Here is the question nobody puts in the brochure: where do you actually stand, in the dark, in December, waiting for a holiday lights trolley to turn up?
For most lights tours in the Twin Cities the honest answer is a bar or a parking lot. You find the place, you find somewhere to leave the car, you wait outside with a cooler. Our Holiday Light Ride works differently, and the difference is the whole reason people rebook it. You wait indoors, in a mansion.
You board at the Pillsbury Club, and the mansion is part of the ticket
The ride begins inside the historic Pillsbury Club — the 1916 Charles S. Pillsbury Mansion, oak-panelled, chandeliered and decorated for the season. Before the trolley pulls up you can browse the holiday market, get a drink from the bar, or just stand under a hundred-year-old ceiling and warm up.
That is not a small thing on a Minnesota night. It means the twenty minutes before your ride are part of the evening rather than something to endure, and it means nobody in your group is standing on a kerb wondering whether they are in the right place.
Parking: free, and across the street
Free parking is available just across the street from the Pillsbury Club. No ramp hunting, no meters to feed, no working out which downtown lot is cheapest at 6pm on a Saturday in December. Getting from your car to a warm room takes about a minute.
What should you wear on a holiday lights trolley?
The trolley is heated. That is the single most common question we get and the answer is genuinely reassuring: this is an enclosed, heated vintage trolley, not a hayride. You are not going to spend an hour with your hands in your sleeves.
- Dress as you would for a restaurant, plus a coat. You will be indoors at the Club, then in a warm trolley, then indoors again. A big parka mostly becomes something to hold.
- Wear shoes you can walk a short distance in. Between the car, the Club and the trolley there is a little pavement, and in December it may have snow on it.
- Bring a phone with battery left. Cold drains batteries, and you will take more photographs than you expect.
- Skip the cooler. There is a bar in the mansion. That is the point.
Two rides, and they are genuinely different evenings
- Santa’s NICE Ride is the family one — about an hour, all ages, Christmas music, festive narration, and a vote along the way for everyone’s favourite decorated house. It is built for kids, grandparents and out-of-town visitors, and it pairs with the holiday market.
- The NAUGHTY Holiday Party Ride is 21+ and about two hours — part lights tour, part rolling holiday party, starting with cocktails inside the mansion. Date night, girls’ night, office party, or the group of friends who always end up organising something.
We compared them side by side in Naughty or Nice: which Minneapolis holiday lights trolley should you book? and covered the bring-your-own question in BYOB holiday light rides in Minneapolis.
How far ahead should you book?
Earlier than you think. The Holiday Light Ride is flagged on its own booking page as popular and likely to sell out, and the pattern every year is the same: December Fridays and Saturdays go first, then the weekends nearest Christmas, then everything else. If you are booking for a group, an office or a family with a fixed travel window, September and October are not too early — they are the sensible time.
Because the displays themselves change through the season, no two rides are identical, so an early-December booking is not a lesser version of a late-December one. Book the night that suits your people.
The market is a reason to arrive early
The holiday market inside the Club features handmade work from more than fifty Minnesota artists and makers, and it is open before and after the ride. Arriving early is the difference between a tour and an evening — and it is a much better gift-shopping hour than a mall car park in December.
Make a night, or a weekend, of it
Plenty of people build the whole evening around the ride, and the city cooperates. A few of our own guides worth having open in a tab: the best Minneapolis date ideas, the best family activities, the best cocktail bars, the best landmarks and the best tours in the city.
If people are coming in from out of town, both of our sister properties are minutes away: 300 Clifton, the 1906 Carpenter Mansion bed and breakfast in Loring Park — the one historic Minneapolis mansion you can tour and sleep in — and Oakland’s on 9th, furnished studios in a restored 1889 brownstone downtown for anyone staying longer than a weekend.
Getting around without a car is straightforward too; Metro Transit’s trip planner will get you close, and if you want to see what else is on while you are here, Meet Minneapolis keeps the city’s event calendar.
The short version
- Where you board: inside the Pillsbury Club mansion, not on a pavement.
- Parking: free, across the street.
- What to wear: a coat you can take off. The trolley is heated.
- When to book: before the December weekends go — they always do.
Ready? Pick your night on the Holiday Light Ride page. If you are bringing a crowd, ask about group tours and private rentals — whole-trolley bookings are the easiest office party anyone in your building will organise this year.
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