Have you organised the office Christmas gathering?
Here’s help to make sure it goes off with a bang.
How to plan the office Christmas party
Whether you count down the days or desperately scrabble around for an excuse not to go, the office Christmas party is a ‘must-have’ event on the calendar. Party planning can be a difficult balance – finding the right format to suit the entire workforce looks like an almost impossible task. But with some planning and preparation, your Christmas party can be a success.
1. Set a budget
Your plan needs to start with your budget. Once you know how much money you have to play with, you can start to pull together ideas. The reality is that not everyone has a large budget for these events and sometimes, especially for teams in small businesses, you and your colleagues might have to pay.
The fallback option for a Christmas gathering is a meal in a restaurant. This ticks the boxes for many people. A lunchtime get together on a workday is something that everyone can usually attend.
But if you want to up the ante, you can add in an activity. Getting everyone together with a purpose, rather than just to drink and eat, can be a great way to bond. From curling to bungee jumping, ten pin bowling to paint balling, there is a massive range of team building or just plain fun activities. And not everything costs oodles of money. You could even create a poll to see which is the most popular option.
2. Have a proper planning session
Gather together your planning tools – A1 sticky notes, sharpie pens and notepad – and get creative with ideas (read on for some of ours).
3. Set a date
To make sure you get the most attendees you can send out a Doodle. This simple tool offers different date options for people to choose from. You then use the responses to select the most popular date for your event.
Here are some activity ideas
1. Escape room
This has become more mainstream over recent years and is a staple of the corporate world. If you haven’t done it before, the basic premise is that you are trapped in a room and have to work together to solve puzzles, find clues and locate the key to release you from the room. The catch is you only have one hour. It’s no walk in the park – apparently, only 20% of players find the key in the hour.
2. Go karting
If your colleagues are fit and able, it’s fun to get behind the wheel of a flimsy, undersized vehicle and take it for a spin around a track! A bit of adrenaline and competition can be a surprisingly good way to connect with your team.
3. Mystery dinner
Don’t confuse this with a murder mystery dinner. The mystery here is that you don’t know who you’re going out with. It’s an interesting way to mix up different people from different teams to help them get to know each other. The only information the participants know is the date and time of the dinner. Then on the day of the meal you send an email to the group with the name of the restaurant where the table is booked and who they are going with. They can then arrange transport together.
4. Scavenger Hunt
Split everyone into groups and let them loose in your local area. Give everyone a list of things to do – and off you go! Make sure everyone takes photos and records their adventures. Don’t forget to incentivise the event with prizes.
5. Karaoke night
Who doesn’t want to hear their colleagues sing at full volume? You never know, the night may reveal Taylor Swift on Reception or Ed Sheeran in Accounts. It’s a simple format. You can go high end and hire a venue, or just bring SingStar into the office and dim the lights.
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