BALTIMORE — The North Pole has officially expanded its operations… to Baltimore County.
The Point in Towson has transformed into The Elf Bar, a Christmas-themed pop-up experience filled with games, festive drinks, and a cast of actors playing holiday elves.
WATCH: Holiday hiring drops, but Towson’s Elf Bar brings new opportunities and joy
The activation is designed to bring families together during the season and help the business draw visitors during what’s typically a slow time of year.
“We do have a bit of a lull around Christmastime,” said Kalliope Carmichael, better known to guests as Mother Elfie. “People want to be with their families, they just want to be in the Christmas spirit.”
Even the staff says they’re having just as much fun as the guests.
“We have a really, really good time,” Carmichael said. “And we’re getting paid to do it!”
The joy inside the Elf Bar comes at a time when seasonal jobs across the country are becoming harder to find.
A new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas predicts that holiday hiring will fall to its lowest level since 2009, with only a limited number of companies adding extra staff this year.
The National Retail Federation is seeing the same trend, forecasting that U.S. stores will hire between 265,000 and 365,000 seasonal workers, a steep drop from the more than 440,000 hired last year. That’s a decline of up to 40%.
For students and part-time workers looking for creative income, that shift is pushing them toward nontraditional holiday jobs.
Just ask Halley Anderson, known at the bar as Trixie the Elf. She’s a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art, majoring in experimental fashion, and hopes to become an art teacher. Being an elf gives her a chance to merge performance, art, and community during a season when retail jobs are limited.
“There’s something so special about speaking to a child or spreading joy,” Anderson said. “It fills me up with my own joy.”
The pop-up will run through the holiday season at The Point in Towson, offering a mix of daytime family events and nighttime festivities.
The Elf Bar offers daytime family-friendly sessions where kids can write letters to Santa, play games like “Pin the Nose on the Reindeer,” and even belt out a few Christmas karaoke classics.
For adults, the pop-up switches gears in the evenings, offering festive cocktails, seasonal bites, and what the elves describe as the “spicier,” more grown-up version of the experience.
“It’s fun for everyone,” said Ashmara McKay or Cookie & Cream, one of the actors. “People want to celebrate the holidays together.”
For more information about the Elf Bar: Christmas Pop-Up Experience, click here.
