Xplosive Blog

Company Holiday Party Guest Lists

• No Comments

As summer comes to a close and the tides are turning towards the holiday season (as you’ve seen in all of the stores full of Halloween and Fall decorations), it’s time to start getting your company holiday party ideas from concept to creation. This blog is focused on who should be in attendance at your next company holiday party.  It’s also a nudge to start planning now!

Should your company’s holiday party include spouses and/or kids? 

 

There are a few things to consider when weighing out your options…

  • Budget
  • Day of week/Time of day
  • Overall goal of the gathering

If you were to include the family, there is now a significantly larger guest count which would have to be accounted for in the budget for food, drinks, activities and, of course, the venue space being large enough to accommodate the guest count.

The next thing to take into account is the day of the week and the time of day. If the event includes kids, you would generally be selecting a Saturday or Sunday in order to get the most out of the attendance. Keep in mind, these kids have winter sports which may fall on weekends. On the other side of the coin, a weekend event requires employees to attend on a day off.  In many cases, that’s a hard ask.
 
 
The positives of including family…. it brings a unique sense of warmth and shows that your business has a family first mentality. It’s always amazing to see your colleagues children playing together and getting to know each other. You never know, a future best friend may be waiting for this exact moment to be introduced! It’s also nice to get to know your colleagues’ family! We all know you’ve heard of David’s silly wife 8,405 times, might as well put a face to the name and the wild stories you’ve heard! Or maybe you’ve seen the same photo on their desk for years and now you can finally have a conversation and see what similar interests you have! A sense of camaraderie outside of the office, will always benefit the flow and the energy brought into the office during the week. After all, happy employees perform better when they know they are cared for on a deeper level than just what their KPI report show.
 
Regardless of if you plan to include the family of your employees, the time to begin planning your holiday party is now! Remember that you’re not only competing for vendors with other companies, but private events like weddings and corporate expos are still very prevalent during December and January, so you want to make sure all of the activations you are interested in are available for you. Choosing a theme and having all aspects be cohesive is important to a successful event that will keep your employees talking, excited and performing at their best for you!
Here is a video recap of one of our favorite company holiday events including kids.  Notice all the smiles and participation!  This is an event that comes with great anticipation and excitement each year.

 

Give us a call to plan your next holiday event, we’d love to help you out!
 
Written By: Jaymie Perez