Southern Strategy Group sets holiday mood with first-ever Tampa Christmas Party

Florida may not always look a lot like Christmas, but that doesn’t mean Tampa Bay won’t have an abundance of holiday cheer.

Known for its festive, politically timely Christmas Cards, Southern Strategy Group – Tallahassee’s leading lobbying house – is adding a more personal “jingle and mingle” this year with its inaugural Tampa Bay Christmas Party, scheduled Monday, Dec. 7.

The event begins 5:30 p.m. at the Fifth Third Building, 201 East Kennedy Blvd., Suite 1450 in Tampa.

During the festivities, SSG will be accepting monetary Christmas donations for Tampa-based nonprofit Onbikes, whose mission is to bring bicycles to foster children in the community. According to the group’s website, Onbikes has helped to provide bikes to over 1200 children through 17,000 volunteer hours and more than 400 volunteers.

SSG is asking for donation checks to be made payable to Onbikes.

The holiday party also comes ahead of the highly awaited SSG Christmas Card, which always guarantees to create holiday buzz in Tallahassee.

Last year, the SSG card poked fun at the Florida gubernatorial race, in particular the second candidate debate in October 2014, where Gov. Rick Scott refused to take the stage for seven minutes, ostensibly because Democratic opponent Charlie Crist had an electric fan under his podium.

Despite media chatter over #Fangate, Scott narrowly won re-election.

The card showed an image of Scott as Santa Claus, as he placed an electric fan under the Christmas tree. Three stockings hung on the mantle – one red, one blue and one purple – with the name “Charlie” on each.

“You should know that we’re your biggest fan!” the card said. “Happy holidays from your friends at Southern Strategy Group.”

For a group that prides itself on well-timed holiday humor, it will be interesting to see what SSG pulls out of the stocking for its first-ever Christmas party.