As event planners, events are something we’ve come to live and breathe here at Hugo Halliday. When clients come to us, sometimes they have a full idea nutted out in their head and other times they ask us for the whole concept.
With the silly season approaching, we’ve compiled a list of 5 unique corporate Christmas party ideas you can take to your planning committee – or bring to us to help (we promise there is no bowling on this list)!
Let us know what you think and if you use any of them > like and share on our Facebook page.
#5: Puppies, cheese and wine
What melts quicker than an ice cream in the midday Australian sun?
Hearts when they see puppies!
While we LOVE cats, they can divide opinions…but puppies! No one hates puppies unless they are totally dead to the world. Add wine and cheese to the mix and you’ve got a winning combination.
How can you get the three together?
STEP ONE:
Contact an animal rescue organisation in your local area. You will find some have corporate volunteering programs already in place, or those that don’t may be willing to come onboard and share their animals with your staff members for a fee.
STEP TWO:
After sourcing puppies for your staff to play with, contact some local wineries. It is popular now for wineries to offer free sampling tables and your staff can purchase wine they like (you could offer a favoured bottle as a gift), or a nominal fee may be involved.
STEP THREE:
Contact a caterer who can provide a cheese/cracker/fruit/bread/picnic spread for your staff.
Plan to spend the morning lapping up puppy cuddles and (pending on what venue you are using for said cuddles), book in to have lunch set up in a separate room, under a marquee at a local park or in a local hall.
#4: Skill workshops
Time is a big thing we lack in this day and age. When your employees leave work, are they getting the most out of their free time or running around doing household tasks and chasing after their children? When was the last time you had a genuine hobby you could regularly commit to?
A skill workshop offers your employees time to explore their creative side and learn things they haven’t had time to before (who knows – they may develop valuable skills for your workplace!).
Depending on the size of your organisation and your budget, you could treat your employees to one skill workshop, or hire out a whole venue and fill it with different skill stations they can jump on (a timetable system + signup sheets will help facilitate this).
Some skill workshops your employees might enjoy include:
- Chocolate making
- Make up tutorial
- Pottery class
- Cupcake decorating
- Carpentry class
- Floristry class
- Photoshop class
- Cheese making
- Urban gardening
- Language lesson
- Painting class
- Dancing lesson
- Cocktail mixing
- Canape creating (great for upcoming family BBQs!)
- Jewellery making
- Photography class
- Sewing class
- Drama workshop
- Terrarium making
- Magician class
- Basket weaving
- Soap making
- Christmas dinner cooking lesson
- Dragon boat racing
- Acrobat lesson
…we could just keep going!! The possibilities are endless. If you’re unsure what type of skill workshops to include, why not send a survey around the office first? Of course a good feed and some networking time always goes hand-in-hand with any workshop.
#3 Themed gala
Remember when you were a kid and dress up parties MADE YOUR LIFE. Well, adults like to dress up and have a bit of fun too!
When people dress up they tend to drop some of their usual inhibitions and enjoy themselves a bit more. You could make your gala as extravagant or low-key as you like. Whether you’re theming to fit in with the local oriental restaurant, or hiring out and staging a massive hall, you can fit a themed gala into any sized corporate Christmas party.
Some theme ideas include:
- Arabian nights (belly dancing optional, Joe)
- Hollywood (or Horrorwood!)
- Murder Mystery (you’ve always secretly wanted to kill one your co-workers)
- Red ball (or any colour you choose)
- Vegas (roll some dice in your best gangster suit)
- Mickey Mouse’s Christmas Extravaganza (no one hates Disney)
- Alice in Christmasland (trippy twist for the holidays)
- Wild West (rootin’ tootin’ cowboy boot kickin’ good time)
- 50s/60s/70s/80s/90s (strange how different each decade is!)
- Fiesta (anyone who doesn’t like tacos is nacho your friend)
- Masquerade ball (for a touch of elegance)
- Great Gatsby (fire up those roaring twenties dance shoes)
- Circus (so many entertainment and staging possibilities)
- Super Hero (everyone has a favourite)
- 7 Deadly Sins (sit the gluttons away from the buffet table)
- Winter Wonderland (dazzle your guests with jaw dropping theming)
- French Soiree (champagne and berets anyone?)
- Greek Islands (togas optional)
- Teenage Dirt Dag (everyone dresses as they would have in school)
- Under the Sea (guess how many mermaids there will be)
- Pun Party (good for laughs and encouraging networking)
- Beauty and the Geek (test your co-workers knowledge with fun quizzes)
- Hawaiian Shirt Party (every guy in the office secretly wants to own one)
- Around the World (great for setting up food stations featuring different nationalities)
- Time Traveller’s Ball (should you dress to chop off their heads or insert a heart-stopping microchip?)
- “I shouldn’t be here” party (with that open chest and hospital gown, we’d say you’re wanted on the operating table)
- Ugly T-shirt (because it’s just too damn hot in Australia in December for sweaters)
The main thing is to tune into your office work culture. If everyone is laid back and casual most themes will work, whereas if you have staff who may be easily offended, be cautious with which theme you choose!
#2 Produce a play
While partaking in a writer’s workshop should come under #4, this corporate Christmas party idea goes one step further (and is great for team building).
Imagine enjoying a theatre dining experience, while knowing you partook in writing the play being performed in front of you. What if that play was not just written about you and your colleagues, but also about and/or related to what you are your colleagues do for a living!
This corporate Christmas party idea does take some planning and close work with a professional script writer/director or two. You can either dedicate a whole day incl. night or a part day + night…we’ve broken down how each one would work.
Part day + night
In the lead up to the Christmas party, your staff are broken into groups. Each group is taken out of their usual work day for an hour or so to be part of the planning process for the play.
Pending the size of your organisation and interests of your staff, you can either have all the groups work on sections of the script, or they can work on different aspects of the play including:
- Costume picking (try out your local op shops!)
- Set building
- Catering/dining experience prepping
- Invitation/poster/ad designing
- Casting
- Acting (if you have any budding staff who want to act, give them the chance to put their hands up!)
The group/s who work on the script will sit with a script writer and throw out ideas/develop a storyline. The script writer will have been previously briefed by the managers/event co-ordinator so already have some idea of the story and likely a draft already in place. The idea is to make your team come together to create something and find joy in working together on something different and seeing it come to life later.
Once the script is devised, the script writer will work with local actors (or your acting staff) to put together the play which will be performed in front of all your staff (and may even their families!) on the night of the party. Think of it like a theatre restaurant, it will be a laid back, hilarious experience your whole team gets involved in.
Whole day incl. night
Exactly like the above, except rather than the prep work happening a week or more out from the party, everything is pulled together on the same day. The script writer/director will have to be very on the ball with this, but imagine your team spending a whole day producing a play and being able to kick back that same evening and enjoy the spectacle they’ve created!
(Of course you could always just leave it to the professionals and go see a play at your local theatre).
#1 Good old fashioned food + alcohol + laughter
You know why managers fork out money every year for the office Christmas party? Because they know it brings good value and lifts employee morale. It’s a fantastic way to say thanks and get employees talking to people they normally wouldn’t.
You can hold your party at your office, or you could choose a unique venue such as:
- An aquarium
- A maritime museum
- An island
- A wax figure museum
- A themed restaurant
- A winery
- The zoo
- A haunted house
- An historical homestead
- A clock tower
- Under a bridge
- A barn
- A boat
- A theatre
- A school
- A sports stadium
- A pool
- A theme park
- A farm
- An old church
- A botanical garden
- An observatory
- An arcade
- The beach
Venues book out early for the silly season, so remember to start planning and booking your venue by September. If you have a favourite caterer/band/MC/entertainer you want, it’s best to touch base with them earlier on too to establish their availability.
And that’s our 5 Unique Corporate Christmas Party ideas! What was the best office Christmas party you’ve ever been to?
Don’t forget to contact us if you need any help planning your next party, or need some more unique office Christmas party ideas!
Some other quick ideas include:
- Scavenger hunts
- Mini Olympics
- Fairs/festivals
- Escape rooms
- Laser tag/paintball
- Tree top climbing
- Theme park visiting
- Hot air ballooning
- Golfing
- Spa days
- Corporate volunteering
- Fruit picking
- Whale watching
- Yachting
- Horse riding
- Glamping
- Bubble soccer