Winter/Holiday Themed Bar or Restaurant Promotion Ideas

The holiday season is a great time to get creative at your location! There are a number of wonderful activities and promotions you can run to get your customers excited. This will also be an excellent way to get new customers to pay you a visit. Bars and restaurants are the perfect location to get in the holiday spirit. Accel will provide you with some exciting promotional ideas as the holidays approach!

Holiday Movie Trivia Night

Trivia nights are always a good way to increase foot traffic, but why not add a holiday twist? There are so many holiday-themed movies that people across the country watch every year. Some classics include Elf, Home Alone, A Christmas Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. With all the memorable material in these films, creating a trivia night around them would be a fun way to get customers involved. It’s easy to do a trivia-themed promotion because it can be done any day at any time. Whether it be cash prizes or promotions on food/drinks, there are many options to reward your customers. Customers always like fun activities, so get creative and bring back the classics!

Ugly Sweater Competition

Ah, yes…the age-old tradition. But don’t worry, this will be a fun one. Ugly Sweater gatherings are a festivity that everyone has done at least once. Why not create a promotion around this wonky holiday activity? Customers can be rewarded for wearing the ugliest, tackiest holiday-themed sweater. Prizes can vary from a cash giveaway, drink special, or food voucher. This promotion can be run on different occasions as the Christmas season lasts for a few months.

Seasonal Bar Crawl

Who doesn’t love a good bar crawl? This is a great opportunity to team up with other local establishments to get customers in the holiday spirit. An event like this is good for everyone involved, as coordinating with other local bars/restaurants is a great way to get people out of their homes during the chillier months. Each location can lean into a different holiday theme, creating excitement and intrigue among visitors. Or better yet, each can offer enticing drink, food, and gaming specials to make sure customers visit each participating bar. A bar crawl is a great way to support local businesses.

“12 Days of Christmas” Promotion

Here’s a great promotion to get customers coming back at a higher frequency than usual. For a 12 day period in December, your location can run different specials pertaining to the season. 2 for 1 drink specials, holiday-themed food options, games hosted by bartenders/servers, and trivia based upon the song are all great ways to lean into the carol that makes the holidays so special.

Keep Up with Marketing

To make the public aware of your holiday specials, you’ll need to prepare a marketing campaign. Of course, customers might expect holiday-themed promotions, but they need to see YOUR promotions. This is a great way to generate higher profits during the holiday season while providing your customers with something unique. Social media is the main way to keep customers informed of your specials. Make sure to post regularly and update any deals you might be running. Pictures of the products and promotions will also help. Creating posters and decorating the bar will help get people in the right mood too. Accel has free holiday social graphics for our locations if they are looking to promote their gaming during the holiday season. But this will also make the regulars aware of your promotions and spread the word to those who might be holiday visitors. Most people will want to get out of the house and enjoy a tasty beverage or meal. Word of mouth advertising will never go out of style.