About

Spreading cheer is our favorite holiday tradition

Founded in 2014, Events with Benefitz is the original producer of the BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley Tours. Our founder, Molly Shaheen has always had a love and passion for the holidays, especially the many iconic holiday lights displays. As a seasoned event planner, she hoped to introduce a new experience that would spread holiday cheer with others in a unique way. She realized the holidays, lights, and festive drinks were the perfect combination for an unforgettable evening in Chicago. The BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley Tours were born.

Over the years, she has tweaked and refined the tours across the midwest, adding stops, bars, and various partnerships to offer the best experiences for our guests and make their seasons bright.

But, what Molly was most excited about was the opportunity to give back to local charities during the Season of Giving - that’s the “benefit” in “Benefitz.” Each year, she chooses a local charity to donate a portion of the trolley tour proceeds to. It’s a small way to pay it forward during the holiday season.

Now in our ninth year of service, our public trolley tours are available for the 2023 season in eight different cities: Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh for guests 21 and older. We also offer private tours in all cities (which allows little ones to join with certain restrictions).

What are you waiting for? Gather your "deerest" friends and family and eat, drink, and be merry with us this holiday season.