To think it’s way too early to receive a Christmas party invitation?!

[Bunnylady53]

It’s August! Lovely to be asked & I will probably go but blimey! I am always amused when my sis in law starts discussing arrangements for Christmas in July!

Summer holidays are coming to an end. When I worked in events, in lots of venues, this is the busiest time for taking bookings for christmas.

January is business for large bookings, like whole venue events. But now the bookings for smaller work dos, social events, friendships groups all Start coming in now.

If you are organising something, it's a good time to get invitations out before people commit to doing something else that evening.

Fact is that christmas is busy for so many people, organising early is a good plan.

The date for our big family get together gets picked when the football fixtures for the season are announced in June. Most of us travel a long way and it usually means we can double up by seeing a game as well. Planning early means it can be organised around everyone’s work commitments. It’s 20+ people usually, so not trivial to find a date everyone can do.
My husband’s family leave it much later to make plans, but that’s mostly because there are work shifts over Christmas that are not announced until quite late. Having young children in the mix can also mean some last minute changes for a lot of reasons.
Neither way is wrong, it’s just making the best decisions with the information available.

People make plans over Christmas & therefore these people just want to make sure you've got your invite and don't plan anything for the day of their party (unless of course you don't want to go)

Not too early for us- we are spread around a bit and need to have notice for everyone to arrange travel etc before it gets too expensive. Also we all have 2 lots of family events to juggle with own families and in-laws, so timinga and logistics can get complicated.

Plus as other have said it's a busy time- I'd rather know now if there is something on than have someone tell us with 2 weeks' notice that they are planning a big extended family Christmas do and then look all morose when we say we're already booked up (looking at you, in laws).

I dont think its too early either.
Christmas seems to come round so fast.
I have got all of my presents ready to be wrapped and only yesterday bought a joint of beef for Christmas dinner.
You can never be too organised.

We are a group of five friends and sort out our Christmas night outs in July, the only way we can ensure we are all available with family meet ups etc

Same with our annual girls trip abroad we've booked our dates upto 2022 now to fit in with family life etc

when would be an acceptable time to be asked
Start of November. That’s still 7 weeks in advance.

Yes. Way too early. Summers not even other yet. Bloody weird.

We have an annual get together at Xmas with friends and the date has been set in April this year. Even with that we've had do it last weekend of November as Dec is already not possible due to people's commitments!

I saw a christmas tree in a pub a couple of weekends ago all I could do was laugh- I get that they need to advertise christmas mens and parties but in August is crazy

I think work Christmas parties are different because they’re generally at venues that get booked up. For most people a Christmas do (even a big one) is at their house. No one is going to be booking their house for an alternative event so you do not need to have a firm commitment in August. If you asked me to you party now I’d say I don’t know if I’m free I’ll let you know in November.

My husband randomly started talking about our Christmas plans the other day. It was weird!

My initial thought is yes it’s too early, but actually if I got one now I’d be quite happy and looking forward to Xmas nothing wrong with being organised I suppose - but then I always think there’s something a bit sneaky about handing out invites to anything this far in advance, like people therefore definitely expect you to be there as you couldn’t possibly have an excuse for saying no if you know about the event this early...

Weirder still because he is a “shop on Christmas Eve” type person.

Not if it's in December and you really want everyone to be able to make it.

I work at a magazine - they've been sending us mince pies since June

I got invited in March 😂

Never too early!! Work Christmas parties get organised this early, even earlier so maybe she’s just bagging you before the date gets booked up! I’m away to organise our ante natal night out soon as all the good restaurants in our city get booked up in December well in advance!

Not too early. I've got a big family, several siblings all with kids and it's complex working out when we will each see each other. Discussions often happen in Jan after Christmas to agree what will happen the following year!!

definitely not to early, we are pretty much booked up from mid November till end of Dec already!

We’re trying to get a date in for a pre Xmas family meal as people are doing their own things Xmas day and of the 4 possible dates we can all only do one because of various work and other commitments.

It's not that unusual to start planning the summer holiday's 6-9 months in advance so why would it be any different to plan Christmas/winter festivities in the same sort of time frame?

I would find an invite now too early and wouldn't want to commit to going until closer to December. It's not because I'm waiting for something better to come along. But because I'm waiting to arrange for the many family that I have an obligation to have visit/visit us over the festive period. I would rather go to the party, but know I've got to sort the family stuff first.

It’s fine to invite his early, but not fine to insist on an immediate answer. We have family who do this in a “we asked first so you have to come” kind of way. But there are lots of people we want to see and things we want to do and we have to coordinate it all, and I really don’t want to do that in August just because someone else wants to plan that early. Plus my kids won't know what they’re doing till December and seeing them is my priority!
My answer is “I’m not ready to plan Christmas yet, can I let you know in October?” And if they say no, I decline their kind invitation.

I already have a couple of things on in December. People do get booked up early to be honest