Organising a Christmas party can be quite a challenge unless you prepare well. Here are some key tips to ensure that your Christmas party is an event that makes a good impression.

• Decide as early as possible where  you want to hold your event. This may be affected by various factors including budget and the numbers of people attending. The earlier you decide on the venue and the date, the easier it is for others to plan their attendance.
  Essentially, you have the choice of running the event at your workplace or opting to choose an external venue.
  You are spoilt for choice with external venues including hiring a space and arranging the catering and entertainment yourself, hiring a space and company to organise everything or choosing to join a large function where multiple organisations attend.

• Once you know where the events going to be, you need to set a date. It’s almost impossible to please everybody. The best way to please most, is to select a few dates and ask people to vote for them. Then when the votes are in - announce it and ask people to set the date aside.

• Making formal invitations is a good idea. It’s a good idea to send out a remember this date notice once you’ve got the where and when details sorted but this is no guarantee that people will remember. The best way around this is to send out formal invitations about a month before the Christmas party and be sure to state whether partners are invited.

• Choose a theme. There’s no rule that says you have to do this - but setting a theme will add to the occasion and get everyone in a fun mood. The theme is only limited by your imagination and could centre around such concepts as a particular decade, colours, movies, TV shows or any classic theme. The key is to try and set a theme that will align with your work colleague’s likes and interests as much as possible.
  Once you have a theme lined up, you’ll need to do some planning around decorating - this may include props, decorations and maybe a media wall showcasing various aspects of the theme.

• Work out the food arrangements. This can be as easy or as hard as you choose to make it. If you’re attending an organised function then all you’ll need to do is to obtain the menus and share them with your guest list. On the other hand if you are planning on organising the party from the round up, you will have to put some time in to organising the menus.
  This will include such details as 

  • Catering for any special dietary requirements

  • Choosing and liaising with caterers to work out menus etc

  • If you do decide that you will do all the meals yourself, then you will need to make some plans around food required, storage and cooking arrangements

• Work out the drinks. If you do choose an organised function the arrangements will be included in the package. But if you are planning on going it alone you’ll need to put some thought into drinks. As a general rule of thumb you can allow that everyone will consume about two drinks for the first hour and then one every hour after that. Remember you can’t cater for all tastes and if you choose a few drinks this will satisfy most requirements. While you’re managing alcoholic beverages don’t forget to cater for water and soft drink needs.

• Don’t forget the entertainment. What do you want your night to look like? You can arrange for all sorts of entertainment from bucking broncos to group games. Whatever you choose, this presents a great opportunity for people to gather and have fun.

Whatever you choose, as long as you plan well beforehand, you’re sure to make the night a success.

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