Planning your company Christmas party can often be a daunting prospect as the onus lies with you to make sure that this annual event is a complete success and enjoyed by all of your colleagues and workmates. Don’t worry – you are not alone! Up and down the country people will be stressing about exactly the same thing. The pressure of wanting to organise the perfect Christmas party can make it an extremely stressful ordeal.

It is never too early to start thinking about the Christmas party and even though you may feel it is just too early for you to start, by the time you are reading this, companies all over the world will already have theirs planned and booked. If you have never been given this task before and are completely daunted at the prospect, here are a few tips for you to ensure that your Christmas party is a roaring success.
Set the date

Because Christmas is a busy period with both work social events and family activities, it is vital that you get a date agreed as soon as possible. Choose a few dates and circulate them round the office so that you get a feel for the optimum date. Not everyone will be able to agree on a date, but whilst a Christmas party is aimed at employees to say a thank you for their hard work throughout the year, obviously senior management etc should attend whenever possible, so look at the responses you get and choose the date where most people can attend. The latter part of the week is the most popular for obvious reasons, but if you could consider earlier in the week you are likely to pay less per head and have a wider choice of venues.
Once you have decided on a date, send out a “save the date” e-mail to make sure that everyone has it in their diary. Might also be an idea to get people to send you and specific dietary requirements and food allerigies they may have.

Set a budget

The budget will greatly influence the type of party you can organise, so find out as soon as possible how much you have to play with. Aim for something that will suit everyone and allocate the budget accordingly. Remember to allow for food, drinks, entertainment and venue costs.

Decide on the type of Christmas party you want

There are so many options when it comes to organising a Christmas party – are you going to have a lunchtime party or evening? Are you also going to include spouses and girlfriends/boyfriends? Would you prefer a bespoke party or a themed, all inclusive package party?

A bespoke party is one where you would literally design your own party – you would choose a venue on a dry hire basis and use external suppliers for catering, production, theming and entertainment. This can take a lot of planning, but there is also a further option down the bespoke party route; hotels, bars and restaurants are always happy to provide everything you need and work to a simple theme if you would like.

An all inclusive package Christmas party is organised by a venue or a specialist Christmas Party planning company. The themes can be quite elaborate and lead your guests into a world of fantasy, far removed from their office environment. These venues tend to open for business in mid to late November and run with the same theme, same menu and the same entertainment right through to the end of December. A few even carry on into the second week of January if you prefer to hold your party after Christmas and New Year when the festivities are over. This option is perfect for large companies as many of the venues offer capacities from 400-1500, and it saves you an enormous headache of co-ordinating everything on such a large scale.

These large venues also work very well for much smaller companies as throughout November and December they offer shared party nights, and are perfect for creating a fabulous atmosphere for your staff. Ideal for anything from tables of 10 upwards.

Choose the venue

The earlier you can book, the more choice you will have. Research the options available which are within your budget and your chosen location. If you aren’t sure where to start, you can find numerous companies on the internet who will be very happy to help you with packaged parties and who will supply you with full proposals on each venue. Most of these companies will not hold dates, but offer them on a first come first served basis. Not ideal, but providing you are organised you should be able to get the date you want at the venue you want. Alternatively, if you prefer the bespoke route, contact a number of venues, hold the date at a few and arrange site visits to them all. Most will offer a tasting for you so that you can sample what will be served to your guests and although they may make an initial charge for this, this cost is offset against your final bill when you confirm the venue of your choice.
It is also a good idea to look around the area at accommodation options in case any of your guests wish to stay over.

Theming the venue

If you opt for bespoke, then you will need to consider theming. What are you going to choose? Decide on your theme and stick to it – there are lots of companies who will help you with this if you are stuck, and also lots of companies where you can hire any props you may need.

Food

This is one of the most important elements of any party. You don’t have to stick to the traditional turkey and Christmas pud if you don’t want to – after all most people get completely sick of the sight of turkey by the end of December, so perhaps try and offer something different this year? Traditionally a Christmas party would involve a seated three course dinner, so look at the options that each venue could offer, or if you are going bespoke, speak to your caterers and see what they can suggest. Always include a vegetarian option too.

Drinks

With an all-inclusive party, all drinks are included in the package price. However, these drinks tend to be house wines and beers which may not be to everyone’s choice. Most venues will offer a drink upgrade price to include premium spirits and wine if you have the budget. The good thing about an all-inclusive price is that you know exactly what it is going to cost you. If you choose bespoke, you need to either pre-order drinks or set a bar tab. Most bespoke venues will only serve the drinks that you choose rather than having a completely open bar, although of course if you want to offer a full range of drinks this is also possible.

Music

This is a really important part of the party – everyone (well almost..) gets up and dances at the Christmas party, so whether you are opting for a live band or a DJ, choose the playlist so that you have background music during dinner, but you can rev it up after dinner to get the movers and shakers onto the floor. It is always advisable to check what sound equipment your DJ/musicians will provide just in case you need to provide additional speakers and lighting.

Entertainment

With an all-inclusive party, all entertainment is included, but for a bespoke party you may like to include some entertainment during the arrival drinks reception – perhaps a wandering magician or caricaturists. During the dinner you could have dancers, stilt walkers, circus acts depending upon the venue, comedians and so on.

Visualise your party

It is vital when planning your Christmas party that you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you think it will work. Try and stand back and imagine yourself as a guest arriving at the party – timings are important for each element, so build your evening’s itinerary around what you want to happen and when. This way nothing should get left out and everything should run smoothly from start to finish.
Plan transport if possible to make sure that everyone can get to the party on time.

Guests

Once you have the venue booked and confirmed, including the food, drinks, entertainment, theming where applicable etc, send out invitations to all of your guests/staff. Include the date, start time, location, theme, dress code, menu choices and the itinerary and request responses by a certain date. There are bound to be those who are slow to reply, so be prepared to chase the slow coaches!

Table Plan

This can be quite tricky, but it is worth spending some time on to make sure that you get it right and you don’t end up with people who don’t like each sitting together. Try and arrange it so that people can sit near to others they wouldn’t normally get a chance to speak to – they don’t need to be there all night, but it is good to try and get everyone to have an opportunity to meet others.

All that is left to do now is to manage the event. On arrival make yourself know to the venue manager and entertainers etc so that they know who you are and can come to you with any questions. Hopefully you have ticked every box, crossed every T and dotted every I, and you can now enjoy your Christmas party!