Destination & Event PR · Earned Media · Influencer Engagement
The Distillery Winter Village
How we helped turn a Toronto holiday tradition into a global destination.
2025 season metrics
The Brief
The Distillery Winter Village is the marquee annual event for The Distillery Historic District in Toronto, with roughly one million people visiting each season.
Since 2020, our mandate has been to elevate the event’s reputation as a world-class holiday destination. Grown to become Canada’s largest holiday market and most photographed Christmas tree, the event is now listed among European Christmas markets as the best in the world. The event is now featured in travel, lifestyle, food and entertainment media in dozens of countries.
The Work
Our work begins months before the tree arrives.
- Build the season’s narrative around the tree and the experience surrounding it, then develop the messaging, speaking remarks, website copy and content that carry that story across every platform.
- Turn tree load-in day into a media moment of its own, staging the arrival and installation for broadcast and photo desks before the Winter Village even opens.
- Make the tree lighting ceremony a national broadcast event, coordinating crews, camera positions, spokespeople and live interviews across English and French media.
- Produce national broadcast integrations, from three-hour live remotes with CTV Your Morning and Breakfast Television, a 12-minute feature on The Good Stuff with Mary Berg, hosting The Weather Network’s 2025 Winter Forecast on site, and placements with Access Hollywood and the BBC World Service podcast Business Daily.
- Secure international travel, news and lifestyle among prominent publications including CNN Travel, MSN, Cathay Pacific magazine, Lufthansa’s in-flight magazine, and Germany’s Stern Magazine.
- Generate media domination with mentions of the event every single day within Toronto’s holiday listings and news sites.
- Manage every major press touchpoint across the seven-week festival: programming and ticketing announcements, tree load-in day, opening night and tree lighting ceremony, VIP previews, sponsor activations, charitable partner moments, Giving Tuesday, and the New Year’s Eve celebration.
- Media train spokespeople and vendors so every camera that arrives finds someone ready to talk.
- Oversee all media on site, facilitate streeters and run proactive and reactive media relations alongside crisis and issues management, government relations and influencer engagement.
Since 2020, Next PR has led communications for The Distillery Winter Village, The Distillery Historic District’s marquee annual holiday event welcoming one million visitors each season. Our mandate has grown alongside it: building the season’s narrative, managing media and influencers, preparing spokespeople, supporting sponsors and partners, and overseeing communications from the first announcement through New Year’s Eve.
At the centre of the story is Canada’s most photographed Christmas tree. We turn its arrival, installation and lighting into media moments of their own, while creating new reasons to cover the seven-week experience throughout the season. That means producing national live broadcasts, coordinating crews, camera positions and interviews, developing stories around food, entertainment and programming, and ensuring every journalist who arrives on site has the access, visuals and spokespeople they need to tell a great story.
“It’s not Christmas in Toronto until you see The Distillery’s Christmas tree on your social feed.”
The Results
Event dominated the news cycle throughout the holiday season.
The 2025 season generated more than 4.4 billion in earned media reach across 41 countries, double the 2.2 billion earned the year before. The tree lighting ceremony on opening night alone drove 479 media hits.
Coverage included all the major Toronto broadcast, print and online news outlets; The Weather Network’s live 2025 Winter Forecast broadcast, live remotes Breakfast Television and CP24, features on The Good Stuff with Mary Berg, Radio-Canada, Access Hollywood, CNN Travel, the BBC World Service podcast Business Daily, Lufthansa’s in-flight magazine and Germany’s Stern.
The Results
Event dominated the news cycle throughout the holiday season.
The result has extended well beyond Toronto. The Distillery Winter Village has earned coverage across nearly every Toronto media outlet and international travel, lifestyle, food and entertainment media. Notable features include: Forbes, CNN Travel, Access Hollywood and BBC World Service; Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific’s in-flight magazines and Germany’s Stern; and major Canadian broadcasts including CTV Your Morning, Breakfast Television, The Good Stuff with Mary Berg, Radio-Canada and The Weather Network.
In 2025 alone, the campaign generated 4.4 billion+ in potential earned media reach across 41 countries, doubling the previous year’s reach. Opening night and the Christmas tree lighting generated 479 media hits on its own.
A million people get to see the Christmas tree up close. Our job is making sure the rest of the world sees it.
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