The holidays are around the corner. Have you started planning your special gathering?

Whether you’re hosting a holiday event to show appreciation to clients, staff, or special people you’ve worked with this year, it’s a good idea to start with a plan, and start early.

I’m going to break this article down into two parts for you, 1) tips for planning your holiday event and 2) creative ideas to encourage guests to participate.

But first, let me talk about why you should host a holiday event.

Reasons to host a holiday event

There’s always a reason to host an event, holiday events are fun and light. Here’s why you should be planning one.

🎉To celebrate the people who support your business. The holidays are a time for connection, reflection and expressing gratitude. Hosting a holiday event brings together the people you’ve come to build relationships with over the past year, the people who see your vision and work alongside you, and the people who purchase and believe in your product or service. It’s important to thank them and let them know you care.

🎉To celebrate how far you’ve come and where you’re headed. You’ve come a long way, you’ve reached those goals, made those benchmarks. Now, it’s time to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor with your peeps. Holiday events can also be a fun way to get people excited for what’s next in the company.

5 Holiday Event Planning Tips

Planning a holiday event is no different from planning a business meeting or event. Events need to start with a vision in mind. Without a vision, there’s no real purpose to host an event, holiday events are no exception. Here we go…

Decide why you’re hosting a holiday event. Even if your event is just for fun, start there. If your company culture promotes fun, this can be the base of your entire event. You can focus on activities that encourage laughter and adventure, like scavenger hunts, comedy shows, or costume contests. At the end of the day you want to know why this event is important. What message you do you want to send? What impact do you want to create? For example, build employee morale, show appreciation, end the year on a happy note!

Choose the most effective time and place to host your holiday event. This will look different for every business. If you have a brick and mortar office, you can opt to host it in-house. If your team is virtual, you may need to consider hosting your event at a location that’s cost effective, and convenient for most guests. You could consider hosting a virtual party, but that’s for another article. The main thing here is to do your best to respect optimal work hours, pressing deadlines and protect family or personal time.

Spread the love and send out invitations. If you’re hosting a holiday event for your staff, an email is totally fine. If you’re focusing on inviting more clients to your event, you want to send out multiple invitations via email, create a Facebook event page, and if you have the budget, snail mail to really stand out. The reason being, there’s so much noise happening during the holidays, and if you want clients or customers to come to your event, you’ve got to get in front of them and give them an incentive. More on that later.

Hire an event planner, or create a dedicated event planning committee. The end of the year can be a busy time to ask your staff to start planning an event on top of meeting that hard deadline. If it’s in your budget, hire some help. You can hire a full service planner, or work with someone to get your event committee on track during an event strategy meeting. This will alleviate the stress and allow your staff to truly relax at your event. If hiring help isn’t in the cards for you, then start a committee ahead of time with 3-5 people who can split up with work. Treat the holiday event like any other project so it’s taken seriously, and you get the best turn out.

Do what you can. “It’s the thought that counts,” still matters. Do what you can, meaning don’t blow your budget on things your staff and/or clients don’t care about. Show up from the heart and do the best you can with the resources you have. Splurge on food, instead of decor, hand out unexpected gifts or bonuses or gift cards to their. Get creative and show

Creative Ideas to Increase Guest Participation

It’s true, guests need an incentive to attend your event. Here are some creative ideas to get your guests excited about participating at your holiday event.

Create a poll. It’s not necessary or even ideal to involve your entire team in the event planning process. It would be fun if everyone at least had a say in how the event was going to unfold, still leaving some room for the element of surprise. Consider creating a poll and have people vote to decide on a theme, type of food, or entertainment.

Host your holiday event in the middle of the week or during the off season. To avoid the hustle and bustle of the holiday rush. You might host your holiday event before the craziness in October, or throw a party in January to kick off the new year. This will help alleviate some of the stress and pressure of guests having to attend, and for you having to plan.

Signature drinks or non-alcoholic beverages. To drink, or not to drink, that is the question. In my experience, people still like to casually have a drink or two at holiday parties. While not necessary, where there’s a celebration there may be champagne.

If poppin’ bottles isn’t in your budget, consider apple cider or ginger beer, local craft beer or even a signature cocktail. Whenever alcohol is involved, remember to encourage guests to drink and drive responsibly. Safety always overrides crazy office shenanigans.

Gift exchange + giving together. Gifts are a fun way to create connection, whether it’s a white elephant exchange or everyone draws a name out of a hat. Encourage gift giving to come from the heart, be appropriate and keep the budget decent for everyone participating.

Another way to exercise gift giving is by giving together as a group. You can do this by turning your holiday event into a fundraiser, a toy drive, or going out to feed the homeless together.

Volunteering together can create a strong, deeper connection as you reflect on what you’re all thankful for, and give to those in need, rather than complaining that there’s no hard liquor at your holiday party. Practicing gratitude together will help boost your team, and your clients if they join you, and bring you closer together.

These are just some ways you can start planning your holiday event. It’s not too late to put your plan and heart into action.

Your Turn: Book an Event Strategy Session

Need a guide to help you start planning your holiday event ?

Contact us today to schedule an Event Strategy Session starting at $297 which includes…

• A 30 minute discover call to discuss the event vision and how much work has been done,
• A hour in person strategy meeting to discuss the vision and create a strategy plan with action steps, and templates for event timeline, budget and event agenda
• Follow up call to track your progress
• Opportunity to put this fee towards full planning service for the same event if you decide you need more support.

Email us at celebrate@angelagraceevents.com to schedule a call.