Is it your role to organise your team’s Christmas party?

Are you and your team geared up for a great Christmas this year?  This will be my 8th Christmas season with Team Bonding – we will cross over 500 Christmas parties this year.

Here are my tips for planning a fun and memorable Christmas Party.

1.  What Don’t You Want?  Every year event organisers call and say “Christmas was awful last year, we got stuck at a long table and nobody mingled or it was really expensive or people got drunk” (it is not our clients saying that obvs :-)).

You know what is true in life – if you know what you don’t want – we can easily suggest activities that will fix all those problems. So rather than sending an email saying “what does everyone want to do for Christmas this year?”, try sending an email that asks; ” What don’t you want for the Christmas party this year?” and see if those responses help you think outside the box.

2.  Choose an Activity Where People Can Mingle.  Otherwise, people hang with their existing friends and you don’t get any benefit from people getting to know other folks.

3.  Choose Something Safe and Comfortable.  It is vital that everyone feels a level of comfort with what is chosen and the risks of overly exuberant partying are minimised with careful planning.

4. A Shared Experience will be talked about for months to come and will offer long term benefits in terms of rapport building and team spirit.  This different approach will mean your investment at a Christmas party is worthwhile.

5.  Choose an Event that is well matched to your group size.  Structured events work better for groups of 40 or more.

6.  How Physical Do You Want Your Activity To Be?  Active events are brilliant and memorable, but you also want to include everyone in your choice.  Team Bonding has lots of events that suit different levels of physicality.

7.  Choose Your Date With Care.  You can have your party in the day or evening, on a weekday or Friday or a weekend (though we notice that people are sometimes not as receptive of weekend events that cut into family time).  Remember though, December is a crazy month for everyone so choosing something earlier in the month or even late November can be good.  Also, consider that Fridays are crazy busy in town, but if you are set on a Friday, please book early (we rarely have any Friday slots available past September).  If you miss out on a Friday, sometimes a weekday can be an even better choice.

8.  No Need for a Lavish Budget.  Every year people have told us that the activity plus a casual drink or lunch afterward has been great value for money and loads of fun.

9. Keep the After Party Casual.  This seems the best way for everyone to mingle and feel comfortable and a down to earth function matches up well with our activities where casual clothes work so well.

See this link on Team Bonding  if you’d like help with ideas for Christmas or call Jane on (02) 9949 2989