Sometimes it can be hard to get into the holiday spirit in Houston. It’s not unusual for us to spend most of December in short-sleeve shirts and shorts. And instead of building snowmen in our yards this time of year, we’re more likely to be fogging them for mosquitos. Thankfully, many local bars and restaurants go all out for the holiday season to get us in the spirit.

While there are many festively decorated establishments in town, it takes true commitment (and, often, time and money) for a business to transform so convincingly into a winter wonderland that we’re willing to forget that we sweated through our favorite Christmas sweater on the walk from the valet stand to our table inside.

This handful of Houston bars and restaurants have accomplished this rare feat, and we highlight just how they pulled it all off. Oh, and we’ve assigned each spot a Christmas song based on their decor. Because why not? It’s the holiday season. 

Annabelle Brasserie

Decorating Style: Fancy Christmas | Christmas Song: “Santa Baby” by Eartha Kitt

There tends to be two different schools when it comes to Christmas decorations. In one camp you have the traditionalists: people who like their Christmas decorations to be whimsical, silly, kitschy, and a little bit absurd. They like their holiday decorations to sport a decidedly homemade, eclectic quality—as if they’ve been pulled out of a dusty box from their grandma’s attic.

In the other camp, you’ll find what we call “Noel Riche,” those who prefer their décor to have a touch of opulence—think tinsel and lots of gold, glitter, feathers, velvet, and crystal baubles. Annabelle Brasserie, Ben Berg’s new Parisian-inspired bistro, easily leans opulent with its holiday decorations but is careful not to cross the threshold into garishness.

Upon entering the restaurant, you’ll see ceilings overflowing with large presents wrapped in shiny red, green, and gold paper; Christmas ornaments the size of disco balls; and billowing red ribbon, all intermixed with an assortment of festive garlands and foliage. The designs look like the most meticulous of Christmas explosions.

We have designer John Friedman, owner of John Friedman Flowers, to thank for all this decorative merriment. When Berg opened Annabelle Brasserie earlier this year, he decided that the restaurant’s decor should change with the seasons. For the opening, Friedman covered the restaurant’s ceiling with an avalanche of colorful flowers. Its rapid transition just a few months later from a whimsical garden to holiday explosion is thanks to some theater-grade mechanics.

Annabelle’s ceiling has a large theatrical truss framework built into it, on which large chain-link panels dressed up for each season can be attached. There’s a motorized control system that raises and lowers the framework, allowing Friedman and his team to work at ground level when they're changing things out. Since the panels can be detached, Friedman’s team decorated all of them offsite this year before returning in the middle of the night to install everything.

“We have a total of six hours to do all of that,” Friedman says. “It was an interesting process, but it ended up being a very successful installation.”

What’s equally successful? The restaurant’s brasserie-style menu, which can provide you with some sustenance as you sup on the festive decor.

Winnie’s and Johnny’s Gold Brick

Decorating Style: Nostalgic Christmas | Christmas Song: “The 12 Days of Christmas” by John Denver and the Muppets

Benjy Mason, the owner of Johnny’s Gold Brick and Winnie’s, likes to describe the design aesthetic of his businesses’ holiday decorations as “Christmas throwing up.” And, indeed, both bars put up some pretty sickening festive displays each year.

Hundreds of presents hang from the ceilings or adorn the walls in both spots, and there’s also what feels like miles of glittering green fringe, as well as an uncountable number of Christmas trees, wreaths, ornaments, and baubles, plus string lights galore. You’ll also find a lot of kitschy elements, like animatronic Santas, vintage Christmas figurines, and little light-up villages that are packed with so much porcelain paraphernalia they could qualify as 15-minute cities.

This unabashed explosion of all things Christmas has a purpose. For the past couple of years, both bars have participated in Miracle, a national Christmas-themed popup cocktail series that serves holiday drinks while also raising money for charity. The popup brings in big bucks every year for Winnie’s and Johnny’s: Mason says both spots usually see triple the amount of business. 

Over-the-top Christmas decorations are a feature of all the bars that participate in Miracle. The first year that Johnny’s participated in the popup, Mason ordered an entire shipping container of decorations from an old Christmas store. “Five years later, I still haven’t opened all the boxes yet,” he says with a laugh. 

Although decorations are not in short supply, Mason has been adding additional kitschy elements to his collection every year, including a new life-size sleigh at Johnny’s and a nine-foot-tall snowman at Winnie’s that sports a cowboy hat and two candy cane six-shooters. 

It’s a lot of work putting everything up. Mason says that every year both bars close for four days as he and his staff put in 10- to 12-hour days. It takes nearly as much time taking everything down and packing it back into storage. 

As part of the popup, the bars also feature an entirely new, holiday-themed cocktail menu, with drinks served in cute mugs shaped like Santa, unicorns, T. rexes, and barrels—all available for purchase. It’s a whole vibe, one Mason describes as Middle America circa the 1970s—kitschy, over the top, and just how we like it.