How to throw the perfect Christmas Party

If you’re reading this thinking that Christmas starts earlier every year, you’re probably right - at least when it comes to planning a company Christmas party. Competition is tight for those key December dates and everybody wants to throw the best party they possibly can, so moving early will give you the best chance of securing the date, venue and suppliers you want. But how do you go about it?

Christmas parties are the most important date in the business event calendar, with 86% of all workplaces throwing them and while the process of planning one should be fulfilling and enjoyable, it’s important to recognise that if you’re perceived as cutting corners on budget or effort, it can reflect badly on employees’ perception of the company - but the good news is that with some original thought, high quality suppliers and some personal touches, you can throw a Christmas party that your team will talk about for months to come, and bring the team together.

We break the process of organising a party into a few distinct stepshat makes a great Christmas party.

• 1. How should you budget for your Christmas party
  

• 2. What sort of Christmas party should you throw?
  

• 3. Booking a venue - where to start
  

• 4. Other suppliers you will need to book

How should you budget for your Christmas party?

Once you’ve identified a date, the next stage is to start planning the budget for the event. If there’s one company party that you want to go all out for across the year, it’s now. In employees’ minds, the Christmas party is the big one.

We would recommend around 20-30% of your overall annual events budget going towards your festive bash, likely making it by some way the largest single event in the calendar. This means that if your annual event budget is £50,000, then around £10,000-15,000 should be going towards making sure the Christmas party is as good as it can possibly be.

Budget brackets

We’ve broken the overall budget down into three categories - low, medium and high - but it’s worth stating that these are guidelines rather than a set plan. Each company will have its own style and of course your party will be tailored towards its mission and its employees, but these ballpark figures should provide an instructive idea of how you can organise your budget. 

Low-end budget - £60-80 per head: A budget at this level will enable you to provide a venue, relatively simple food options, and a few drinks for each employee.

Medium budget - £80-120 per head: This would enable you to book a more upmarket venue, provide some exciting street food options and a higher number of drinks for each employee, with the potential for a photographer or videographer. 

High budget - £120+: At this price you should be able to have your pick and choice of great venues, look at a number of food options including a three course sit down meal, with a photographer and other entertainment involved. 

Ultimately, we would recommend looking at the higher end of the budget, because not only will a brilliantly planned night with great suppliers impress your employees in the short-term, it will carry long-term benefits which could positively impact the performance of the team for months to come.
How you spend your budget can depend on what sort of route you want to go down on the venue side. If your office space allows, you could host it “in house” and save budget for show-stopping food, drink and entertainment, but an external venue makes a bigger impact and will feel more festive for your guests. 

Choosing a venue for your Christmas party

Choosing the right venue for your Christmas party is potentially the most important choice that you’ll make when it comes to making an impression on your team. The venue acts to set the tone for the whole event - an elegant venue can set a smart atmosphere perfectly, while a rustic one can provide a perfect backdrop to an epic night of fun.

When it comes to choosing your venue, you should think about your brand, of course, but also about the personalities within your team. If your team by and large appreciate the finer things in life, perhaps elegance is the name of the game: members clubs, historic buildings, or rooms-with-a-view in London’s skyscrapers could be a winner. If your team have a more casual outlook and value fun or out-of-the-box over classic extravagance, look at spaces like breweries, themed bars, competitive socialising like the F1 Arcade, or even a boat.  

In terms of budget - booking a venue should take up around 25% of your total spend.

Here are a number of choices that you could look to go for in your venue to try and wow your employees and Togather has a strong collection of all of the below available to book on the platform. There below of course are just a snapshot of the options that you can go for, and we’re happy to help provide inspiration other ways of throwing a Christmas party - even if it’s totally out there.

Blank canvas venues:

These are venues that are essentially empty spaces for you to fill with the suppliers of your dreams. You will likely be responsible for sourcing everything, from the caterers, to the photographer, to the bar supplier.
You should choose a blank canvas venue if: You want your event to be highly personalised to your team, or you want to create a totally immersive & themed experience
You should avoid a blank canvas venue if: You’re looking for the venue to source more of your suppliers or want an “off the shelf” solution with one supplier to handle everything

Wet-hire or all inclusive venue:

These are venues that will handle or have a solid list of preferred suppliers for the event in-house, likely catering, bar services and potentially AV and music.
You should book a Wet-hire venue if: You’re looking for an original, distinctive venue where all or most of your suppliers are taken care of for you

You should avoid a Wet-hire venue if: You want to fully curate all the suppliers for your event and make sure the event reflects the individual personality of your company and team

Formal dinner setting:

This could potentially take place at a venue where you’re providing the caterer or in a set event space in a restaurant where they’re providing the food and drinks. 

You should choose a formal dinner setting if: If providing a formal, three course meal is at the top of your priority list and you want everyone to sit down together. 

You should avoid a formal dinner setting if: Your team mixing is a key element for your event, as a seating plan can limit social interactions

Festive-themed setting:

There are a number of purpose-built Christmas venues they are fully decked with all manner of festive decorations, may have staff in character and will likely have themed menus.
You should choose a festive-themed setting if: Fully embracing the Christmas spirit is the most important aspect for your party
You should avoid a festive-themed setting if: You’re looking for an event that’s more subtle in its theme

Competitive socialising

If you have a particularly competitive team, it can be a good idea to host the event at mini golf, video game or even curling themed venue. Building your party around an activity can be a great way to encourage bonding with different teams.
You should choose a competitive socialising venue if: Your team are fans or interactive fun and you want to make sure they’re busy throughout the entire event, or if you’re after a less drinking-centric event
You should avoid a competitive socialising venue if: Your team aren’t huge fans of organised fun and would prefer a more natural setting for socialising

Booking the remaining suppliers for your event:

Once you’ve decided on the venue for your Christmas party, it’s time to consider the other suppliers you’ll need to make the event feel as festive as possible. The suppliers you’ll need to book will naturally be dependent on the venue you choose - but we are approaching this from the perspective that you are using a Blank Canvas venue - and if you’re booking a venue that provides suppliers listed below, then you won’t need to source them independently.

Catering: High quality, themed catering is perhaps the most important area to make sure you get right at your Christmas party (great food makes for happy guests and, on the other side, hungry people tend to complain a lot). With an event of this magnitude, we’d always recommend bringing in external catering - this could be a fleet of street food trucks, indoor street food setups or in-house caterers using a kitchen space at your venue.

This is as opposed to ordering in large-scale delivery catering or taking the team out to a restaurant as these more off-the-shelf options can seem less original and inspiring in comparison to live cooking, and do not create anywhere near the same level of theatre.

One of the major benefits of working with an external caterer is that you can work with them to design a specific Christmas-themed menu for the event, making sure that tastes and dietary requirements of the team are taken into account and potentially looking at creating personalised menu options.

Estimated budget: 25%

Drinks: In terms of alcoholic drinks, we would highly recommend bringing in a mobile bar company to serve drinks, Christmas-themed and otherwise directly to the attendees. While it’s not necessarily a bad idea to keep some stores in reserve, gone are the days when companies can simply provide employees with beer, wine and basic cocktails from a fridge or ice box.

People are now into their tap craft beers, good wines or bespoke cocktails, and the best way to make everyone happy is to bring in a mobile bar company who can serve these drinks up to the guests. Many of these bars have stunning set ups that can help to add to the overall feel of the event and create incredibly good content and will be happy to provide festive drinks options such a mulled wine or gingerbread flavoured cocktails. The bars can also be dressed in Christmas specific ways to add to the festive theatre of the event.

They should also be able to provide soft drink options, as well as tea and coffee if required. Some extra options here could be to add hazelnut coffee options, and serve soft drinks such as Fentiman’s Ginger Beer or special edition Cinnamon Coca-Cola.

Estimated budget: 10%

Photography/Videography: One of the most important, but commonly overlooked suppliers at a Christmas party is a high quality photographer and/or videographer. Firstly, having someone there capturing the festivity of the party will immediately add a sense of gravitas, and it’s great fun for guests to pose for a few pictures with their colleagues. After the event, the images can become great material to put up in the office, and you can further share them around social media, which can help with your employer brand. An alternative could be to book a photobooth for the event - which you can fill with Christmas accessories for some great photos.

Estimated budget: 10% 

Event Staff: You will potentially need to book some waiting staff to help serve food and drinks and make sure everyone attending can enjoy the party without feeling the need to pitch in or tidy up as the event goes on. The right staff will keep the venue looking good and the event running smoothly, and make sure that everyone’s mulled wine and Eggnog is kept topped up.

Estimated budget: 5%

Carbon Offsetting: While it’s important to run the event as sustainably as possible, it’s inevitable that your Christmas party will unfortunately leave some sort of carbon footprint. Through Togather’s partnership with Ecologi, you can carbon offset any event and make sure your summer party leaves the planet no worse off.

Estimated budget: 5%

Other areas to split the remaining budget:

• Personalised Christmas decorations for the venue

• Entertainment, such as a band playing Christmas classic, DJ or magician

• Transportation to the venue