Table of Contents
With the festive season around the corner, what better way to thank your team than hosting an office Christmas party? Not only is a party an excellent way to show your employees how much you appreciate their hard work but also gives them an opportunity to communicate with one another while playing some games and bonding over delicious food.
Having said that, how do you host a kickass Christmas celebration that they’ll remember for years to come? Well, in this article, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of ways (or checklist) that you could follow to plan and throw an amazing end-of-year party for your team. Keep reading…
9 Ways To Host The Ultimate Office Christmas Party
1. Decide On a Budget
Before you actually start with the planning process, it’s essential that you figure out how much you can spend on this party. While deciding on your budget, ask yourself questions like:
- Does your company have a dedicated party fund?
- Are you open to covering some of the additional expenses for your employees?
- Do you think everyone in the office would be willing to chip in so that all could experience an extravagant party?
Once you’ve found answers to these questions and have a solid number in front of you, it’ll become easier for you to divide all the money and decide what aspects of the party could do with more money. For instance, you could spend less on Christmas decorations and more on drinks and food – after all, you don’t want to leave the team hungry. When planning your company party, don’t forget to allocate a portion of your budget to party entertainments for hire to keep your employees engaged and entertained throughout the event.
2. Choose a Location
Once the budget has been decided and allotted accordingly, it’s time to move on to choosing a venue for the party. When it comes to picking a location though, it doesn’t necessarily have to be your office space especially when you’re trying to stay away from work. Here, you could look for a place that’s away from your office.
In doing so, you’re letting your employees know each other on a personal level instead of discussing work. Sure, it might not give you and your team a change of place but with the right decorations, you can definitely transform the entire space into a majestic, winter wonderland!
If you’re looking for affordable places, then you could choose a comedy club, a bowling alley or perhaps a house party. Given the available funds, you might explore the option of renting extraordinary venues for parties, such as a stunning party mansion. These rented party mansions offer a distinctive and opulent ambiance that takes your celebration to extraordinary levels. However, if your budget is low, consider a convenient place or maybe host it in the work environment.
3. Come Up With a Theme
This is yet another crucial step that you can’t miss while planning to host a Christmas party. Not only will deciding a theme for the party make the planning process easier, but also help you get your team more involved and excited for the Christmas event. The reason is, themes are known to add personality to the entire party.
The best Christmas party themes are usually silly and lighthearted, so ask your employees to follow the same. Perhaps you could ask them to dress up to celebrate the holiday or as an ugly Christmas sweater.
If every employee participates in the same, you’ll get to capture a sleigh-load (pun intended!) of photographs that you can cherish forever! On the other hand, if you wish to take the theme a notch higher, you can consider options such as a game night or Christmas around the world. No matter what theme you chose, traditional or unique, ensure that you’re putting enough thought into it to make your event a huge hit!
4. Get the Dress Code Sorted
Just like your Christmas party theme, it’s important to choose a dress code too. Doing so will help your employees ensure that they’ve got their dress sorted beforehand, saving themselves the stress of deciding what to wear. Once they know the basics of the event and what they need to wear, they’ll focus on being excited about the party.
5. Send Invites to Employees
Now that the main elements (the budget, location, theme and dress code) have been decided, it’s time to start sending attractive Christmas party invites to build the hype! If it’s going to be a formal party, then it’s best to send employees a polished invite through the mail. However, if it’s more on the casual side, you could simply create invites through apps like Canva and send them over via email or another platform that you use regularly.
When sending out invites, ensure that they have the basic information mentioned like the date and venue of the party, the dress code and the activities that’ll be available to the guests. While at it, do add your contact details too in case someone has queries regarding the party.
6. Stock Up on Food and Drinks
No Christmas party can be complete without delicious food and drinks. If you’re unable to decide on what serves as the best party snack, candy canes and sugar cookies with some classic chips and dips could be a nice place to start. In terms of drinks, you could go for a mix of every day and seasonal options. Perhaps go for something like hot chocolate, juice, water, soda, cider and eggnog. If spirits & liquors are permitted by your company, you could have a bar set up for your employees to enjoy. Your employees could either make their own drink or you could hire a bartender.
7. Have a Fun Activity to Exchange Gifts
While this step isn’t really necessary, exchanging Christmas gifts is an activity that’ll only add to the festive cheer! The best way to encourage your employees to exchange gifts is through Secret Santa. For this activity, every employee needs to purchase a gift for a random coworker whom they picked out of a bowl.
To keep it fair for everyone, you can set a price range and the number of gifts one can buy. Or else, to not put any pressure on the employees, the company could offer vouchers or gift cards that the recipient could use in the office for their lunch or coffee break.
8. Plan Different Party Games
Sure, good food and conversation can be delightful, but you wouldn’t want to rely on these two aspects alone. To keep the party going and the guests entertained, conduct some holiday games that cheers everyone up. This will also help each team to improve their teamwork while participating in a friendly competition.
Some Christmas games that you could consider include Christmas trivia, an ornament relay race where employees need to balance jewelry on a spoon, holiday charades, human gift-wrapping and cookie decorating. At the end of each game, you could give a prize to the winning team.
9. Wrap Up the Party With a Thank You Card
The holiday season of Christmas is all about the spirit of giving and spreading festive cheer! To wrap up your office Christmas party, you could give a “Thank You” or any Christmas card to all your employees for being a part of the organisation and giving their best when at work. Once the team receives their respective cards, they’ll definitely have a big smile on their face while reminiscing about the fun they had with their work family.
Have a Blast at Your Office Christmas Party!
If you strictly follow the nine steps mentioned above, you’ll be in a better position to plan the perfect Christmas party for your employees. Since Christmas is all about giving, your office party can be the perfect opportunity to make all your employees feel acknowledged and appreciated for their hard work. Get everything you need to host this event, begin the preparations beforehand and come Christmas, you’ll be all good to go!
