How to make the work Christmas party special

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So far we have a restaurant exclusively booked for lunch for approx 100 staff and then an area in a bar for drinks, nibbles and music.

This is the first one I'm arranging in this job and have always done them on a much smaller scale. Age range in our office spans from 20-60 with most being mid thirties.

Can you think of an special touches I can add to give it the wow factor?

Was considering singing waiters but wonder if that's a bit weddingy?

Make it free, and short.

It's always free and people have the option of leaving after the lunch but judging by the summer party only about 20% will leave!

Free bar is always popular.

I've been to a couple of casino themed ones. Not really my thing but it's definitely got people mingling.

Same with circus theme - you can book performers/instructors, although they might not be Keen on mixing a unicycle with a free bar...

Other popular themes are murder mystery, or escape room in smaller groups.

Get a sax guy! They're class. Wander around between the guests playing sax alongside the DJ.

Casino tables, car racing games, giant scalextrics, the giant wire buzzer game things.
I'd avoid singing waiters as they are very weddingy.

We had a photobooth at one of our Xmas parties and that went down a treat especially with the free bar x

We once had Jocelyn Brown, some well known boyband and Brandon Bloc at ours, but it was a media company and the budget was enormous (and all spent 😂).

Hmmm. I bet a photo booth would be good actually. I think a sax player might be a bit highbrow for my firm. Some great suggestions though!

Photo booth with props goes down really well at our office parties. Another time we had a caricaturist doing speed caricature sketches of people - bit of a laugh and lots of people kept the caricatures and put them up in their offices after. We’ve also done a Yankee swap secret Santa, with a prize for the most amusing gift, and there were Santa hats (proper velvety ones, bought in bulk) for everyone last year, and decent crackers.