What is Holidays on Hennepin?

Holidays on Hennepin is an exciting month-long event along Hennepin during December 2025. It is designed to attract new visitors to our neighborhood and its businesses by pairing holiday decorations, special deals, a holiday business passport, and a major advertising promotional campaign.

The goal of Holidays on Hennepin is to put our neighborhood back on the map as a major destination for food, entertainment, and retail. The event will closely follow the final completion of the Hennepin reconstruction project and is an ideal time to reintroduce Uptown to many new customers and visitors. We want to highlight the continuing vitality and creativity of our local businesses. After several difficult years, Hennepin is overdue for some festive excitement!

How can my business participate?

Holidays on Hennepin is a collaborative effort between Hennepin-area businesses and neighborhood partners. We want to include your business in this event, bringing customers to your door and advertising your contributions to the neighborhood. Partner businesses will decorate for the holiday season—dense, visually creative, and over-the-top decorations are highly encouraged! Partner businesses are also encouraged to consider holiday specials or deals, or events.

Holidays on Hennepin is designed to allow a flexible range of participation from partner businesses. We encourage all partners to consider what sort of participation works best for them, and best matches their clientele. We see the incredible diversity of our local businesses as a key strength: we want Holidays on Hennepin attendees to feel like each business they visit offers new, festive surprises.

We also understand that many local businesses have experienced significant financial strain in recent years and are happy to accommodate whatever forms of participation are possible. Hennepin Joint Committee may be able to provide small stipends ($250-500) to support decorating expenses at some businesses.

As a valued local business, we’d like to ask you to take a brief survey gauging interest and capacity to participate

Who’s Organizing Holidays on Hennepin?

Holidays on Hennepin is being planned by the Hennepin Joint Committee, a group supported by neighborhood associations for Lowry Hill, Lowry Hill East, East Isles, East Bde Maka Ska, and several other local partners. It is funded in part by a grant from the Minneapolis Business District Support Grants program.

The Hennepin Joint Committee will produce and distribute a holiday passport that includes all participating businesses, and conduct a significant advertising campaign around the event, featuring partner businesses.