A decorated tree. | Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images The Christmas bar in Penn Quarter temporarily closes after attendees said they felt “scammed.” A D.C. Christmas pop-up bar is temporarily closed following posts online from attendees claiming they felt “scammed” over misleading marketing and underwhelming results. TikToker Yasmin Hajj shared a video about her experience at The Jingle Bar earlier this week, showing photos included in a media preview invitation she received, which promised over-the-top Christmas decor: “whimsical wonderland, featuring holiday cocktails, delicious bites, and Instagram-worthy holiday decor to make your content sparkle.” Yasmin Hajj A still of Jingle Bar from @yashajj’s video on TikTok. But when early attendees actually showed up to Jingle Bar, stationed inside the National Union Building in Penn Quarter, it ended up looking more like the Grinch stole Christmas. “Last night, my friends and I got scammed in a holiday bar,” Hajj began the video, which has since racked up nearly a quarter of a million views. “Everyone who walked into that room walked out so damn quickly, and people were pissed off.” She likened the pop-up to the ill-fated Willy Wonka experience held in Glasgow earlier this year, where families signed up for an event inspired by the movie and marketed with over-the-top AI images but ended up being in a sparsely decorated warehouse with confused actors. Others in the comments mentioned the disappointing Bridgerton Ball event, complete with a random pole dancing performance and bad decorations, in Detroit a few months back. Kylie Forrest, 25, learned about Jingle Bar via social media, where she says she was made to believe she was buying tickets — which cost $17 and include a welcome drink — for a “well-decorated holiday pop-up.” “I just kept thinking that we must be in the wrong place,” Forrest says. “It looked absolutely nothing like the photos. … It was a small room with minimal decoration, a few tables, and a couch. It felt more like a corporate holiday party.” Forrest says she and her friends stayed for a bit to finish their welcome drinks and “try to get some of our money’s worth,” but left immediately after. “Most other people left at the same time as us, which was super awkward because the room was so small and the people working there were just watching us as we grabbed our coats and left,” she adds. The Jingle Bar didn’t look anything like the photos used to advertise it, because none of them were from any of the organizer’s own past events. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gavin Booth and Karen Reinsberg (@coupleinthekitchen) Three of the four photos included in the media invite email and shared on social media to promote the event were pulled from various unaffiliated holiday pop-up bars in Austin. One of them seems to be taken directly from an Instagram post by Couple in the Kitchen, a food and travel duo who told Eater they didn’t give permission for the organization to use the photo they took at a hotel in Austin last year. Another image is an iStock photo of a Christmas market from 2015, which is still in the background of the pop-up bar’s website. A representative for Showtime Presents, the popup’s organizers, told Eater that they have “already improved the decor in the space” since Hajj’s video was taken, and that “guests who have been upset have been offered refunds.” Hajj was among those guests — she later added a comment to her video that she was issued a refund after emailing the organizers. “We were scammed, but we were not scammed out of our life savings,” Hajj said in her video. “I guess this is a sign to do your research.” Jingle Bar is currently closed and will be moving to a “more suitable location” on the floor below, opening “in the coming days to deliver a great experience to all,” the representative added. After Eater reached out to the organization, the event’s website was updated to note that tickets are now “unavailable” until Wednesday, December 18. The Jingle Bars hosts holiday popups in several cities across the U.S., including Minneapolis, San Diego, and Vancouver this year. The same company is also responsible for D.C.’s Halloween-themed The Night Before Bar popup a couple months back, which took place in the same building and garnered similarly disappointing reviews from attendees (“it was so bad we left after like 15 min,” one commenter wrote on Hajj’s video). “The event organizers should have been more transparent about what the event would actually entail and what it would look like,” Forrest says. “I’m not sure anyone would have bought tickets if they were.”