Every year around the first hard frost, the same question starts landing in our inbox: which holiday lights trolley should we book? It is a fair question. There are two of them, they roll out from the same mansion doorway, and they are almost nothing alike.
One is Santa’s Nice Ride. The other is the Naughty Holiday Party Ride, which is 21+ and BYOB. Both are part of the Minneapolis Holiday Light Ride, and both board inside a historic mansion rather than a parking lot. Here is how to tell which evening belongs to your group.
The short version
Bringing kids, grandparents, or anyone who wants to be home before nine? Book Nice. Bringing a group of adults who intend to make a whole night of it? Book Naughty. Both ride the same heated vintage trolley through the same glowing neighborhoods. What changes is the length, the crowd, and what is in your cup.
Santa’s Nice Ride: one hour, all ages, and a vote
The Nice ride runs about an hour and is built for families, grandparents, kids, and out-of-town visitors who want the traditional version of the evening. There is Christmas music, festive narration, and a small competitive streak: along the route, guests vote for their favorite decorated house. December 2026 dates currently start around $27 per person.
The short run time is the quiet advantage. An hour is long enough to see the good blocks and short enough that nobody melts down in a snowsuit. It also leaves room for dinner beforehand or cookies afterward without turning the night into a marathon.
The Naughty Holiday Party Ride: 21+, BYOB, two hours
The Naughty ride is adults-only and runs two hours, which is roughly the difference between seeing the lights and celebrating in front of them. The evening opens with holiday cocktails inside the Pillsbury Club before anyone boards, then becomes part lights tour and part rolling holiday party: Christmas music, festive lighting, and a trolley full of grown-ups in a very good mood. December 2026 dates currently start around $69 per person.
It has quietly become the default booking for date nights, girls’ nights, and office holiday parties — the kind of work outing where nobody has to volunteer their living room.
About that BYOB: no cooler, no parking lot
This is where we get a little competitive. Most BYOB light tours in the Twin Cities check you in at a downtown bar or a parking lot, which means hauling a cooler across an icy sidewalk in December and standing around until the bus shows up.
Ours starts indoors. You walk into the Pillsbury Club, a 1912–1914 English Gothic Revival mansion designed by Hewitt & Brown and recognized as a City of Minneapolis landmark. Your drinks travel a few warm steps from the club room onto the heated trolley. Parking is free just across the street. That is the whole pitch, and after one December in Minnesota it tends to sell itself.
Come early for the holiday market
Whichever ride you pick, arrive with time to spare. The mansion hosts a holiday market with handmade gifts from more than 50 Minnesota artists and makers, plus dinner, appetizers, and handcrafted holiday cocktails. Guests regularly tell us the pre-ride hour inside the mansion ends up being their favorite part of the night, which is a strange thing to hear about a lights tour and also completely believable once you have stood in that entry hall in December.
If you are mapping out the rest of the season, Meet Minneapolis keeps a running roundup of the city’s light displays and a broader winter events calendar worth bookmarking.
Build the whole evening around it
If you are coming from out of town, or simply would rather not drive home afterward, 300 Clifton sits a few minutes away in Loring Park. The mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places and is recognized as the finest example of Georgian architecture in Minnesota, which makes for a fairly dramatic place to come home to with cold hands.
Guests who book direct receive a $20 Pillsbury Club dining voucher for each night of their stay, good toward anything on the dining room menu, plus a $20 Minneapolis Trolley voucher per stay. Rooms in the Carriage House start at $129, Estate rooms at $89, and the mansion’s Georgian Room at $239. Full details are on our vouchers page.
Staying longer than a weekend? Oakland’s on 9th offers furnished month-to-month studios downtown if the holidays have you in town for a stretch.
Still deciding?
Ask yourself one question: is anyone in the group under 21? If yes, the answer is Nice, and it is a genuinely lovely hour. If no, and the group is the kind that texts about it for a week afterward, book Naughty and bring something festive.
Both rides sell out, and the Naughty ride sells out first. Reserve your Holiday Light Ride, then book a room at 300 Clifton so the only thing you have to drive is a decision.
Keep reading: The best way to see holiday lights in Minneapolis and which historic mansions you can tour at Christmas.