Tampa Bay, FL
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Tampa Bay bars that go all-in on Christmas, one with a multi-season December takeover and one that never takes the decorations down, drawn from Creative Loafing Tampa and Tampa Bay Times coverage.
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Start a Top 5 for Holiday BarsEditor’s picks
Press picks, until locals rank their own Top 5s. Sourced from the local food press. As seen in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay and Tampa Bay Times. Updated September 2026.
Intermezzo Coffee & Cocktails · Edge District
Intermezzo Coffee & Cocktails, a coffee shop by day and cocktail bar by night in St. Petersburg's Edge District, closes its regular room each winter and reopens as a fully decorated Christmas pop-up, part of a licensed program that also runs at bars around the country. The takeover fills the room with festive decor, themed cocktails and souvenir glassware. Order a spirit-forward seasonal cocktail from the rotating holiday list, and expect the regular coffee counter to keep pulling espresso alongside it.
Joy Bar · Sulphur Springs
Joy Bar, a dive bar built out of a Tampa liquor store, keeps its Christmas lights, ornaments and tinsel up all year rather than packing them away after the season, so the bar is always running its own holiday program. The former liquor store now stays open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, with decor that never changes and a Santa figure watching over the room from a permanent perch. Order a classic dive-bar drink or a seasonal cocktail off the sign board, and expect regulars, sports on the televisions and ugly sweaters once December actually arrives.