- Christmas Party Planning and Ideas
- Office Christmas Party Games
- Christmas Party Music
Creativity is a key
to make your Company Christmas Party
a memorable experience…
Every year we get lots of requests to help out with hints and tips on how to plan a Company Christmas Party. So we have gathered our resources to provide you with lots of ideas to make this year’s holiday party safe, fun and memorable experience for you and your co-workers. These ideas are designed for both large companies with great budgets as well as small businesses with minimum resources.
Don’ts
Do not focus your energy solely on the buffet, thinking food is what draws workers to the Christmas parties, the attendance will drop off because those parties are predictable.
The most deadly type of holiday party is a sit-down dinner at the boss’s house, which often has a pressure-filled conservative atmosphere. Try having a different entertainment each year. 
Holiday party hosts can play a major role in keeping their friends and families safe by looking at alternatives to alcoholic beverages. There are a few common sense rules that should be followed when hosting a holiday party. If alcohol is going to be served at a party, this Safe Holiday Party Guide will give you a few pointers when planning an event.
Organize & Prepare
You can start by sending out the invitations with a note included that there will be a prize for the person that decks out in the most Christmas gear. This can include anything from a Christmas costume to guests wearing garments that display cheerful holiday clothing, jewelry, hats, or anything that their imagination can dream up. The person that shows up to your party that is voted by all as wearing the “best dressed†Christmas outfit wins a wrapped gift of their choice from the gift table.
You can have a designated receptionist announce the names of each new arrival, crown them with a Santa hat with their name, while reading something humorous about them. 
This works great especially at large Corporate parties when customers or large number of employees participate and not everyone knows each other. First names on Santa Hats work much better than name badges and the hats then double as party favors everyone gladly takes home.
But the energy of the party starts with the invitations…. or Christmas Greeting cards… one of our customers had a great idea to take a picture of all employees in Santa hats, personalized with employees names and use the postcard as a corporate Christmas card as well as Christmas party invitation for their customers. The Hats were then saved for the holiday party gala.
Entertainment:
Make sure you have some fun program with games and activities for your Holiday Party. Our holiday party activity guide has many Christmas party games to spruce up the event. Also make sure you have some great Christmas Party music. Most Christmas CD’s on the market are geared towards slow tunes, not much of a Party time material, so we have compiled some really original Christmas party tunes that will make you a star Christmas party DJ! If you head over to our MySpace page, we have some really cool Christmas music there. You need to click on the MENU button to move around the playlist: lots of fun Christmas mixes and remixes to choose from!
If you like this Christmas party music mix - You can play it at your Christmas Party! Just head over to our MySpace where you can find info on our blog how to save these songs on your computer and use your laptop to DJ your Christmas Party. …. and don’t forget to say high there!
Party Favors
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Also, don’t forget to wrap the party up with a take-home gift party favor, such as a personalized stocking or a custom logo Christmas stocking with a gift certificate, a turkey or even an ornament with the company logo.
Those custom imprint Christmas Stockings with your company logo are perfect decorations in the Christmas partry room and then when it’s time to leave you can give the stockings with Christmas bonus checks or Gift Certificates to your employees and some fun goodies like Company Logo ornaments for your customers and guests.
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| We have a fun area where you can upload your logo and design your logo ornament online. These make an awesome favor for all the guests at your Christmas Party. |  |
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Resources: |
Finally, gather as many pictures from the party as possible, post them on the company bulletin board or a corporate website so the employees can share the experience with their families, customers or anyone who missed the party.
We’d love to hear from you, you can post your comments and ideas here
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I like the Santa hat for employees idea. we try this year.
cool site! merry christmas 2008
I found that Planning an event at an offsite location such as a Karting Track for x-mas is the best thing we have done. The Ornaments may be a new addition to our trip this year though they look great!
in this christmas i dont miss it. Thank for your chrismas party ideas.
Hi, We are looking to do something different for our christmas party this year and we are based in a pretty remote part of oxfordshire. Can you suggest anything?
Thanks
Excellent! Good post. Very useful. Thank you for sharing. All the best. You are awesome. I like the food party planning part. You can check my site for more information on this. Cheers. Merry Christmas to all (even if it is only September).
If you have it in the budget, rent a photobooth. The pics are great favors!
Hi there,
I work for a fairly small company and we are looking to plan our first Christmas party… does anyone have any ideas? I love the Santa hats but for a smaller company we all know each other. We have about 40 or so employees and we are in Ontario…close to a lot of things for the summer but not sure what to do or where to start if anyone has any ideas please email me amber.shultis@gmail.com.
Great ideas! I will definitely try it this year. Thanks for the post.
Great ideas! I will definitely try them with friends and family this year for christmas. Thank you for sharing.
this website is perfect– except for no food ideas
Excellent post!
The Christmas Games definitely will add to the party fun!
I would suggest an adult musical chairs using the Christmas carols.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Stacy
Hi!
Great ideas, just wanted to pass this along…
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And fan us on Facebook for a chance to win a trip to New York City!
I think some of the ideas are a bit outdated and sad, give some cool gifts to the employees and do something a bit different.
If you are having a party as part of a fund raising event in the New England area and you want it to be a huge success you really have to consider getting a band called Infractions and the Happening Horns. They played at a fundraiser for The ALLY Foundation last year and they were fantastic! They helped AF raise over $100,000.
It is always nice to have the party away from the office. Even for a luncheon, you can take everyone somewhere interesting, like a bowling alley or a miniature golf course (if weather permits in your area).
If you are planning an event at your place of work, it’s even more important to make it feel different than usual. For decor, you can always get wreaths and lights, but why not ask some of the parents to bring in artwork their children have made?
Party games can certainly add fun, but there’s nothing like a Santa Claus or Comedian to brighten the party. And holiday music is essential to set the mood. Carolers or any live music is ideal for a shorter party, even just a solo musician on a keyboard. If your event runs longer than an hour or two, you’ll want a DJ or a whole selection of music prepared. Then relax and enjoy!
this website rocks the world a round peace out
It’s interesting to me as owner of a 10 person company that you say dinner at the boss’s house is the deadliest Christmas party. I have been trying for years to move the party away from my house, but my employees love it here, much more than a restaurant. But I’d really like to do something new this year, rather than the regular present exchange and dinner. Any ideas?
I LOVE CHRISTMAS.
We had a gag gift exchange each year. People bring a gag gift, and each person that brings one, (we bring a few extra for guests) picks a number from Santa’s hat. We being by calling #’s 1 to the last one. As the person’s number is called, they go up and pick out a present, and open it to display it and have pictures taken. Then the next person goes through the same routine – but if they want to exchange their gift, they can exchange with anyone before them. The first person gets to exchange their gift with anyone before them. Pictures are taken and interesting gift exchange pictures are posted on the company website.
That worked when we were fairly small 30 persons employees, spouse/friend and owner. However, now we have over 60 people signed up for the Christmas party, so I am looking at combining an Adopt-a-Family, with the Name&favorite food and hand out the gag gifts to winners of who could remember the most employees and their favorite foods. Everyone is encouraged to bring a food or gift for the Family adopted, and to bring a gag gift for prizes for the Name &favorite food. It should cut-down on the time, yet still offer fun after we eat.
Allison, that’s funny you mention that because I am in the same boat. I am the manager at a bank and each year I plan something for just my branch and it’s always at my house. I would much rather do it out somewhere…less planning, cooking & cleaning but they have been asking me for months when we are having our branch Christmas party! I’ve been looking all over for some new ideas/games, favors, etc. to make it more interesting but so far I haven’t had much luck. We have never gone overboard with the gift exchange, it’s come down from $20 to the last couple of years just doing an ornamant exchange which is always interesting. All but a few drink so we usually end up playing games, karaokee or whatever strikes us – not exactly party of the year I know, but they enjoy it! Please share any ideas you may have!
I’m sorry for double post, something went wrong
Hello,
one of the main ways of celebrating Christmas is of course by singing Christmas songs. The best way to do it is to have a good instrumental back music to support your singing.
I couldn’t find any articles online, which would direct people to where they could find proper karaoke tracks for Christmas songs. The ones I found were whether in very bad quality or worse, in MIDI sound, or there was a need to pay for them. So I did a research myself and found out, that there are many good quality Christmas karaoke songs in YouTube. So what I did – I listen through almost a hundred songs and picked out the best ones I could find for each song. I assure you, that they are in good quality and you can listen to all of them in one article. I add that this article is only for informative purposes.
Link to the article is here: http://fr.ee/article/free-full-christmas-karaoke-songs-not-midi
Have a great singing experience =)
Martin
Christmas games are always fun, but have you thought about face painting? It’s a great way to add holiday spirit! How about painting a mistletoe, so you can get kissed wherever you go? Just throwing out ideas!
Its cool! Christmas party in the office are really exciting! Especially when your co-workers are your friends as well as your boss. Exchanging gifts are really funny and also eating time.