Organising Christmas drinks: from date to running order

Most Christmas drinks consist of a room, high tables, bitterballen (Dutch deep-fried snacks) and a speech. That's not bad, but it's also the kind of evening where, come January, nobody can say whether it was this year or last. Christmas drinks are one of the few moments when the whole company is in one room at the same time, including the people who normally only speak by email. Below is how to set up that evening so something comes of it, what it realistically costs, and why more and more companies are moving the Christmas hamper budget to the evening itself.

Why Christmas drinks are different from a company outing

With a company outing you choose the group and the moment yourself. With Christmas drinks the group is a given: everyone is expected to come, from the management to the holiday temp, from the people who talk every day to the department two floors up. That's exactly the value and the difficulty at once.

Without a programme, a group like that naturally drifts into the safest arrangement: everyone stands with their own department. After two hours nothing has been exchanged between people who didn't know each other, and that was the only reason it made sense to invite everyone at once.

One forty-minute item that mixes people up changes that. Don't plan the whole evening, because then it becomes compulsory. One item that shuffles the deck, and then free space again.

Start with the date, not the idea

December is the busiest month of the year for pubs, venues and caterers. If you start calling in November, you no longer choose what you want but what's left. Fix the date in September, even if you don't yet know what you're going to do. It costs nothing and it's the one step that can't be fixed later.

Practical considerations when choosing the date:

• Thursday works best: Friday seems logical, but then more people are off or already in weekend mode.
• Not the last week before Christmas: everyone's already winding down and lots of people are on holiday.
• Start late in the afternoon: people who have to go home first and then come back are more likely to stay away.
• Say in advance when it finishes: that saves you losing sign-ups from people with a babysitter or a long journey home.

Christmas drinks ideas that go beyond a room with high tables

Four directions that work well in practice, from small to large.

A quiz about your own company

The format that works most often, because it takes little space and everyone can join in without changing clothes. The strength is in the questions: a round about the past year within the company, about colleagues, about events everyone experienced. That produces conversations that don't happen at ordinary drinks. How we build a custom pub quiz.

A TV-style game format

A format people recognise from television works well on an evening when nobody feels like explanations. The rules are already known, so you can start straight away. With mixed teams, it also brings the mingling you wanted. See the TV-style game concepts.

A dinner with a story in it

If you're eating anyway, you can turn the dinner itself into the programme. A murder mystery dinner or a similar format runs through the courses, so you don't need a separate programme slot and the evening still has a thread. Works well with groups of up to about forty people. What a murder mystery dinner looks like.

A programme at your own venue

An office, warehouse or workshop is suitable more often than people think, especially if part of it stands empty in December anyway. It saves you the biggest cost of the evening, and familiar surroundings often work well in a programme precisely because you're doing something different with them than usual.

The Christmas hamper alternative: shifting the budget

A growing number of companies are scrapping the Christmas hamper and putting that budget into the evening itself. The reasoning is simple: a hamper is the same for everyone and disappears into a cupboard within a week, while a shared evening is something people look back on together.

Do the sums. With thirty-five employees and a €40 hamper per person, you're at €1,400. For that amount you can have a fully custom-built programme run for the whole group, and you usually still have something left for food and drink.

Two honest caveats. First: not everyone likes this. Some employees do appreciate the hamper, and some of them don't say so out loud. Gauge that before you scrap it, for example with a short anonymous question. Second: the tax side. There are schemes that can make this favourable, but the details depend on your situation and change regularly. Have your accountant confirm it before you base anything on it. We're happy to help think through the set-up, but we don't give tax advice.

A middle way that often goes down well: keep a smaller hamper and put the difference into the evening. That way you lose nothing and gain something.

Where to hold it

The venue determines most of the budget and a good part of the atmosphere. Three options, each with an honest trade-off.

At your own venue

The cheapest option and suitable more often than people think. An open-plan office where the desks are pushed aside, a warehouse that's half empty in December anyway, or a canteen you set up differently for one evening. You save on room hire, nobody has to travel, and there's no finishing time set by the landlord.

The drawback is that for some people it doesn't feel like an outing. You get round that by really setting up the space differently from normal: different lighting, tables in a different spot, and a programme you'd never do in the office. If the surroundings work against you, for example because there's no space that fits everyone, choose something else.

A hired room

The middle way. You have space, catering can usually be arranged, and it feels like an evening away from work. Allow €400 to €800 for a room for an evening in the region, more in the big cities and more as December goes on.

When booking, watch for two things that are often forgotten: how late you can stay, and whether you're allowed to run your own programme. Some venues charge extra for sound or a screen, or have their own set-up that you can't get around.

A special venue

A museum, a factory hall, a farm or something else with a story of its own. More expensive, but it helps your programme: the venue does part of the work. Just book early, because this is exactly the segment that's full by September.

Christmas drinks on a small budget

Not every company has €80 per person to spend, and it doesn't need to. An evening that sticks in the memory isn't a matter of money. What you do need to get right with a tight budget:

• Choose your own venue: that's the biggest saving straight away, and with a bit of decoration the difference is barely noticeable.
• Put the money into the programme, not the snacks: nobody remembers a bigger buffet. They do remember an item the whole room joined in.
• Keep it shorter: three good hours are better than five stretched out. Shorter also means less drink and less catering, and that's where the money goes.
• Let people contribute something themselves: with smaller organisations it often works well if everyone brings something. It costs nothing and naturally starts conversations.

With a group of thirty people at your own venue, simple catering and a one-hour programme, you come to roughly €1,000 to €1,250 for the whole evening. That's less per person than the average Christmas hamper.

An evening schedule that works

• 16.30: arrival with something to drink. Allow half an hour for people to trickle in.
• 17.15: a short welcome. Short really means short here, five minutes is enough.
• 17.30: the programme slot. Forty to seventy minutes, with teams assigned in advance.
• 18.45: food, with the results or closing of the programme woven into it.
• 20.00: free evening. Anyone who wants to leave can leave, anyone who wants to stay stays.

The most important choice in this schedule is that the programme comes early. After the meal attention is gone and you can't get a group together again for anything that needs structure.

Another detail that often goes wrong: the team allocation. If you sort it out on the evening itself, it takes ten minutes and people still go and stand with their own department. Assign teams in advance, put the list up at the entrance, and put people who never speak to each other together. That's the whole reason for having a programme, and it's also the part organisers skip most often because it feels awkward to make decisions about people.

Ideas for the programme slot

• Christmas quiz. Teams at tables, with a round about your own year added. A hundred questions are ready in the Christmas quiz with answers.
• Christmas bingo. No explanation needed, works standing or sitting. You can make it yourself with this guide, or let us run the Christmas bingo.
• Christmas show. A game show about your own year, with photos and stories. See the Christmas show.
• Secret Santa. Fifteen minutes of unwrapping, with gifts under €10 or €20. The rules are in Secret Santa with colleagues.
• Something active. Winter games indoors, or a scavenger hunt through Christmas-lit Enschede before the drinks start.

What Christmas drinks cost

Guide prices per person for the evening itself, excluding programme:

• At your own venue with simple catering: €15 to €30 per person
• Hired room with bar snacks and drinks: €40 to €70 per person
• External venue with walking dinner or buffet: €70 to €120 per person

The programme is charged separately, and with us that's per programme and not per person. A compact concept starts at around €195 for the whole group, a more extensive custom programme costs between €550 and €1,250. See what we do for Christmas drinks.

Four mistakes with Christmas drinks

1. Starting to organise too late: by November the choice of venues has run out, and then the evening is determined by what was still free instead of what you wanted.
2. No programme at all: without a reason to mix, everyone stays with their own department, and you might as well have done something per department.
3. Too much programme: the other extreme is just as irritating. One slot is enough, after that there needs to be room to simply talk.
4. The speech at the wrong moment: a look back at the year lands at the start, when people are still sharp. Halfway through the evening, half of them have stopped listening.

What you get from this

Christmas drinks that stick in the memory don't need a big budget or a special venue. Fix the date in September, plan one programme slot early in the evening with teams you've assigned yourself, keep the speech short and at the start, and leave plenty of free time afterwards. If you're considering shifting the Christmas hamper budget, first gauge it with the team and have your accountant confirm the tax side.

Would you like us to come and run a programme at your Christmas drinks? See the Christmas drinks page, or request a quote with no obligation. Looking for something for a bigger staff party? Have a look at staff parties.