{"id":43605,"date":"2025-11-12T11:12:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T11:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/43605\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T11:12:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T11:12:53","slug":"holiday-cheer-arrives-early-in-downtown-st-pete-at-pop-up-bar-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/43605\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday cheer arrives early in downtown St. Pete at pop-up bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

A downtown St. Pete bar has fully transformed into a Christmas wonderland, weeks before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

The team behind “The Xmas Bar” said it\u2019s not a pop-up, but a full-scale reimagining of the space, complete with professional lights, themed rooms, and visits from Santa himself.<\/p>\n

The early start is all about spreading holiday spirit, even if the calendar says it\u2019s still fall.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The holidays have arrived early at The Xmas Bar\u00a0in downtown St. Petersburg<\/a>. The popular spot, a seasonal transformation of “Glamper,” opened its doors last Friday after a 72-hour decorating marathon by Forward Hospitality Partner, Mark Acchione\u00a0and\u00a0his team.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t just hang a few ornaments; they painted windows, installed professional lighting and turned the entire venue into a full-blown winter wonderland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ: ‘Gravy Extinguisher’ being offered by Firehouse Subs to rescue dry turkeys<\/a><\/p>\n

“We\u2019re not a pop-up, we\u2019re a transformation,” Acchione said. “We actually paint, we hire an artist to come in and paint the windows… the lights are professionally installed.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The backstory<\/p>\n

Acchione usually opens his Christmas-themed bar closer to Thanksgiving \u2014 but with recent chilly weather and growing anticipation, he decided to kick off the festivities early this year.<\/p>\n

“It got down to 30 this morning,” he said. “So, it\u2019s time for holiday cheer.”<\/p>\n

MORE: McDonald\u2019s McRib is back, but only in these select cities<\/a><\/p>\n

The bar features themed spaces, festive cocktails and nostalgic d\u00e9cor that takes visitors “back to the eight-year-old in them.”<\/p>\n

The other side<\/p>\n

While some may think it\u2019s too soon to start celebrating, guests seem to disagree. Families and locals have been flocking in to soak up the holiday atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“A Christmas bar…that\u2019s all I need to know,” said visitor Alex Klinger. “You kind of sold me, I don\u2019t need to know anything else.”<\/p>\n

Even Santa Claus\u00a0himself made an appearance on Tuesday, arriving on his motorcycle.<\/p>\n

READ: Should you wash your Thanksgiving turkey? What food experts say<\/a><\/p>\n

“There\u2019s no reason [the holiday spirit] has to be limited to a specific time of year,” Santa said. “There are people that carry that Christmas spirit, love, joy, and happiness all your life.”<\/p>\n

What’s next<\/p>\n

Santa plans to make more appearances throughout the season, and The Xmas Bar\u00a0will remain open through the holidays, offering themed nights and special events as the countdown to Christmas begins. To learn more, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

This story was reported by FOX 13\u2019s Jennifer Kveglis. Interviews were conducted on-site with owner Mark Acchione, visitor Alex Klinger and Santa Claus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief A downtown St. Pete bar has fully transformed into a Christmas wonderland, weeks before Thanksgiving. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[28658,28659,202,204,203,199,201,200,1189,28660],"class_list":["post-43605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-christmas-wonderland","tag-mark-acchione","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-thanksgiving","tag-thanksgiving-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}