Office Christmas party theme ideas
Most lists of party ideas are lists of things that photograph well. These are twelve formats with the honest downside of each, because the one that suits a team of twelve is not the one that suits a team of two hundred — and the difference is what makes the evening work or not.
The format matters less than whether people can talk to each other
Almost every complaint about an office Christmas party is a variant of one thing: it was too loud, too structured, or too long to have a conversation in. Teams remember the evening they finally spoke to somebody from another department. Pick whatever format you like — but check it against that before you book it.
Twelve formats, and the catch with each
Roughly ordered from smallest to largest team. Every entry has a real drawback; a list where nothing has a downside is an advert.
Meet at the Christmas market, then eat somewhere warm
An hour outside with mulled wine, then a booked table. The market does the atmosphere for free, and the walk between the two is where the actual conversations happen.
One long table instead of round ones
A single table the whole team sits at, rather than a room full of eights. It is the cheapest change on this list and it reliably changes who talks to whom, because nobody is stuck at a table for the whole evening.
Hold it in the afternoon
Start at four and end at eight. Everyone with a train to catch, childcare to relieve or an hour’s drive home stops being a second-class guest who leaves before the main course.
Do something with your hands
Pottery, printing, wreath-making, a cocktail class. An activity with an output gives people a reason to stand next to each other and something to talk about that is not work.
Secret Santa with a real constraint
Not just a price cap — a constraint that forces thought. Second-hand only, or must be edible, or has to come from a shop within walking distance of the office. The constraint is what stops it becoming twelve identical gift cards.
A quiz written about the company
Not a general knowledge quiz — rounds built from the year: who said this in a meeting, which project shipped first, whose desk is this. Teams mixed across departments on purpose.
Spend the first half doing something useful
A food bank shift, a repair café, packing donations, and then dinner. Some teams find this the most memorable version they have done; others find it worthy and exhausting.
Several small parties instead of one big one
For distributed teams: a budget per location and a date everyone shares, so five cities have their evening on the same night rather than one city having a party and everyone else watching a stream.
Cut the speeches to one, and put it first
One short thank-you at the start, before people have settled in, then nothing. The end-of-year address delivered at nine to a half-listening room helps nobody and delays the part people came for.
One shared album instead of six phones
By the end of the night the good photos are spread across everybody’s phones and none of them are anywhere the team can see. A single album everybody can add to — a QR code on the tables, no app, no accounts — collects the evening in one place, and the people who left early get to see the rest of it.
How the shared album works for company eventsMove it to January
December is the worst month to get everyone in one room: budgets close, deadlines land, and half the calendar is already taken by other parties. A January date is cheaper, easier to book, and the only invitation that month people actually want.
What to book when
Venue availability, not budget, is what usually decides how good the evening is. The dates below are about competition for rooms, not about how long anything takes.
August–September
Book the venue and the date. December Fridays and Saturdays go first, and they go early.
October
Confirm the menu, dietary requirements and the drinks arrangement. Send the date to everyone even if nothing else is settled.
November
Chase the replies, brief anyone running a quiz or an activity, sort out how people get home.
The week before
Final numbers to the venue, print anything that has to be printed — signs, place cards, the album QR code — and confirm the taxis.
The four things that actually ruin it
None of these are about the format. They are the same every year and every one of them is avoidable.
Too loud to talk
A band or a playlist at volume turns the evening into a room of people nodding at each other. If people have to lean in to be heard, the main thing they came for is gone. Somewhere quieter to sit is worth more than a bigger sound system.
No way home
The single most common complaint, and the easiest to fix. Late trains, a booked taxi, or a hotel rate: decide it before you book the venue, not after, because it can rule a venue out.
Compulsory fun
Any activity that cannot be opted out of without being noticed will make somebody miserable. Announce the opt-out at the same time as the activity, not when asked.
The alcohol assumption
Non-alcoholic options that are an afterthought are noticed by exactly the people who need them. This costs nothing to get right and is remembered by anyone who is driving, pregnant, in recovery, or simply does not drink.
Questions
For a December Friday or Saturday, by September at the latest — those dates are gone first and the shortlist shrinks fast after that. If you are flexible on the day of the week, a Tuesday or Wednesday in December is far easier to book and often cheaper.
Under about twenty people, the formats that work are the ones with something to do: cooking together, a workshop, a long table rather than several small ones. A small group in a room designed for a hundred is the most reliable way to make a party feel flat.
Either fly them in and treat it as the one night a year everyone is together, or run several small parties on the same night with a budget per location. What does not work is one real party plus a video call — the people on the call know exactly what they are.
No, and saying so plainly in the invitation raises attendance rather than lowering it. What lowers it is a party people suspect they are being assessed at.
Agree one place before the night and tell people where it is on the night — a shared album with a QR code on the tables works because nobody has to install anything or make an account. Ask afterwards and you get a fraction of the photos, weeks late.
Ideas for other occasions
- Hen and stag party ideasBefore the wedding
- Baby shower ideasBefore the birth
- Kids’ birthday party ideasBy age
Your guests get the whole album — and can download it.
- Photos, videos and voice messages, all on one page.
- Guests open the link and download whatever they want.
- Public, or behind a password — you decide.
Fra 49 USD. Betal én gang, per arrangement.
Ingen abonnement for arrangører. Gratis å starte, oppgrader bare når du trenger mer.
- 20 bilder, videoer og talemeldinger
- 5 GB lagring inkludert
- Ubegrenset antall gjester — ingen app nødvendig
- Album i 30 dager
- Video inntil 30 sek · tale 30 sek
- Gathmo-merking på delte medier
- Ingen nedlasting i originalkvalitet
- Ubegrenset med bilder, video og lyd
- 50 GB lagring inkludert
- Last ned alle originaler (ZIP)
- Ingen Gathmo-merking på mediene dine
- Album i 90 dager
- Video inntil 5 min · tale Ubegrenset
- Modereringsverktøy for arrangøren
- Alt i Essential
- 100 GB lagring inkludert
- Live fotovegg i lokalet
- Album i 6 måneder
- Video inntil 10 min · tale Ubegrenset
- Prioritert support
- Alt i Celebrate
- 250 GB lagring inkludert
- Direktesending for dem som ikke kan komme
- Talemeldingene skrives ut som tekst for deg
- Egen lenke — gathmo.com/c/ditt-navn
- Album i 1 år
- Video inntil 15 min · tale Ubegrenset
The album takes about five minutes to set up
Create the event, print the QR code with the rest of your signs, and colleagues add photos, videos and voice messages from their own phones. Nothing is public, nothing needs installing, and people who left early still get to see the evening.