Christmas event – how to plan your company's Christmas party step by step
A Christmas event is your company's own Christmas celebration – a Christmas party for the staff or a Christmas get-together where customers and partners are invited. A successful Christmas event rests on four things: a date that is set early, a clear invitation that goes out in good time, a registration that captures dietary requirements and cancellations, and reminders that make sure the guests actually show up. You can set up registration with dietary requirements and cancellations for free in Paloma, with 80 guests per event included.
Contents
The timeline – count backwards from the event day
December is the most booked-up month of the year. Christmas buffets, Lucia celebrations, end-of-year parties and public holidays compete for the same evenings, and anyone who is late gets both worse venues and fewer guests. So plan backwards from the event day in six steps.
8–10 weeks before: date and venue
Set the date, book the venue and decide whether the event is internal, external or both. Popular venues and caterers are booked up as early as October.
6 weeks before: send out the invitation
Send the invitation with the date, time, venue and last day to register. The earlier your invitation lands in the calendar, the fewer clashes with other people's Christmas parties.
4 weeks before: the first reminder
Remind everyone who has not replied. A friendly reminder often doubles the response rate – most people who do not show up have not declined, they have simply forgotten.
2 weeks before: lock the menu and the program
Close registration, compile the dietary requirements for the kitchen and nail down the evening's schedule. Now you know how many you will be and can order the right amounts.
The days before: the last reminder
Send a short reminder with the time, address and any dress code to everyone who has registered. A couple of days before the event is the right moment – close enough to remember, early enough to sort out the practicalities.
The week after: thank and follow up
Send a thank-you email with photos from the evening and a short evaluation. The answers make next year's Christmas event better – and the participant list is the starting point for it.
Choose the date with care
Check the calendar before you decide. If the date clashes with Lucia, a big local event or your industry's own end-of-year parties, it directly affects the number of participants. Thursdays and Fridays at the end of November and the beginning of December usually work best – close enough to Christmas for the atmosphere, far enough ahead for calendars not to be full.
Also think about the target audience. An internal Christmas event for the staff can be held on a weekday evening, while an external one where you invite customers and partners often works better as an earlier afternoon – then you are not competing with the guests' own Christmas parties. If you invite external guests, the Christmas event is basically a customer event with a Christmas theme, and the same principles apply as for other corporate events.
The invitation to your Christmas event
The invitation is the first thing guests see of your Christmas event, and it shapes both expectations and the response rate. Send it digitally so that guests can register with one click and you do not have to count replies manually – we go through how to build it in the guide on creating a digital invitation.
A good invitation to a Christmas event includes:
- Date, time and the last day to register
- Venue and directions, ideally with parking and public transport
- The menu in broad strokes and the option to state dietary requirements
- A short schedule with the evening's highlights
- Any dress code and whether partners are welcome
- Who the guest can contact with questions
Keep the tone warm and personal. It is a Christmas invitation, not a meeting notice – a couple of lines about why you are celebrating and what the guests can look forward to do more for registrations than a perfectly formatted list of facts.
Registration, dietary requirements and reminders
Let guests reply via a registration form instead of by email. Then the replies are collected in one place, you can see in real time how many are coming, and the dietary requirements end up in a list you can send straight to the kitchen instead of in twenty different email threads.
If you build your Christmas event in Paloma's event platform, everything fits together in the same flow: invitation, registration, automatic confirmations, guest list and check-in. If someone declines, the place is freed up, and if the event is fully booked, a waiting list can fill up automatically. In the days before the event, you reach everyone who has registered fastest with an SMS reminder – a text message is opened within minutes, which makes the channel superior to email for last-minute information.
Think about the data you collect. Dietary requirements can reveal health or religion and should be handled with care: only ask for what the kitchen needs, limit who can see the answers and delete the data once the event is over.
Theme and decoration
That Christmas is the theme goes without saying – the question is how far you take it. A consistent theme in the invitation, the decoration, the menu and perhaps the dress code creates a professional whole that guests remember. Classic Christmas colors are red, green and brown combined with glitter, silver and gold, but a more restrained theme in white and spruce twigs may suit an external event with customers better.
For many, the decoration is the most fun part, so put together a small event team and give the right person the right task. Experiment with tablecloths, Christmas baubles, moss, battery-powered string lights, tableware and textiles to create the Christmas feeling – and decide in advance who takes it all down the day after.
Food and drink
The menu should reflect the Christmas feeling. The Christmas buffet is the obvious classic and is appreciated by most, but if you want to raise the level a notch, a three-course menu with classic Christmas flavors works just as well – and it is often easier to serve to large groups.
Two things not to forget: non-alcoholic options that are more thought-through than water and an unlimited supply of julmust, the Swedish Christmas soda, and the dietary requirements from the registration. A guest who gets a well-thought-out plate of their own instead of a pushed-aside special version will remember it – either way.
Entertainment
The evening needs some form of entertainment that neither takes over nor leaves the guests bored. If you want to leave room for mingling, atmospheric Christmas music in the background goes a long way. A Lucia procession is a safe classic if the event is around December 13, and a master of ceremonies who holds the evening together, introduces the highlights and gets the guests involved lifts larger events in particular.
If you want activities besides the food – competitions, a quiz or something to do together – many of the ideas for a kickoff work just as well at Christmas time. Just adjust the amount: at a Christmas event, the food and the company are the main act, and the activities are the seasoning.
Lighting and safety
Christmassy lighting does more for the atmosphere than any other single detail. Work with dimmed, warm white light, turn down the dimmer and let string lights and lanterns carry the room. Lit candles are atmospheric but pose a fire risk – choose battery-powered candles where possible, especially on tables with paper napkins, spruce twigs and textiles.
Christmas is a time of increased fire risk, so keep safety in mind at every step of the planning. Make sure guests find out early where the emergency exits are – a natural way is for whoever gives the welcome speech to mention the emergency exits, restrooms and the evening's highlights in the same breath. Then the practicalities are taken care of in thirty seconds without spoiling the atmosphere.
After the event – thank and follow up
A Christmas event does not end when the last guest leaves. Send a thank-you email within a few days, ideally with a selection of photos from the evening, and take the opportunity to ask two or three short questions: what was best, what could be better, would you like to come next year? The answers make the next Christmas event better, and the thank-you email keeps the warmth from the evening alive.
For an external Christmas event, the follow-up is also the start of the next business conversation. The guest list from the event is a ready-made, up-to-date contact list – use it for a follow-up mailing in January instead of letting the relationships cool along with the Christmas tree.
Checklist for your Christmas event
- Date set and venue booked, checked for clashes
- Digital invitation sent no later than six weeks before
- Registration with a question about dietary requirements in place
- Reminder to those who have not replied four weeks before
- Menu, drinks and dietary requirements locked in with the kitchen
- Program, entertainment and speakers confirmed
- Decoration and lighting planned, fire risk checked
- SMS reminder scheduled for the days before
- Check-in and guest list ready on the event day
- Thank-you email and evaluation planned for the week after
Frequently asked questions about Christmas events
When should the invitation to a Christmas event be sent out?
About six weeks before the event, so in October or early November for an event in December. December is the most booked-up month of the year, and the invitation that lands in the calendar first wins the evening. Follow up with a reminder to those who have not replied after a couple of weeks.
What should an invitation to a Christmas event include?
The date, time and last day to register, the venue with directions, the menu in broad strokes with the option to state dietary requirements, a short schedule for the evening, any dress code and a contact person for questions. Send it digitally so that guests can register directly in the invitation.
Should we choose a Christmas buffet or a seated dinner?
The Christmas buffet suits when mingling is the main thing and the group is mixed – everyone finds something they like and can move around freely. A seated three-course dinner gives a more festive impression, is easier to combine with speeches and entertainment and is often easier to serve to large groups. Both work; choose based on the character of the evening.
How do we handle dietary requirements well?
Ask about dietary requirements in the registration, compile the answers in a list for the kitchen when registration has closed and make sure the special meals are served just as thoughtfully as the rest of the menu. Remember that information about diet can reveal health or religion – limit who can see the answers and delete them after the event.
Should we invite customers to our Christmas event?
An external Christmas event is one of the year's best opportunities to build relationships in a relaxed setting, but it places higher demands on the planning: earlier in the day, a clearer program and a follow-up afterwards. Many companies choose to keep the internal celebration for the staff separate from a Christmas get-together for customers and partners.
What do we do about cancellations and a waiting list?
Make it easy to cancel in the same system as the registration, so that the guest list and the food order always match. If the event is fully booked, let a waiting list fill the places automatically when someone declines – in an event tool, this happens without any manual work.
How do we follow up the Christmas event afterwards?
Send a thank-you email within a few days with photos from the evening and two or three short evaluation questions. The answers make next year's event better, and for external events, the thank-you email is the natural bridge to the next contact in January.
Create your Christmas event in Paloma
Invitation, registration, guest list, SMS reminders and follow-up – the whole Christmas event flow in one tool.
Create a free accountThis guide is about planning Christmas events and Christmas parties for companies: timeline, invitation, registration, menu, entertainment, safety and follow-up. If you want to dig deeper into event planning in general, you will find more guides about events and digital invitations among our guides.