Yep, I said it, the C word..! It’s a bit like marmite isn’t it? Some of us love it, some of us hate it but however you feel about it, you can’t avoid Christmas.
No matter what industry you work in, you know someone is going to mention the office Christmas party and if you have a Personal Assistant/Executive Assistant/Office Manager they’re very likely already planning it or may have already booked it! But what if you don’t have that magical person who sorts out all of your party needs? The office Christmas party/lunch/dinner is an awesome way to end the year and thank your employees for doing a great job. But if you’re too busy running your company, you’re not going to have time to source venues, set budgets, provide entertainment, and invite the team and guests. And if you leave it too late, you’ll lose out because believe me, these things get booked up very quickly! If you don’t do anything, you’re left with disgruntled employees who think their boss doesn’t appreciate them enough to treat them at the end of the year. Do you want to be that boss…?
So what do you do? You can’t afford an Assistant and you don’t actually need someone full-time. But when these things come around it would be nice to be able to offload it onto someone else wouldn’t it?
That’s where I come in my friends. I’ve been organising great events my entire working life. I don’t cost nearly as much as an event manager and you don’t have to hire me as a full-time employee. No PAYE, no sick leave, holidays, having to buy me a computer, find me a space in the office and put up with me drinking all the tea. I have my own computer and office space (and tea) and I can organise your event from home. All I need is a few basic details and I’m off and running. And I LOVE doing it! You don’t even have to invite me (how weird would that be?) but I will be there before the event for a glass of champagne and to make sure it’s all going to plan. I will also be available on the phone should there be any queries during the event.
If you still think you can do it yourself, and because I’m such a decent person, I’ll pop a few hints and tips below on how to run a cracking Christmas do.
- Set your budget – this must be your maximum price per head and it must be realistic. You won’t get a lavish party in London for £30.00 a head.
- Source your venue. Where do you want to take the team? Do you want to stay near your office location, or further afield? Remember if you’re going to make your employees travel, they will hit you with travel and expenses claims so be prepared to either include that in your budget or take the hit. Are you providing overnight accommodation? Will your company pay or will you expect employees to? My advice is to research at least three venues within price range and location. Then call them up to discuss your requirements, what date and time you want to go and find out exactly how much bang you’ll get for your buck.
- Once you’ve decided on your favourite, call the venue again to see if you can get them to come down on price, tempt them with the offer of future events and recommendations to colleagues etc. When you’re happy, confirm the booking, ask when they need final numbers by and pay a deposit to secure your venue. Make a note in your diary a week before you need to send final numbers to chase those who haven’t responded or are ‘tentative’.
- Next, invite your attendees and include address, directions and possibly even a link to the venue website in the invitation. Then decide if you want to invite other colleagues who have worked with your team that year to show them your appreciation too. Decide who the lucky ones are and add them on. Then make a distribution list of the attendees in Outlook so you can email everyone easily without having to add them all individually to each email.
- Most hotels and restaurants will want to know in advance what your guests want to eat so send a copy of the menu with the invites. You’ll need to chase people for this (a lot). This works well for lunches and dinners but isn’t relevant if it’s a buffet. Just check with the venue that they can cater for vegetarians, vegans, halal, kosher and the incredibly picky.
- Decide what you’re going to do about alcohol. The norm tends to be to provide half a bottle of wine per head on the table, half red and half white or you might (for party nights) want to provide drinks tokens that can be exchanged at the bar. A word of advice here from one who knows. Do not provide unlimited alcohol, whatever your budget. I have witnessed far too many car crashes to mention when too much alcohol is involved. Don’t let yours be the Christmas do that everyone remembers for all the wrong reasons.
- Make a spreadsheet of acceptances, declines and those tricky ‘tentative’ responses (so you can chase for a definite response nearer the time). On here you can include the menu choices of each of your attendees, which you can then print out and take with you so that when the universal cry goes up ‘I’ve forgotten what I ordered’ you can magically produce your spreadsheet as a reminder.
- Now that you know where you’re going, who’s going and what they want to eat you should then consider what else you want to do. I always do a Secret Santa and a Christmas Quiz. These only work if you’ve got a private meal or party booked, they will not work on shared company party nights. Ensure you have a couple of extra gifts up your sleeve in case anyone forgets (they can pay you later) and ensure the guests who aren’t in the immediate team are included. For the quiz you’ll have to research questions and answers (Christmas related of course), do quiz sheets, an answer sheet and nominate the loudest person in the team to be the compere – or do it yourself. If you have a private party booked and the venue doesn’t provide entertainment you’ll need to decide what you want. Obviously, a DJ will go down well – you’ll need to research good ones, make sure they’re available, pay a deposit and discuss music genres with him or her. Then do you want something more? Magicians that go from table to table during the meal are always a hit, or comedians to do slots between courses. Again, all this will need to be researched and discussed and kept within budget.
- As it’s an ‘end of year’ shindig to thank the team, you might want to organise some awards for outstanding contributions throughout the year. Ask your team leaders, supervisors and Managers for nominations and get them to write a short speech thanking the individual or team concerned. You’ll also need to buy some gifts to present, champagne always goes down well or big tins of chocolates for team awards.
- Finally reconfirm your booking with the venue, let them know final numbers and menu choices, and check with them how they want the final payment to be made. Reconfirm your DJ, magician, comedian and anyone else attending.
Still think you’ve got time to organise your Christmas party…?
