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3. 5 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Planning Your Office Christmas Party...

Tuesday 4 August 2026

With the Christmas party season just a few months away, we have compiled a list of five pitfalls to avoid when booking your Christmas party venue; to help ease your party-planning woes and ensure your company Christmas party is the highlight of the festive season!

Whilst, selecting the right venue is at the very heart of any successful Christmas Celebration, there are several critical factors to consider ahead of searching for the perfect venue.

Hera at Venue Search London, we have placed over 150 successful corporate Christmas parties into London Venues in the last three years, so we know a thing or two about planning a memorable and stress-free Christmas celebration.

Here are our top 5 mistakes that are best avoided:

1) Not using a free venue finder

Whilst you may, after several days of research, outreach and site visits, find a great venue for your end-of year celebration, we appreciate that, for many of you, it will not be your core area of expertise and will have better things to do with your time!

Also, the consequences of choosing the wrong venue are best avoided, with the whole company in attendance. All in all, thew sort of stress that is best avoided.

Our team of six free venue finders have over 30 years of combined venue finding experience and we are the only agency specialising in the London market.  We have placed over 150 office Christmas parties over the last three years and we live, eat and breathe the capital’s venue scene.

Oh, and our service is free, (we earn introductory commissions from the venues we use), so let us save you time and money by using our expertise and knowledge to create the perfect Christmas party venue shortlist.

2) Starting with the wrong brief

Before beginning your venue search, there are several important details that you should consider before getting stuck in. These details will help you to determine the size and location of the venue, as well as the availability and costs.

It is vital you have a rough idea of your guest numbers, as this will ultimately help you choose a space that can accommodate all your attendees. Additionally, knowing the preferred area for your venue, the preferred date(s) and your budget will further guide your search.

If you begin your search without these key details, you risk wasting time and effort and missing out on the best venues due to delayed booking.

Undeniably circumstances change and details may need to be amended later down the line. This is fine, but it helps the entire process if you have an idea of the core details. Therefore, it is crucial to brainstorm, confirm and finalise these details with your team before starting the venue search. By doing so, you can streamline the process and find suitable spaces much more efficiently.

3) Choosing a venue that’s too big

The size of the chosen venue can greatly impact the atmosphere and overall experience of an event. There's nothing worse than walking into a space that feels half-full (and therefore not popular or well-attended).

A venue that is just the right size for the expected numbers allows for better interactions and connections amongst the guests. From experience, we have found that choosing a venue that is too large can create a sense of emptiness and detachment, which is not what you want during the festive season!

Ultimately, selecting the right-sized Christmas venue is crucial to creating a memorable and enjoyable event for everyone involved.

4) Assuming attendance

There is no doubt that changes in working patterns and employee engagement have made it harder to get high levels of attendance to out-of-hours social events.  The sense of “obligation to attend” is lessening by the year. 

To combat this, organisers need to build a strong sense of anticipation and excitement about the event, it needs some “selling in”.  As the organiser, you know all about the catering, entertainment and event theming/design, but this needs to be communicated to the guest list to encourage people to commit to attending.

Ensuring that you have engaging content and maybe looking at starting the event with a business element (afternoon conference or internal awards) are two proven ways to ensure a good attendance.

5) Not considering extras...

It is essential that you have costs for all the required event elements and not just the venue hire and basic catering before signing a contract, since these “hidden extras” can come back and bite you later!

A number of London venues offer a range of entertainment packages for Christmas parties, which usually include everything you’ll need to put on a great celebration. Opting for a venue with ready-made packages can make the planning process a lot easier and help you stay within budget.

If you are using a “blank canvas”  venue, then you need to be certain that you have all elements fully-costed.  These venues can create truly special and unique events, but their bespoke nature can increase the delivery costs, so make sure you have all the elements quoted before signing on the dotted line...