Are Holidays Parties fun? Do you feel more like Decking the Event rather than the Halls? Would you rather Scrooge It and Bah-Humbug the event? Do you feel like this event will jingle your way to the poorhouse? All you want for Christmas is to have a good time I am sure.
Should spouses, family or significant others be included? Where should you have it: North Pole, office, home, restaurant or an event place? Cook or Cater? To Gift or Not to Gift? Bonus? Does everybody get the same amount of bonus? What about those who have religious or ethnic considerations?
Another idea that was suggested is to move the Holiday Party to another time, before the holiday or in January. Less stress and more time can make this more fun.
The best way to plan for the Holiday Party is NOW to eliminate stress and last minute shopping for the event. If you are going someplace, they get booked early on so as the saying goes Better Late Than Never.
Many articles and posts on social media have dealt with these issues. We have rounded up a few responses from OD’s on Facebook to give you some ideas.
Who to invite?
Much of who you invite depends on the event and budget. It also depends on what you are trying to achieve? If morale or teaming building scenario, invite just staff. If bowling, invite the family and plus 1+.
Ethnic or Religious Differences: Most offices seem to have a party no matter what the beliefs might be. If a highly sensitive area, then have a talk with the person(s) individuality and see what is comfortable for them. They should have a choice to participate or not participate. Either way, they should be included with gifts or bonuses.
Gifts and Bonuses: Much of this is dependent on budget, morale and staff. Some give out bonuses based upon the whole team effort (profit-sharing), others give out bonuses dependent upon part-time, full time, longevity with company. Top gift ideas:
- Secret Santa Gifts
- White Elephant Gifts
- Lottery Tickets
- Restaurant Gift certificates
- Gift Cards
Holiday Party Ideas:
- Bowling: This appears to be every popular event, including spouses and a few instances include kids.
- Escape Rooms (Very popular) ‘An escape room is a physical adventure game in which players solve a series of puzzles using clues, hints and strategy to complete the objectives at hand. Players are given a set time limit to unveil the secret plot which is hidden within the rooms. Escape rooms are inspired by “escape-the-room”–style video games.’ (Wikipedia) Google Escape Room in your area for listing.
- Ugly Sweater Parties
- Karaoke Nite
- Comedy Club
- Bunco Night with prizes
- Poker Night with prizes
- Christmas Trivial Pursuit with Prizes
- Painting Parties (popular)
- Cooking Class (several mentioned this)
- Wine Tasting Party: This may depend on whether your staff like wine.
- Beer Tasting Party: This also may depend on whether your staff are drinkers or like beer.
- Dave and Busters for a game night and food.
- Scavenger Hunt (popular)
- Indoor Rock Climbing Event (spouses encourage to attend) with dinner afterward.
- Indoor Skydiving
- Paint Ball (popular)
- Lazer Tag (Family included)
- Holiday Cruise
- Dinner Theater
- Cirque de Soleil
- Murder Mystery Theater
- Volunteer and donate: a few volunteer at facility. Another idea was to shop for things to donate.
- Rent hotel-bed and breakfast (several offices have done) Spouses included.
- Mall Shopping (popular) Each person is given x amount of money and they have to go and spend it on themselves. A time frame is given like 2 hours. Afterwards ,they meet for drinks and dinner to share their gifts. In once instance whoever spent the money to the penny got an extra prize.
- Spa Party- mani-pedi-facial
- Breakfast- Staff clocks in in the a.m. but meets for long breakfast with gifts.
- Lunch: Quite a few offices close early and have a catered lunch.
- Drinks at a bar and a Limo ride home (spouse included)
- Dinner and drinks at a local restaurant. Plus games, games, games and we all go home with awesome gifts. Our store owner is VERY good to us! We play the “pick a number and then you each get a gift and you can choose to keep or steal”.. Jeopardy, deal or no deal, price is right… she’s very creative. It also varies each year Restaurant: Can include spouses or not. Can include gifts and games. A few nicer restaurants have included dancing. In another instance that included a dedicated driver, Dive Bar Hopping. Staff was given food and drink allowance.
- Catered cocktails and dinner at home or office
- Dinner at the Home of the Owner where they cook.
- Build A Prize Tree
We in particular love Dr. Golson’s Holiday Party Gratitude Letter written in 2012. You can read it here
No matter what you decided to do, we hope you have an elfing good time at your holiday party.
