Step inside Griffintown’s retro holiday hideout

With just over a month until the big day, The Santa Club and a Christmas tavern are ready for the season.

The countdown is on: 35 days until Christmas, and some people can’t wait.

“Le Santa Club” and a Christmas tavern should hold you over.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas when you sneak through a Narnia-style wardrobe upstairs at the Le Petit Dep location at 290 de la Montagne St. in Griffintown—welcome to a retro holiday hideout.

“It’s magical and Christmas like, and we wanted to find a special name for it. So we brainstormed and we came up with ‘Le Santa Club.’” said owner Magda Slezak.

It’s a 1970s-style kitschy lounge for parties.

“It’s a vintage speakeasy. And we wanted to do this place, like, more in a monochrome colour. So there’s a lot of gold and bronze,” she said.

Lea Valerie Letourneau usually works as a movie set decorator, but with Trump’s tariffs, there are fewer American productions in town.

For now, she’s the art director there.

“There’s a lot of pieces that are coming from actually some movies that we did in the last two years,” she said.

She also scours vintage shops for 1970s finds, like the pretend fireplace and a real, still-functional jukebox (that plays more than Christmas music).

Le Santa Club is booking private parties through its social media and has some nights available for those on the “nice list” starting this weekend.

Until then, the Plateau location of Le Petit Dep at 5125 St-Laurent St. hosts “Le Taverne de Noël,” which is already open.