Tips For a Worry Free Christmas Party in the Office

The Christmas holidays are just around the corner, and when you are tasked to host or organize the company party, things can be a bit hectic. Traffic is getting worse and restaurant reservations are getting full, yet people are more eager to dine-in or experience an exciting Christmas party. Who could blame them? After a series of lockdowns and restrictions these past couple of years, people are excited to celebrate in the new normal.

If you are looking for ways to organize a worry free Christmas Party in the office, check out our tips below:

Book Early

Whether you are making a reservation in a restaurant, have your food catered, or plan to order online, book your plans early or at least three to four weeks prior. If you have recently dined in a restaurant, you may notice that the queue is longer, the staff are fewer than usual (pre-pandemic) and the choices in the menu are shorter. These can affect your event when your party day arrives, so booking early can help the restaurant prepare the food, either for catering or delivery, and the place in case your whole office decides to dine-in.

The food industry is still recovering from the pandemic, transitioning from dine-in pre-pandemic norms to take out and deliveries, and then returning to dine-in has put a lot of stress on the restaurant businesses. This doesn’t even include those few who switched to Cloud Kitchens.

Survey the Food

In a recent report by a popular food delivery app, 2 out of 5 people prefer to order in for their social gatherings rather than dining out. This opens a lot of options for food choices. Create a poll in the office on their food preference so you could narrow down which restaurants you should order from. Apart from the crowd, the venue and the activities, people look forward to food they enjoy eating when joining an event. Hanging out and eavesdropping at the pantry or water dispenser helps too. Lol.

The great thing about catering or ordering food for your party is that you are not limited to one restaurant’s menu. You can get creative by pairing the legendary fried spring roll (lumpia) with a variety of food from East to West, making the event memorable for everyone.

If you are raffling off prizes, it is best to survey them as well. There are some employees who might not appreciate an Induction Cooker because of its cookware requirements.

Reconfirm

Whether you are dining out, hiring a caterer, or ordering-in, reconfirm the number of guests attending, the food you ordered and the venue at least twice. It wouldn’t hurt you to do that and it prevents misunderstanding during the day of the event.

Usual concerns that arose from an “almost failed” event were due to: Not enough tables and chairs were prepared/reserved, the food did not arrive (wrong delivery date/time), different food were delivered (not the one you ordered), food was not enough, or food were not safe for eating anymore. If you have noticed, part of these are logistics problems, while a part of it is due to the food provider (restaurant or kitchen). Reconfirming details with yourself (if you are the one organizing it), with the restaurant and with the delivery team would help prevent these problems from happening.

Hiring a Personal Assistant

Christmas Parties are similar to weddings, they are both events. Having a personal assistant on the day will be a huge help, either with coordinating and accepting food/deliveries, setting up the venue, receiving guests or assisting you with everything or anything you need along the way.

One of the feedback of event coordinators and HR managers during an event is that they usually don’t get the time to enjoy the party they have personally organized. They seem to be everywhere and there seem to be no time to sit down and watch the show. Hiring a personal assistant for the day can help ease things up. He or she can be the point person for all the deliveries, run quick errands for you and do last minute details while you attend to the general overview of things. Adding a person who serves drinks in your office party would be a nice touch for your event.

Hire a Per Hour Cleaner

Spilled food and drinks are very common in an office event. It can cause accidents and could ruin the whole event. Having no one on standby to clean it up can be worrisome. Hiring a Per Hour Cleaner can clean while the party progresses and they can double as a food server as well.

You’re lucky if you can have the building housekeeping standby during the event, but if you can’t hire them after their work hours, you can always book one with us!

Hire an Event Cleaning Team

An event cleaning crew can serve food and drinks during the event, spot cleaning while they do that, and then clean up after the party. Their team leader can double as your personal assistant while you are at it, and they can come in with all the cleaning equipment they need to get things clean after the event.