Choosing the perfect venue for your office holiday party might seem like the most important step. Once you have the location figured out, there is much more to consider in order to make your party a hit—a party that everyone will look forward to attending year after year. We’ve put together a few tips to make your office party a little more fun and enjoyable for your team. Take a look and contact us for help planning next year’s gathering!
Create a Hashtag for Your Annual Christmas Party
Whether this is the first of many holiday parties to come, or you’ve been hosting office gatherings for years, it’s never too late to create a unique hashtag for your event. Why create one? First of all, having a fun hashtag for your employees to use in their posts encourages them to post more. Second of all, a hashtag that’s unique to your company and party will make it easy to view all the photos your group has posted right in one place. Using the same hashtag year after year will ensure those memories are collected, and will also help create a sense of establishment for your annual holiday party.
Initiate a Gift Exchange
Depending on the size of your office or organization, getting presents for each coworker would be nearly impossible, but people still love the idea of exchanging gifts during the holidays. Make it easy on your team by organizing a gift exchange that will take place during your holiday party. Keep it simple by setting a price limit and letting people draw names from a hat.
If you’re feeling creative and adventurous, you can try a twist on a traditional gift exchange. Invite everyone who wants to participate to purchase a gift at a certain price point. Rather than buying for a specific person, gifts can be kept more generic and suitable for the group. You then turn it into a guessing game where the participants must ask questions in order to guess what’s inside. There are many different variations and twists on gift exchanges, therefore, simply turn to Google to find the best one for your party.
Drum Up Excitement Before the Party
Think of your holiday party as a campaign. You want people to attend, you want them to bring their significant others, and you want them to be excited about it. In order to drum up some excitement about the party, market your event like you would a product or service your company sells. Some simple ways to market your event include emails leading up to the event, flyers posted around the office and fun invitations, just to name a few.
Let Your Employees Choose
We’ve all been to a party that wasn’t fun, and if you think about why the party wasn’t fun, it usually has something to do with the party planner not considering what the whole group wants. Although you’ll never be able to accommodate everyone’s wishes, you can certainly turn to your office to figure out what people like and don’t like. Take office polls on entertainment, food and game preferences. You might be under the impression that your employees want a formal dinner, when really they’d rather graze at a spread of snacks and appetizers.
Start Planning Your Next Holiday Party
Thinking ahead to next year’s office holiday party? The NEW Center is the perfect venue with a central Northeast Ohio location and plenty of unique amenities and catering. Contact us today to speak with our event specialist and get started on your holiday party planning.