By mid-December, Minneapolis turns into one enormous light display. Porches glow along the grand old avenues, whole blocks in south Minneapolis go gloriously overboard, and the skyline shimmers over Loring Park right outside our windows. The only question is how you’ll see it all — and our answer is definitely not “from the driver’s seat of your own cold car.”
Here’s how we’d plan it: a heated vintage trolley, drinks in hand, boarding inside a Gilded Age mansion — and, if you’re doing it right, a four-poster bed at the end of the night.
Why a trolley is the best holiday lights tour in Minneapolis
A holiday lights tour in Minneapolis should not involve icy windshields, parallel parking, or a designated driver squinting past the defroster. On the Naughty or Nice holiday lights trolley, somebody else drives while you ride warm above the snowbanks with the music on and a drink in hand. The route rolls past the city’s best displays, and riders judge and vote to crown the fan-favorite home — bragging rights settled democratically. In a city that takes its winter fun as seriously as Meet Minneapolis will tell you we do, these rides sell out fast.
Naughty or Nice: two Christmas lights trolley rides
The NICE ride (all ages, from $30) is the family favorite: a 1.25-hour Christmas lights adventure that starts and ends at the historic Pillsbury Club, with a holiday market of local vendors to browse before you board and special child pricing that keeps the whole outing affordable. Kids rank the displays and help crown the city’s best-decorated house.
The NAUGHTY ride (strictly 21+, from $75) is the grown-up holiday party you keep meaning to throw. It’s BYOB: you pregame inside the Pillsbury Club, then carry your drinks aboard for a music-filled, cheerfully chaotic rolling party through the twinkliest streets in town. No kiddos, no carolers — just your crew and the lights.
Planning an office party or a birthday? Private group rides are available too — the trolley makes a memorable venue that happens to move.
The mansion difference: no parking-lot check-ins
Most BYOB holiday lights trolley outings in the Twin Cities start the same way: check in at a downtown bar, drag your cooler across a frozen parking lot, and wait for boarding. This one starts inside the Charles S. Pillsbury Mansion — the English Gothic landmark that’s home to the Pillsbury Club, where the trolley boards at the mansion door. You warm up under century-old carved woodwork, browse the holiday market, and step straight onto a heated trolley. No cooler-dragging. No parking lot.
Where the best holiday lights in Minneapolis hide
Every December the Twin Cities holiday lights arms race escalates a little further. The reliable hot spots: the stately blocks of Lowry Hill and Kenwood, the neighborhoods around Lake Harriet and the city’s parkways, and the Armatage and Kenny corners of southwest Minneapolis, where entire streets coordinate their glow. Displays pop up all across Minnesota, but the trolley crews scout each season’s standouts so you see the winners without the wandering.
Turn the lights ride into a mansion weekend
Here’s the part most visitors miss: after the trolley ride, you can sleep in a mansion of your own. 300 Clifton — the Eugene J. Carpenter Mansion, considered the finest Georgian architecture in Minnesota — sits minutes away in Loring Park. Picture the garden hot tub steaming in the snow, a nightcap in Gertrude’s Cistern speakeasy, and a Nicollet Diner breakfast voucher waiting in the morning when you book direct. If you’re building a full winter date-night itinerary, see our guides to a Dakota Jazz Club date night and a show at the Orpheum Theatre.
December dates really do sell out. Grab your Naughty or Nice tickets early, then book your room at 300 Clifton — and let the city light itself up for you.