting going on that day and tons of people were there, so I’m thinking that I’m not the only one who appreciates the work of Mr. Butcher.

We stopped here very early in the morning, due to the route and time we had to travel that day. The actual chapel wasn’t even open yet, but we got to wander the grounds a bit and take some photos. Everything is very neatly kept — fountains, sculptures, lawns. One of the people mowing the lawn even stopped to say hello.
Precious Moments figurines are a bit creepy to me, but we took some photos by the fountain, and with the animal sculptures that are off to the side, which included a giant seahorse, a bullfrog, and a turtle with giant staring eyes.
It’s a little bit like «It’s a Small World.» You might love it as a kid, but as an adult you take a second look, and it’s all a bit too weird.

I know that I am probably in a minority here but, we were on our way to Branson and thought we would stop by and see this with my wife and 13 and 4 year old daughters. From the time we stepped onto the grounds we were bored. There was really nothing to look at other than oversized PM figures and lots of paintings. I had thought, at one time, that there was supposed to be a large fountain show or something but I guess I was wrong. We didn’t anticipate having to walk so far to the chapel and then, once we got there, nothing but paintings and lot’s of people saying «This is it?». They also had a crane lift in the middle of the chapel which kind of destroyed the ambiance. We can at least say that we’ve been but, we won’t be back.

If you like the figurines and all you would love the place otherwise it’s just okay. The grounds are very well kept.

This is probably one of the creepiest and most terrifying places I have ever been to. However, it is quite entertaining. Those dolls have always weirded me out, but now they might haunt my dreams.
I stopped in with a friend on a road trip, and have honestly never seen anything like it. The first building you walk into, (the welcome center?) has a gift shop, a «café» and a series of life-​size precious moments figurines. Then you follow the angel-​like creatures through a garden/​series of fountains, to the chapel. The grounds are actually quite pretty and seem to be well-​maintained. Right outside the chapel, there is a tombstone with some sort of prayer/​Jesus-​y message and at the bottom it states that it is the future resting place for Sam Butcher, the creator of the figurines.
As soon as you walk into the chapel, there is religious music playing, and you are staring at a room of floor to ceiling murals. It is supposed to look like the Sistine Chapel? Except with those weird creepy dolls, and of course an American flag. There are also some stained glass windows, and many different biblical scenes with the figurines, and messages like «Will you be ready when Jesus comes?»
After about 20 minutes, I had to leave because I felt unclean and weird. The combo of the music, dolls and remote location makes it a perfect setting for a horror movie.
*I apologize for the people who like this sort of thing

How does one review something that one really and truly just doesn’t understand. As a kid I had a couple Precious Moments books and as I got older, I didn’t really give it much thought. At all. I’m pretty sure this is the case for most people.
But here in beautiful Missouri, you have a place that is dedicated entirely to Precious Moments. A chapel, a gift shop, a cafeteria outfitted with paintings and animatronics with children’s choirs singing hymns piped in through the sound system.
Overall, I found it pretty strange and a bit disturbing.
The gardens and paths are beautiful. Very lush and clearly well maintained. But the big headed, mostly nude angel babies everywhere and the doe-​eyed children vaguely representing bible stories. It’s just so weird.
I’m giving it a 4 stars because it’s doing a good job for what it is. If you’re stopping here, clearly you like this kind of thing or you’re strangely interested and are diving cross country alone and incredibly bored (me).

Precious Moments Park & Chapel is a very nice and special place. This is a great place to take the kids. They had several activities such as build a bear in one of the gift shops. They also have free tours, we were late this time but have been before and it was very nice.
They also have a little dinner/​café inside but it is a little pricey to eat there.
They have large blocks and toys with different numbers on them. We took a picture of our 3 year old with the 3 and a picture of the 4 year old with the 4.
The Chapel is beautiful and has so much going on that I will just say you should really come and check it out for yourself. The staff were very nice as always and this is a great place to take the kids if you want a change from the usual playgrounds.

Everyone loves FREE tours! The tour, however is only of one room and I would have loved to hear more about the grounds, stained glass windows, and Mr. Butcher’s residence. Nevertheless, this is a MUST SEE place! They have beautiful paintings, stained glass windows, and an entire museum that you can go through. Not to mention the statues and flowers around the grounds are beautiful! Even though I’ve been through it once, I didn’t see nearly all of it and will be back time and time again!

Quirky. I guess if you are a collector of Precious Memories this is a must visit. If not it is interesting. «Interesting» is one way to describe the artist who created the Precious Memories and this tourist spot. Eccentric, unique, and strange might also be used to describe him. Regardless, it was a once in a lifetime visit. Been there, done that, don’t need to go back (and did not buy the t-​shirt or figurines either).

A must stop for Precious Moments collectors. I’m not a collector but enjoyed the beautiful paintings and sculptors. Beautiful landscaping and a beautiful chapal to see. Be sure to hear the tour guide in the chapal tell about the paintings, it will bring even more meaning to the art.

Nice place to visit and wonderful place to shop for Precious Moments. It can all be done in one day though.

The Noise Boyz made a pit stop at Precious Moments while on our way to a performance at The Foundry in Joplin, Missouri. If you’ve never been to the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Missouri, you’re missing out on one of the most bizarre and terrifying experiences of your life. It’s a real-​life Village of the Damned. And it’s glorious.
Precious Moments is inhabited by a disturbing number of motorized humanoids roughly the size of lawn gnomes performing various acts of labor. Invariably they’re all blond-​headed, blue-​eyed and white, which seems to be a thinly veiled commentary on what constitutes Christian purity. We are in the Bible Belt after all.
From what we understand, these creatures are supposed to represent God’s children, but with their dead eyes and featureless faces, the term «children» is a stretch — we can’t say that they resemble anything even remotely human. One of those little bastards was holding a chainsaw, and we swear another perched up high in the chapel was holding a sniper rifle.

Creeeeepyyyy…
Nah, really. All those giant staring eyes. The religious fervor. It creeped me out as a kid and just sort of amuses me now.

Driving back from Oklahoma, I saw the sign for this and told my guy we needed to go check it out. Punched it into the GPS and oopsie since it was a bit off the beaten path of where we were heading, but well worth it. Yes, you do drive quite a bit thinking are you going the right directions, but you’ll get there.
Once I was there, I was like a little kid again. I was so excited and taking pictures and ooohhhinng and aaahhhhhing over every little cute Precious Moment thing I saw.
We walked around and it is big. We just did a quick walk since we were trying not to use up too much time from our driving. This place is great for anyone, couples, families or just by yourself if you want to walk and take in all of this.
Would highly recommend people to check this place out.

If you like this sort of thing? I think you will like it very much. This is said after watching and hearing what others were saying walking in.
Us? We are not ‘Precious Moments’ fans but simply had to stop into this very Americana place. (Okay, my husband HAD to.) We also stopped at the biggest cross in the United States, too… you never know where you will find us next.
I stayed with the dog at the park part of it with the picnic stuff, giant theme park, plastic figurines that are scary big. My husband went in with all the people in overalls and holding hands who were saying they «prayed the whole way to get there safe».
Little kids would get a kick out of this HUGE place. I was ready to send the dogs in after my husband he was gone so long (it was so huge he just kept walking?). They have a big ‘Precious Moments’ ‘airstream trailer’ and other stuff to play on outside… for picnicking. And it is just a huge place to wander, walk around.
It was pretty hard to find… it seemed like we just kept going and going. The signs were not clear at all, so just keep trying if you are not finding it.
The place was immaculate, but some things should not be mixed with Christ… and Precious Moments figurines is one of them.

if you are a precious moments fan, this is your heaven. the creator of precious moments, samuel j. butcher, still resides in this park. you can find beautiful paintings and figurines, statues and fountains throughout this park. the chapel is entirely handpainted by samuel butcher and resembles the sistine chapel… but the art subjects are precious moments characters.
many people book this location to be their wedding site. it is not only cute and romantic, it is definitely a destination wedding and something your guests will remember for a lifetime.
the park is peaceful and full of park benches to relax. it even has its own restaurant that serves a decent buffet. and the gift shop is unparalleled of course as it is the mothership of all precious moments. you can find any version or model ever made here.
be prepared to walk… just like any other theme park. too bad they don’t have any rides though. but if you’re ever in the area, this is an excellent way to spend the day.

If you want to see the Sistine Chapel but can’t make it to Rome, go to Carthage, MO! The Precious Moments Chapel is a replica of the Sistine Chapel. Of course it’s not Michelangelo, as all the figures are PRECIOUS MOMENTS figures, but that’s the fun of it. A completely weird once-​in-​a-​lifetime experience.