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It may seem like you have plenty of time, but…
9 Entertaining Christmas Party Ideas
Why are you in charge of organising this year’s Christmas party? In our experience, there are two very unique circumstances under which someone will be lumped with the task of putting together Christmas festivities to amuse and entertain a very diverse group of people – such as those found in any given workplace. The first is when someone loves organising events, wishes they’d become a party planner instead, are brimming with Christmas party ideas, and therefore jumped at the chance of being in charge of the Christmas party committee. The second is when someone fell asleep (literally or figuratively) during the weekly meeting and was somehow “nominated” for the role.
However it came to pass, you’re in charge of organising the Christmas party, and we’re here to make life a whole lot easier for you with these fantastic Christmas party ideas. You’re welcome!
1. Ugly Sweater Party
You’re picturing them now, aren’t you. Garish knitted sweater vests, usually in the boldest greens and reds with hideous white embellishments. To turn your perfunctory office Christmas party into a fun event that people actually look forward to, make it an ugly sweater costume party. Everyone must wear an ugly sweater to gain entry, giving people an easy dress code to comply with as well as a fantastic conversation starter. Continue the fun by having your guests vote on the most hideous sweaters, and award the winners with prizes.
2. Cheap and Easy Table Centrepieces
These table centrepieces look fantastic and wonderfully festive, but if you know where to shop they’ll turn out to cost nothing more than a few dollars. Head to a discount store for some glass bowls and vases, and fill them up with budget-priced Christmas baubles for effective centrepieces that won’t cost the earth.
3. Gift Exchange Game
The Secret Santa idea was innovative in its time, that these days Christmas parties don’t seem to be much fun without a clever and often raucous gift exchange game. There are so many different varieties of gift exchange games, and they also seem to change and evolve from one party to the next. This variation of the children’s game Pass the Parcel looks like fun, as does the Musical Gifts game idea. In our experience, the gift exchange game is the ultimate icebreaker, and will usually end up being the most memorable part of the event. For that reason, we would recommend playing the gift exchange game towards the beginning of your Christmas party, to lighten the mood and encourage people to relax and start having fun.
4. Christmas Themed Photo Booth
Photo booths are incredibly popular these days, from weddings to birthday parties, hens night and baby showers and everything in between. A Christmas themed photo booth seems like such an obvious idea, and one that is almost guaranteed to give your Christmas party guests a good time. Most of the props will be able to be made by hand, and the rest (such as a plush Santa hat or a headband with reindeer antlers) could be purchased from a discount store. If possible, set up your photo booth so that two copies are printed of every photo – one for the party guest to keep, and another to go in a communal album to later be shared with all guests via social media or your office intranet.
5. Santa Hat Brownies
These tiny sweet hors d’oeuvres are wonderfully festive and equally easy to create. If you use a brownie mix as the base (and we would highly recommend that you do – no one is going to give you “brownie points” for making the base from scratch!) then from there it’s a simple matter of cutting the brownies into uniform shapes and affixing a lovely ripe strawberry with white icing. Don’t forget a tiny dollop of icing on the tip of the strawberry to represent the pom-pom on the end of Santa’s hat!
6. Waffle Cone Deserts
From Buzzfeed
Speaking of sweet treats, we absolutely love this idea of creating Christmas tree themed deserts by decorating upside down waffle cones. For bonus points, create a Christmas tree decorating station where your party guests can decorate their own upside down waffle cone however they choose. Have someone take a photo of each guest with their waffle cone creation to remember the moment.
7. Name Cards and Food Labels
From Buzzfeed
Sometimes it’s the little details that make the biggest effect, and this can certainly be true for party decor. By gluing three miniature candy canes together you can create name cards and food labels stand up by themselves and colourfully display the necessary information. As a variation for name cards, keep the candy canes in their individual plastic wrapping and instead of gluing the three candy canes together, use a small amount of tape to affix them so that the name cards will double as little party favours for the guests to take home.
8. Slightly More Elaborate Party Games
Some Christmas parties will have just the one gift exchange game as the main event. If you’d like to include more Christmas-themed games for your party, we’ll send you straight over to this site which has a fantastic collection of games perfect for any Christmas party, along with detailed instructions for each one.
9. Keep Those Cameras Clicking
When you’re the party organiser, it can be all too easy to spend the event running from one task to another and making sure that everyone’s got a drink in their hand and that the event is running smoothly. In addition to all your other responsibilities, there are two more thing that you should try to keep in mind throughout the Christmas party. The first is to make sure you have fun as well, and that you take the opportunity to eat and participate in the games as much as you can. Secondly, check that someone is taking photos throughout the event. A few of our suggestions above – such as the Christmas themed photo booth and the waffle cone desert Xmas party ideas – involve producing photos, but you’ll also need to know that someone is taking photos of other elements of the Christmas party, too.
Your final job as the organiser of this year’s office Christmas party will be to choose the best photos from all those produced on the day and upload them to our online tool. From there, your work is finally done, as we will take care of turning your Christmas party memories into a professional quality holiday canvas print to proudly display in your workplace for everyone to enjoy.
