The year is winding down, and now is the time to reflect and celebrate rather than start anything new. You probably won’t get much work done until after the new year, so you should just focus on the holidays for now. In addition, you’ll probably be working on your corporate Christmas party. This is the perfect opportunity to show your employees a great time and let them know how much you appreciate them.
The key to a successful corporate party is taking it out of the usual professional context of the workplace. So, you need to make it informal and let people connect with each other on a personal level, with drinks thrown in for good measure.
Send Out Invitations
You need to send out invitations and confirm a date well before time for your Christmas party. This will usually be the last working day before the holidays, but take employee feedback in consideration if they prefer an earlier day.
Then, you can confirm the date, time, and venue, which will probably be your workplace. If your office isn’t big enough, make sure you have made appropriate bookings. Then, you can design and send out the actual invitations. The invitation email templates on PosterMyWall are really easy to customize, so you can just choose one of them, and add the right information.
Work Around A Theme
You should already have a theme in place. This will help you make arrangements in a more organized way, and also let participants know the vibes of the party. Try to keep things informal and fun. You could even go for something like 70s fashion or an ugly sweater theme.
This theme will also get people in the spirit. They’ll be planning their outfits in advance, and looking forward to your Christmas party.
Decorate the Venue
Once you have the date, theme, and venue pinned down, you can move on to decor. Consider your theme, audience, and safety protocols. Then, talk to a vendor about the decorations. You can keep things simple with streamers, a Christmas tree, and some lights. Or, you can go all out and have backdrops for photos and set up extravagant decorative arrangements.
This depends on the nature of your company as well as your budget, so go for something fun, but something that won’t stifle open conversation and free movement.
Arrange Entertainment
Sometimes, you need to kick things off before everyone gets into a festive mood. Some entertainment is a great way to do this. If your Christmas party includes families, set aside a few entertainers for the children present. A magician or other performer will serve the purpose well.
Get a musician or comedian to perform a set for the adult audience, and also get the party started. Make sure you hire someone according to your budget and in the spirit of the party. You wouldn’t hire a classical pianist for a completely casual office party where everyone just wants to dance and mingle, for example.
Set Up Games
Encourage mingling at the event with some fun games. The point of these should be to encourage people to interact with each other and have a great time. Taboo is a really fun game to play in smaller settings, if you have fewer employees. Just divide people into teams for the game, and watch the chaos unfold.
In addition, you can also set up prizes for these games, with winners taking away things like gift cards, gift baskets, or some small device. This will encourage everyone to participate enthusiastically and get your games running.
Get Decent Caterers
Food and beverages are an important part of your Christmas party. A grazing table or finger food would work great, as a sit-down dinner would make things too formal. Make sure you have food which is filling, but not messy. In addition, keep a variety of drinks available, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Make sure people don’t get too drunk and have your caterers keep an eye out for extra consumption.
You can encourage small businesses in your area by going for a food vendor people may not know about. This will show your Christmas spirit and promote a community feeling among your company.
Highlight Annual Achievements
Take this opportunity to appreciate your employees. Celebrate their achievements of the year, and give a speech about how much you value them. You can also highlight high achievers, and also motivate people for the coming year.
Give out small token prizes to the high achievers and also keep words of encouragement and appreciation for everyone else. Wish them happy holidays, and tell them you look forward to a great next year working together.
So, you can really make your corporate Christmas party stand out with a few simple tips. Just keep things planned and organized well for the best results.
