33 Steal-Worthy Holiday Decor and Activation Ideas From Top Brands and Venues

Verizon-owned all-digital wireless carrier Visible’s holiday campaign took on a “Smash the Family Drama” theme this year, aiming to promote its new offering of family plan savings without the need for a traditional family phone plan. The integrated campaign included a holiday commercial and a “holiday hotline” live Twitter event, where various TV personalities helped audiences solve their family drama in real-time. But in an extra-memorable touch, the brand built an in-person smash room event (pictured) called "Visible Presents: Shatter the Family Drama," which popped up in New York from Dec. 17-18.

Attendees could walk through a holiday-themed living room and destroy items like stockings that say “Why aren’t you married yet?” and Christmas tree ornaments with phrases like “Your generation has it so easy” and “Why can’t you be more like your brother?”

We all love a good gingerbread house… but have you ever seen a gingerbread dive bar? Miller High Life put a fun new twist on the holiday traditional recently by selling Gingerbread Dive Bar Kits, constructed from gingerbread walls infused with High Life.

The fun holiday kit, which was on sale for $50 this month (unsurprisingly, it quickly sold out), has all the makings of a classic dive bar—complete with vintage Miller High Life wall art made from sugar, a tiny jukebox and an edible pool table underneath with actual working lights, complete with pretzel-stick pool cues and pool balls made from candy. There’s also an outdoor pergola for a candy cornhole tournament and a branded bar floor drizzled with Vermont maple syrup packets—because who doesn’t love a mysteriously sticky dive bar floor?

This holiday season, Legacy West—a shopping mall in Plano, Texas—was transformed into Legacy North Pole. Experiential agency LOUDER Experiences created five different interactive vignettes around the property, in addition to hosting 20 events such as Drinks & Dreidels (a menorah lighting), Happy Hour Hike Holiday Tours, live music and small business pop-ups. One activation, cheekily called "Sleigh All Day," featured a multicolored Christmas tree forest and a lifesize sleigh for photo ops, plus kids’ ornament crafting, photos with Santa, storytime with Mrs. Claus, complimentary gift wrapping and live watercolor painting.

Another space, the "Ugly Sweater Hall of Fame," is a 40-foot gallery wall with framed ugly holiday sweaters. It also includes an oversized frame and selfie station for consumers to capture their own "ugly" attire.

Also at Legacy North Pole is the Naughty or Nice Café, which features 32-foot-long letters along with complimentary seating for shoppers who need a break. The mall also features “Let’s Get Lit,” a Hanukkah vignette with a 7-foot-tall menorah, plus Mistletoe Mall, where more than 27 small business vendors from North Texas have popped up in holiday-themed cabins to encourage consumers to shop local.

Whisky brand Johnnie Walker’s annual holiday activation took the form of a gifting workshop this year. Popping up in New York from Dec. 17-19, the Johnnie Walker Whisky Workshop allows shoppers to create personalized gift boxes featuring limited-edition, custom-engraved whisky collectives like whisky stones, rocks glasses and cocktail shakers in collaboration with artist Mike Perry. Guests who visit the pop-up shop can also bring a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label and receive a complimentary bottle engraving with a message of their choice.

Heritage gin brand Bombay Sapphire wanted to offer a new take on the traditional holiday window display this year. The experiential storefront campaign was a collaboration with fashion designer Romeo Hunte and artist Shavante Royster; the group transformed three store windows in New York’s Soho neighborhood, aiming to showcase a more diverse, youthful narrative with underrepresented voices—and to support small businesses by taking over empty storefronts.

The windows included holiday-inspired fashion, art and live dance performances, and snowy backdrops. The three installations were all located in an easily navigated walking loop, and participants received free drinks from participating nearby bars.

Hallmark Channel teamed up with experiential marketing company GDX Studios to bring its annual “Countdown to Christmas” celebration to farms around the country. Building on its Halloween activation, when the brand visited five local pumpkin patches, Hallmark set up shop at seven Christmas tree farms, allowing guests to grab holiday goodies and pose for festive photo ops while searching for their Christmas trees. Randomly selected visitors were gifted with a free Christmas tree, courtesy of Hallmark Channel, and the entire initiative benefited One Warm Coat, a nonprofit that distributes coats to children and adults around the country.

From Dec. 18-19, AI shopping assistant Nate hosted “Nate’s Gift Express,” a holiday activation in New York that aimed to turn holiday gift guides into immersive physical setups. Inspired by the Polar Express, the space had different "cabins" showcasing different themes, where guests could send gifts from any featured list to their friends for free. Products on display included items from women-owned and minority-owned brands and small businesses, and each attendee was gifted $200 to spend.

Nate’s “butter yellow” branding appeared throughout the space, which started in a train station-inspired room and continued into a bedroom, a dining area, a cloak room and a living room. Parked outside the store was Nate’s Winter Wonderland truck, a mobile activation that had traveled to East Coast universities this past fall; passersby were welcome to come inside and grab as much as $250 in cash to spend online using Nate’s new Wallet feature. Overall, 1,500 New Yorkers stopped by the activation over two days.

To celebrate its new “Winter Summerland” holiday campaign, rum brand BACARDÍ took over New York’s Times Square on Dec. 18 with a variety of fun activities intended to get cold New Yorkers into a sun-soaked, summery state of mind. One highlight? A fleet of performers and brand ambassadors formed an attention-grabbing flash mob, complete with Caribbean music.

The campaign also featured a billboard takeover spanning 27 panels on Broadway along with decked-out pedicabs and a festive stop-and-shop merchandise truck for last-minute holiday gifts.

The photo op-friendly truck sold co-branded co-branded leisurewear from a capsule collection with Aviator Nation, as well as shirts, socks, hats, candles, outerwear and more. On Dec. 19, the BACARDÍ Stop-and-Shop Merch Truck traveled throughout the city, making stops in foot traffic-heavy locations like the Union Square Holiday Market and the Winter Village at Bryant Park.

Everything's bigger in Texas—including the holiday decor. The Thompson Dallas is celebrating both its one-year anniversary and the holiday season with an over-the-top holiday display, complete with 12 miles of LED lighting, 11 different kinds of fresh pine and more than 17,000 ornaments adorning 35 bespoke Christmas trees, which were created using six tons of custom iron.

Digital home publication Hunker put a fun spin on the traditional gift guide this year by creating a curated shopping experience—essentially, a walk-through gift guide. The Hunker Newsstand brings recommendations from Hunker’s holiday gift guide to life; guests can stroll through the space and scan items to shop them online.

The experiential retail pop-up also offers reading materials, specialty food and beverages and a variety of holiday surprises. It’s located around the corner from Hunker’s brick-and-mortar space, Hunker House, in Venice Beach, Calif., which the digital media brand uses as a content studio and intimate event venue.

To celebrate the final season of This Is Us, ​premiering on Jan. 4, NBC and Cartwheel and Co. Marketing created a “phygital” (physical and digital) holiday card that gave fans the chance to digitally upload their favorite This Is Us memories. For two weeks in December, fans could submit photos and video messages like memories, messages of thanks and holiday greetings; everyone who participated could get special access to a cast member video message.

The photos and videos were also included in a 10-by-14-foot holiday card at the Grove in Los Angeles, which popped up from Dec. 17-19. The card exterior was fabricated and wrapped with a This Is Us holiday message, and the interior was comprised entirely of LED screens that hosted the fan-submitted content, which rotated throughout the weekend. There was also a themed holiday photo area on-site, as well as the opportunity for shoppers at the Grove to record their messages in real-time, which were quickly vetted and uploaded to the card. Brand ambassadors were on-site handing out This Is Us-branded tissues to participants at the activation.

New York-based experiential art museum Color Factory has unveiled a new palette inspired by the holiday season in New York City, drawing inspiration from seasonal elements like the New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square, the Saks 5th Avenue holiday windows, Radio City Museum Hall, the Rockefeller Center skating rink and more. The colors have been worked into various spaces of the museum, like the “holiday confetti room,” various decorations throughout the space, seasonal treats and special photo ops.

Hair tools brand GHD hosted its holiday party in Los Angeles on Dec. 16. Produced by Gladiator Productions, the event had an all-green theme inspired by the brand’s new products, which are housed in velvet green cases. Decor was meant to evoke the theme of “desire” to tie into the brand’s newest campaign; the idea was depicted with rich green trees, gold accents and GHD’s traditional black color to create lush yet modern decor.

Green accent lighting was combined with moving gold and amber lights to create a sexy and flattering environment, with various rooms like a hair studio for touch-ups and tutorials, a gifting room where guests could grab their own presents from under the tree, and a crystal healer who used green cystals to conduct personalized readings and healings. There was also a calligrapher on hand to customize branded glass ornaments, an outdoor space with faux snow, and a room filled with trees plus green couches and beds where guests could relax and watch holiday movies. Custom cocktails had names like "Naughty or Spice,” and included green and pewter edible sparkles to nod to the product. For an added branding touch, images from the GHD campaign replaced existing artwork in the suites.

Polar Winter Festival, billed as Toronto’s biggest outdoor holiday event, is running from Nov. 25 to Dec. 26 at Exhibition Place’s Bandshell Park. Presented by event agency The Concierge Club, the massive gathering features 16 different festive holiday zones, ranging from a polar ice age area with a 50-foot-long crystal ice cave and giant polar bears, to a sparkle-filled zone with dozens of Christmas trees and carnival rides, to a “Holidaze” space with gingerbread, an LED light tunnel and a Santa sleigh for photo ops. Also on-site: a lounge with holiday cocktails, a Christmas market and a Toys for Tots gift drive.

Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa has once again debuted Merry Crimson, a seasonal takeover of its indoor and outdoor poolside lounge and terrace. The over-the-top winter wonderland has a “Tinsel Town” theme this year, where guests can find photo-ready holiday decor, enclosed igloos to lounge in and festive cocktails with names like “The Tree Isn’t the Only Thing Getting Lit This Year.”

The Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa also recently unveiled a 5-by-9-foot gingerbread replica of the resort, which took more than 150 hours to construct and is currently on display on the casino floor. The installation uses 50 pounds of gingerbread, 150 pounds of royal icing, nine pounds of rice treats, 15 pounds of fondant and 35 pounds of sugar.

In early December, Grammy-nominated artist Saweetie and Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey hosted their first in-person event together since starting their partnership in 2020. Guests were transported into a fully immersive winter wonderland in the heart of West Hollywood, where they enjoyed holiday decor, signature cocktails, live entertainment and photo booths. The event took on an “Icy Season” theme, with guests entering through an ice and snowflake-filled tunnel, grabbing drinks from bars made from ice and enjoying performances from the ICY Girls.

A honeycomb theme continued throughout the space, and guests could relax in front of a working fireplace.

Holiday Road—a ticketed experience from television production and event industry experts Ben Biscotti, Tony Schubert and Bobby Rossi—has returned to King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas, Calif., from Dec. 3-31. While last year’s event took the form of a drive-thru, this year features a walking trail filled with illuminated lights, larger-than-life holiday installations and iconic holiday scenes.

Highlights of the family-friendly event include depictions of the North Pole, Elf Village and Gingerbread Lane, plus light tunnels, Christmas tree forests, photo ops and more. New this year, Holiday Road expanded to two additional markets—Atlanta and Virginia—for the first time.

Gerber Group bar and restaurant Mr. Purple, located atop New York’s Hotel Indigo Lower East Side, once again hosted the Veuve Clicquot Winter Chalet pop-up this year. Starting in mid-November, guests could reserve a spot at the apres-ski lodge-inspired snow globe, complete with fur-lined seating, ambient lighting and a custom Veuve Clicquot champagne bar.

Family-friendly experiential retailer CAMP has decked out one of its New York stores for the holidays, taking on the theme of “Present CAMP.” The winter family play zone has fun details like a wheel of holiday fun—where kids are challenged to spin the wheel and do the activity it lands on, like making a silly face—plus a car-making station, a present hunt with Scout the Bear, an indoor net climbing wall and more.

Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park, has debuted its new winter experience, Fairmont Lodge, which opened in November and runs through February. The hotel’s lounge has been transformed with special decor and activities like indoor fire pit tables and ski lift-inspired photo ops, and includes various festive activities like happy hours, holiday movie screenings and more.

Airport shuttles don’t exactly get people into the holiday spirit—until now. To spread a little cheer during what can be the most stressful travel time of the year at one of the U.S.’s busiest airports, both the Westin Los Angeles Airport and the Los Angeles Airport Marriott have launched a holiday-inspired airport shuttle throughout the month of December. Playfully called the "Yule Ride," the shuttles are festively wrapped and decked out with thousands of lights and a Christmas wreath; drivers wearing Santa hats greet passengers with candy canes and holiday music.