Organising the office Christmas drinks: plan and catering

What do you settle first?

The date first, then the budget, then the shape of the evening. Without a date no venue or caterer can promise you anything, and December is the busiest month of the year for both. Book in October or November and you have the most choice.

The budget comes straight after, as an amount per person. A total tells a caterer little while the guest count is still moving; a per-person amount is something you can compare across proposals and explain to whoever has to approve it.

Do the drinks replace dinner?

That is the question that decides everything, and it is the one most often left open. Two hours of drinks straight after work, after which everyone goes home to eat, needs something quite different from an evening until midnight when nobody will get round to cooking.

Leave the question open and every caterer answers it for you. One plans a few bites, another a full meal, and the proposals you get back can no longer be compared. So say in one sentence in your request whether your colleagues will be eating anywhere else that evening.

Which catering suits Christmas drinks?

It depends on how long the evening runs and whether everyone is there at once. For short drinks where the food accompanies the conversation, luxury bites are the natural format: they come round, and nobody has to queue for anything. How many to allow per colleague is worked out in how many bites per person.

If the evening runs long, with colleagues arriving after a last meeting and others leaving early, you want a format with no fixed moment to eat. That means foodstands: everyone chooses when to eat, and whoever arrives at nine eats as hot as whoever was there at six.

If the drinks replace dinner and there is a moment when everyone listens, choose a Walking Dinner. That is a full dinner in small courses, served while your guests stay on their feet, from 25 guests. Between two courses there is a natural moment for a speech.

Can the Christmas drinks be held at the office?

Yes, and for many teams it is the most relaxed choice: everyone is already there, nobody has to travel, and the evening can start straight after work. We come to your office and agree in advance where we can set up and where people will eat.

We bring what is needed, and afterwards we leave the space as we found it. What has to be available at your own location differs per office; we go through that with the proposal, not on the evening itself.

How do you handle dietary needs?

Ask for them in the invitation, on the same form colleagues use to sign up, and pass them on in a single list. You are the one who knows who is vegetarian and who has an allergy, and that information shapes the menu. We agree every dietary requirement and allergy with you in advance; what a caterer must be able to tell you either way is set out in dietary requirements and allergens in catering.

Think about the drinks the same way for those who do not drink alcohol. Christmas drinks where the only alcohol-free option is water or a soft drink do not feel like their party.

How many guests will really come?

With Christmas drinks the number keeps moving until the end: someone falls ill, a team that was not coming comes after all. So give the caterer a range first, say between sixty and eighty colleagues, rather than a figure you do not yet believe yourself.

Ask at the same time until when the final number can change, and what a cancellation after that point means. Then you know where you stand in advance, and you do not have to negotiate in the week of the drinks.

Where does the speech go?

Early in the evening, while everyone is still there. A Christmas word at ten o'clock only reaches those who stayed, and they are rarely the colleagues you most wanted to thank.

Agree the moment with the caterer in advance. At a Walking Dinner the speech falls between two courses; with bites or foodstands we pause the serving for a moment, so nobody stands there with a full plate waiting to carry on.

The plan: what do you arrange when?

As soon as the decision is made: the date, the budget per person, and whether the drinks replace dinner. Then the venue, and with those three facts you approach the caterer.

With the invitation: sign-up and dietary needs on one form. Give the caterer the range of guest numbers and the list of dietary needs as soon as the first replies are in.

At the agreed point before the drinks: the final number and the programme, including the time of the speech. Name one contact person for the evening itself, so the caterer knows who to go to.

On the evening: nothing more. We set up, cook, serve and clear away. How such an evening runs from request to washing-up is described in how an evening on location runs; what to agree with the caterer for any company party is covered in the article on that.