3 awesome ideas for your office Christmas party
We know the feeling! You’ve worked hard all year and, with Christmas coming up, you want to make sure that your office party is the Christmas party nobody will forget. Party planning is the key to a great office party and this year, the organisation has fallen to you. You don’t mind, you’re a past master at office party games and party planning; you have plenty of Christmas party ideas and are determined to make YOUR office party a success. Just in case you need a bit of help however, we have 3 great office party ideas, complete with games and food suggestions all designed to get your team out of the office mentality and straight into a whole load of fun.
The Competition Party
There is a whole host of ways to make Christmas competitive but the focus here should definitely be on fun. If your boss has been rewarding results and achievement all year, turn the tables on office politics with a silly and achievable competition. If you don’t have your own competition idea, we have a few below:
- The ‘Decorate your Desk’ competition (Lights compulsory)
- The ‘Christmas Jumper’ competition (the cheesier the better)
- The ‘Christmas Song’ competition (bring ear plugs)
- The ‘New Company Slogan’ competition (be careful with this one)
- The ‘Christmas Poem’ competition (silliness and personal references recommended)
You will need:
- To give plenty of warning for forthcoming competition(s)
- To arrange a few silly, unisex prizes
- To create some funny ‘certificates of achievement’
- To choose a couple of non-biased judges or invent a voting system
Game recommendations:
Remember that some offices have introverts who would rather not take part in office party games. To get around this make sure nobody feels under pressure to join in.
Santa Belly Limbo
This one will really get your office party moving, especially if you are all wearing Christmas jumpers. Take it in turns to stuff a pillow up your jumpers and limbo under an ever-shrinking stick.
What’s in My Stocking?
This Christmas party game isn’t as naughty as it sounds. Fill 3 or 4 identical stockings with strange-shaped gifts, tie the stockings around the top then pass them around letting everyone guess what they can feel.
Find the Elf
You will need some time before your Christmas party to prepare this one. Hide models or images of elves in visible but unusual places around the office. Don’t tell anyone how many there are and award a prize to the person who finds the most. (Don’t forget to put one in the managers’ bathroom!)
Food ideas:
- A simple, catered buffet (you will have enough to do with your competitions)
- A private room at a well-known restaurant (competitions can get noisy)
- A ‘bring your favourite cheese to work’ buffet in the office (you organise crackers and drinks)
The New Experience Party
This one can be a bit of a party-planning nightmare if you have a really big office but, if you have just a few people whom you know fairly well, a great Christmas party idea can be to give everyone a brand new experience. It is up to you whether or not you give your guys a choice before you choose your office party experience but remember that, as it’s Christmas, you are trying to please all of the people all of the time! There are loads of experience options out there so we have pulled together a few for you below:
The Urban Treasure Hunt
You can either organise this office party idea yourself and send teams of colleagues off to ‘collect’ local landmarks and quirky souvenirs or there are plenty of team building companies out there that offer great treasure hunt type activities, which make the most of GPS technology to set their trails.
The Culinary Experience
Unless you have a foodie who loves teaching in your team, this office party activity will require you to call in the experts. From designer chocolate workshops to urban food foraging, there is a cooking experience out there that will suit your team and, if you choose right, you will all have cooked your Christmas party feast for afterwards.
The Adrenaline Experience
You could end up making more enemies than friends with this one but adrenaline pumping experiences, as well as being great Christmas party ideas, can turn your office party into a significant team-building exercise. The important thing to remember is that everybody has different ideas of what is challenging, so start early, think carefully about what your team might enjoy and give them a few choices.
You will need:
- To book well in advance (start doing your research early)
- To check insurance details with the company you are hiring
- To run your ideas past your team before making any decisions
Game recommendations:
Experience based Christmas parties are often almost games in themselves so you won’t need to organise any complicated additional party games. There are, however, a few fun games that can be played whilst you are doing something else.
Secret Sentence
This office party game is easy to use at any Christmas party. Each attendee is given a secret (and often silly) sentence, which they have to slip into a normal conversation without being found out.
Guess Who
You will need a few Santa’s helpers for this Christmas party game. Arrange for 3 or 4 people to secretly wear or do unusual things on the day of the party. Every now and again, stop the proceedings and ask people to guess, for example, who had soup for breakfast that morning.
Invisible line
This will only work if you are all in a set location but involves everyone agreeing an invisible line across a room that nobody is allowed to cross without a certain physical action (for example hopping) or an agreed password.
Food ideas:
- Many office party experiences organisers also provide food packages
- Build in little foodie treats to an urban treasure hunt and arrange to end up in a low key but fun food location
- Have tasty snacks available if you have organised an adrenaline experience (fear can use up a lot of calories)
The Themed Party
The great thing about themed office parties is that they offer loads of scope for imagination. Not only can you choose from hundreds of possible themes, each person in the office has the opportunity to respond to that theme in a way that suits them. Whether your colleagues choose to wear elf hats to a Hobbit-themed party or arrive wearing tights and swinging from a rope to a Superheroes at Christmas party, they will all be taking part and enjoying themselves. The office party ideas here are endless but here are our current favourites:
The Decade Party
With the 80s gaining retro status and music from that era regaining popularity, why not theme this year’s Christmas party around that neon-coloured, electro-pop, big hair era? With plenty of opportunity for irritating team dances and catchy music, the 80s have a lot going for them as an office party theme but feel free to pick another decade if you want to be adventurous.
The Circus Party
Not everybody loves a clown but bearded ladies have been particularly popular this year and no Christmas party is complete without a lion or two. The circus is a really fun office party theme. Drape the office with fabric to make your big top and rig a slow slack line for balancing practice, then all you will need is your ringmaster to keep everyone under control.
The Invent a Superhero Party
Superhero office parties have been so popular that we are all a touch fed up with Wonder Woman and Batman. How about this for a Christmas party idea? Ask everyone to invent his or her own superhero and dress accordingly. Be prepared for some strange explanations and to be unsure whether you are talking to ‘Staple Gun Man’ or ‘Office Magnet’.
Game recommendations:
- One really simple idea for a decade themed office party game is an intro quiz. Set up a playlist of appropriate music, play a few bars of each song and ask people to write down their guesses.
- For a circus office party think activities rather than games. We have already suggested a slack line but how about plastic bag balancing, grape juggling or throwing darts at balloons?
- Superheroes can almost certainly invent their own games (especially Ping Pong Man) but just in case, prepare a quiz all about traditional superheroes and throw in a couple of made-up red herrings, for example, ‘Who is the arch enemy of Jelly Girl?’ or ‘How does X-Ray Raymond get to work?’
Food ideas:
- Apparently in the 80s we were all eating vol au vents, cheese balls and cheese fondues. In fact it sounds as though our dining life was one big office party. Plenty to choose from here.
- A circus party just has to have candy floss (rent a machine), toffee apples and hotdogs as well as a range of exciting coloured sweets and fizzy drinks.
- Superheroes are very fussy about their food but top superhero cafes are currently serving Kryponite sandwiches, Poison Ivy green sweets and Thor hammer cheese sticks. By the way, don’t forget where you have put the invisible nuts!
Wherever you are this Christmas, we hope your Christmas party goes off with a bang and that you emerge the greatest office party organiser ever. If you enjoy all of the organisation and subsequent satisfaction associated with this type of events catering, why not take things further and take a look at our events tourism courses. You never know, your party planning skills might lead to a whole new career! Happy Christmas!
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