Top Tips for Office Christmas Party Venues

This is going to be a great year for companies at office Christmas party venues, celebrating Christmas with their deserving staff!

Planning your office Christmas party in London starts with finding the right venue, so save time and money now by using the search form below to start your free venue search now from our list of over 1,000 great Christmas party spaces.

Here are our top tips for delivering work Christmas parties that will be eagerly anticipated, greatly enjoyed and long remembered!

If your Christmas party venues are too large for your numbers, you will never create a great atmosphere, however hard you try. And this will only get worse in the last hour as the early-to-bed crew depart. Too small, and the service can be slow and you will not be able to accept any additional last minute guests. As a general rule, a venue that has a maximum capacity of 20% more than your group size is perfect! Consider joining other companies at one our our Shared Christmas Party Nights, if you have under 60 guests.

Get the lighting right!

Whether you have a theme or not, great lighting makes a great party (and fluorescent lighting kills it!). If you are using a hotel room or blank canvass venue, make sure you have coloured wall uplighters, lit table centres (or candles) as a bare minimum and that the house lights or chandeliers can be dimmed to create a great atmosphere. The latest LED battery-operated table centres are great for rooms with low ceilings.

Serve cocktails at the pre-dinner reception

Whatever anyone tells you, not everyone at your office Christmas party likes Prosecco! So offer a couple of cocktails as an alternative. This costs no more than sparkling wine and will add a touch of colour and sparkle to the beginning of the party. Make sure they are not made too strong to avoid those early knock-outs!

Consider a dessert buffet for seated dinners

Some people like puddings, others prefer coffee or mint tea; but very few want to be stuck next to colleagues at a dinner table for more than 90 minutes. The perfect solution is to have a dessert buffet station at office Christmas party venues with shot-glass served mini-desserts, coffees (and as many herbal tea varieties as you have guests!) which can be served for an hour after dinner. This gets the dance floor full earlier and allows guests to mix with more of their mates after a shorter meal at their table.

Avoid unlimited free shots or spirits bars

Remember you have a responsibility at your London work Christmas party to look after your staff and get them home safely without visiting those messy pop-up medical centres. If you are serving spirits, make sure they are served with long mixers to reduce alcohol intake and reduce embarrassing incidents that may be regretted for months after the party. Avoid free shots at all costs!

Plan the after-party

If you know that some of your guests will want to party on after the doors close at your office Christmas party, then make suggestions of nearby clubs and check out their door policies to avoid your guests trawling the streets for late night bars and clubs. And make sure you have a credit card/expense policy for your managers to avoid those January arguments!

Ensure that your guests get home safely

When considering booking London office Christmas party venues, make sure you check the last train times and check out night bus routes etc. Use a taxi marshal for larger numbers and on the busier nights and recommend local hotels (including the new sleeping pod hotels) for those who want to party hard and late. Communicate the options to the guests and have information sheets and taxi numbers on reception to help them home.

Avoid the pitfalls of social media

The advent of the Smartphone has resulted in photographs of your party being uploaded onto social media channels during the party, which can get you the wrong kind of publicity. This should be covered in your company policies, but a photo booth with images uploaded to a private online album to be viewed after the party is a popular addition to any London Christmas party and should reduce the use of social media to record the highs and lows of the night!

Offer a duvet hour (or two!)

If your party is on a mid-week night, then consider offering the guests an extra hour in bed. This will go down a treat with the staff that are attending and the party-poopers who do not attend can look after the phones until 10am! This is a easy give that will be well-received and avoid the trickle-in of weary staff the next morning.

We hope that these tips help you plan the perfect party. It all starts with your search for the right office Chistmas party venues, so please call our venue experts now on 0207 870 9303 or start your free search now.