Hosting a Family Friendly Christmas Party

Share the Joy of the Season

Since 1985, Successful Events has planned and organized many family friendly Christmas parties as well as employee-adult centered parties. As always, our goals as an event planning organization serving Houston and the surrounding areas, is to serve our clients. When our event planning team begins working for our clients, one of our primary questions is, “What is YOUR goal for this event?”

Over the years, we’ve organized many holiday parties that are very adult-oriented. This makes sense when themed as “Casino Night” or “Madri Gras”. But many employees would prefer an event to which they can bring their “plus one” and their kids. Family friendly Christmas parties have some specific benefits:

• Providing images that almost anyone can use on their social media
• Boosting employee morale
• Boosting team cohesion

If you have a company Christmas party to plan and don’t know where to start, contact Successful Events. We’ll help you host a family-friendly Christmas party that will build your company culture.

Why Family Friendly Events Build Morale

The most important reason to do a family friendly Christmas party is that it genuinely improves morale, because it includes everyone.

Allowing people to bring their kids helps your workplace feel more family oriented. This can attract your employees who are parents. When they know you host events to which they can bring their five-year-old it sends a message that you care about families. It also means that “Mom or Dad can be a hero”. By providing entertainment and fun for their family, your company offers reasons for good employees to stay with your organization.

Timing

Make your Christmas party convenient! Weekends are best for school-aged kids, but also tend to have a lot of competition for people’s time. Consider late afternoon or early evening after the kids get out of school. Booking your Christmas celebration well in advance and sharing that with your team is a smart choice. As long-time event planners, we can help you prepare these materials and share some of the most successful schedules.

Booking the BEST Santa

There’s one ingredient that’s vital if you’re going to have the children present. You need a GREAT Santa! This typically means going through a Santa agency – yes, they exist. As professional event planners, we already have the contacts to find an excellent choice for you. Santa actors with real beards typically charge more because, well, that beard is work! Remember that the BEST Santa’s are booked early. So, contacting us early is to your benefit.

If the budget allows, consider hiring a Mrs. Claus or some elves as well. You MIGHT even invite a Grinch. These additional characters can add a great deal to the impression your company makes. If you’re not sure what or who to schedule, contact us. We manage all of these details for our clients and are happy to make you feel like a guest at your own Christmas party.

When you book outside talent for your events, we suggest you ALWAYS book through an agency. They do full background checks to ensure the safety and security of your guests.

Family-Friendly Includes Games & Prizes

Family Friendly Christmas parties traditionally include entertainment and activities for children and adults. The Successful Events team will set up games, face painting, crafts and package giveaways for all ages. We make sure game prizes are there for the kids, too. You may even have your Santa or an elf hand them out! If you’re looking to include a DJ or band, share that with us. We can make that part of the plan. This will help you and your company consolidate the arrangements and the overall budget.

A costume contest can be a lot of fun for a mixed-age group. We have found it’s best to separate groups by age. Another great activity for kids of all ages is gingerbread cookie decorating. We bring specialist for this activity. Other crafting stations might include making simple Christmas ornaments or finger painting.

Set up a photo backdrop. For larger parties, set up two. One for photos with Santa, the other for everything else. Many of our clients request this and we provide a green screen with a huge variety of background image options.

Don’t give out food prizes for kids’ contests. Simple toys work well, things like Hot Wheels® cars, Lego® blind bags, and finger puppets. Avoid anything too-traditionally gendered.

There’s a lot more to think about and most companies should consider hiring an events planner to make their holiday party one everyone will remember. WE strive to allow you to be a guest at your own event! To” amaze and delight your guests”, contact Successful Events or call 713-667-2797.