Tis the season to be jolly busy - a caterer's guide to Christmas party season

With Christmas party season only eight weeks away, it may seem like a daunting task having to plan your company’s Christmas festivities. Luckily, here at Allen’s we are just a phone call or email away when it comes to catering equipment hire, furniture hire, glassware hire and a whole host of other basics you will need for your festive celebrations – plus we have a few useful tips we’ve picked up from caterers to help you plan your event.

When?
First of all, figure out a date and time suitable for the majority of employees – depending on the size of your company, it may be hard to please everybody. December is a very busy month and people get booked up weeks, if not months, in advance; therefore, deciding on a date as early as possible is the first hurdle to deal with! 

How many?
Knowing how many people will definitely be attending your Christmas party is essential. You will need to know numbers before you can make any other arrangements, such as tables, chairs, glassware, cutlery - not to mention food and drink! We provide full size and half size tables all with comfort in mind – for example, a 5ft round table could seat 10, but a 5ft6 round table would seat 10 much more comfortably. From chair hire and cutlery to dance floors and bar equipment, we have numerous options to supply any size of event.

Where?
Where is your Christmas party being held? Ensure that this is confirmed in the early stages of the process, because the later you leave it, the less likely you are to book where you had originally planned since Christmas party venues are often booked up a year in advance. The size of the venue needs to be big (or small) enough dependent on the size of your party, so as soon as you have a confirmed number of attendees, book the venue.

Food and drink?
It might sound somewhat obvious, but you would be surprised how many times caterers are told “I don’t think anyone is vegetarian, it’ll be fine!” or “No, nobody requires a gluten free diet!” without actually checking these details with their guests. Make sure you know everyone’s dietary requirements before the event to make sure everybody enjoys their food – nothing ruins a Christmas party quite like serving a turkey to a vegetarian!  To match your chosen theme for your Christmas dinner, take a look at our extensive range of China which boasts a range of colours and textures.

Also, whether it’s champagne, wine or beer on the drinks menu, we have all the glassware available for a large selection of beverages. From elegant champagne flutes to stylish wine glasses, we have something to suit every style of event.  New to our range this year is Riedel glassware, the name in glassware production, which would impress those “in the know”.  Also, don’t forget the little things like ice buckets and corkscrews.

Enjoy!

As soon as the catering equipment hire has been organised, you can think more about organising the fun things such as the music and decorations. Be sure to book as much as possible early on to avoid last minute stresses – the main thing is to enjoy your Christmas party as much as your guests do.