How to organise a successful Christmas party: from getting the timing right to team-building activities
A successful event in December is rarely decided as late as November. If you start planning your Christmas party as early as late summer or early autumn, you’ll have far more options for putting together a programme that really suits your team, the occasion and the desired outcome.
Because the closer Christmas gets, the more often the question is no longer: ‘What suits our team best?’, but rather: ‘What’s actually still available?’
Why getting the timing right is crucial for the Christmas party
Popular event venues, high-quality caterers and experienced team-building organisers are quickly booked up in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Starting to plan early therefore not only gives you more choice, but also takes a lot of the pressure off the organisation.
The main advantages:
- More choice: Venues, catering and team-building events can be selected to suit the corporate culture, group size and objectives.
- Less stress when planning: The budget, date, venue and programme can be coordinated at an early stage.
- Higher participation rate: If the date is set early in the calendar, the Christmas party is less likely to clash with personal commitments, holidays or other events.
- More options for personalisation: The sooner an event concept is finalised, the better the content, tasks and design can be tailored to the company and the theme of the celebration.
It is precisely this last point that is often underestimated: a Christmas party does not have to follow a standard programme. Many team events can be tailored to a specific theme, thereby linking them much more closely to the company or the occasion.
The crux of the matter: what is the aim of the Christmas party?
A lovely venue, good food and drinks provide the perfect setting. However, what participants tend to remember in the long term is often the shared experience.
That is why, before choosing a programme, it is worth asking one key question: What will the team need by the end of this year?
This transforms the Christmas party from a mere end-of-year celebration into an event that is perfectly suited to the team’s current situation.
Christmas party with BITOU: from light-hearted competitions to team-building activities
BITOU offers a range of formats for this – from traditional team events packed with fun and competition to team-building and development activities that are more directly applicable to day-to-day work.
If you’re mainly looking to celebrate and have a laugh together, you could, for example, choose our Christmas Olympics. Divided into small teams, participants compete against one another in various challenges. The competition remains light-hearted whilst offering plenty of opportunities to get to know your colleagues from a different perspective.
Formats such as a Reindeer Race, a Crime Time winter edition or a Best of team quiz are also well suited as short group activities to round off the Christmas party. They can, for example, be held before the meal, between individual activities or as a central part of the event.
If the Christmas party is to focus more on collaboration, BITOU formats from the field of smart team-building can also be incorporated. With formats such as the Chain Reaction XXL, for example, participants work together to create something big: individual groups develop different sections, have to coordinate the interfaces and, in the end, ensure that everything works together. Especially at the end of the year, this can create a powerful symbol of collaboration over the past and coming year. The Chain Reaction can also be booked in a Christmas edition: the Christmassy Chain Reaction.
Not every Christmas event has to look like Christmas
Another advantage of planning well in advance is that existing team events can be tailored to your requirements if desired.
Not every company wants Santa hats, reindeer and Christmas music. Perhaps the celebration has its own theme, a company anniversary is being incorporated, or a specific topic from the past financial year is to be highlighted.
Many BITOU formats can therefore be adapted to suit the specific context. Depending on the format, for example, activities, storytelling, quiz questions, materials or presentation content can be given a Christmas theme or tailored to a specific event theme.
In this way, an existing team event can be transformed into a programme that feels much more like your own Christmas party – rather than a generic, run-of-the-mill event. We’d be happy to advise you on this on an individual basis.
Don’t choose the right service provider based solely on the programme
Once it is clear what the aim of the Christmas party is, the event partner should be chosen accordingly.
For a relaxed Christmas party, experience of working with groups, professional organisation and an engaging host are key. If, on the other hand, the aim is also to work on collaboration, communication or team-building topics, a different level of guidance and reflection is required.
BITOU therefore distinguishes between different levels of impact – ranging from traditional team events through to smart team-building and team development, right through to team coaching. This means that the programme can be selected not only on the basis of group size or venue, but above all according to the level of impact the Christmas party is intended to have on the team.
Planning ahead means making sure the Christmas party is just right
Starting early doesn’t just mean securing better dates. Above all, it gives you enough flexibility to combine the venue, catering and team event in a way that makes sense.
Rather than simply booking the last available event in November, this approach can result in a Christmas party that truly suits the team: as a collective gesture of thanks, a lively end-of-year celebration, a team-building experience, or even a deliberate source of inspiration for the coming year.
And that is precisely what sets apart a Christmas party that simply takes place from one that the team is still talking about well into the new year.
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