December,withoutthe banquet room.Corporate holiday & Christmas parties in Calgary
Somebody handed you December. Here is a version of it your team won't spend the whole night looking at their phones.
Book it inOctober.
Calgary companies settle their December events during October. Not November — October. By the time most people start looking, the first two weeks of December are already spoken for across the city, and what is left is whatever nobody else wanted.
If you are reading this in October, you are on time. If you are reading it in November, ask anyway — there is usually something, just not everything.
And if December is genuinely impossible, consider January. Dates are open, staffing is easier, and your team is not being asked to attend a fourth party in three weeks. Several Calgary companies have quietly moved to a new-year dinner for exactly that reason.
- Decide by
- Early October for December dates
- Group size
- 6 to 40 hands-on; more when seated
- Where
- Your office, or a Calgary venue
Pick the one thatfits the room.
The competition is the one people remember. The seated dinner is the one to pick when the evening has speeches in it.
- 01
The cook-off
Teams drawn, a brief handed out, the clock started, everything judged and plated at the end. It gives quieter colleagues something to do with their hands and a reason to talk.
- 02
A seated dinner
Multi-course, cooked in front of you and served at the table. Choose this when there are speeches, awards, or clients in the room.
- 03
Canapés & grazing
For a room that wants to move around. Food that survives being carried and eaten one-handed, without turning into a buffet nobody remembers.
- 04
In your office
Most of these run in office kitchens and boardrooms with almost no equipment, which removes the venue line from your budget entirely.
Tell me the budget.I'll be straight.
Pricing is per head, quoted on the headcount, the format and the venue — because those three move the number far more than the menu ever does. Ingredients, equipment, staffing and clean-up are all itemised in the proposal, so nothing appears in January that wasn't agreed in October.
Most people organising this have been given a figure rather than asked for one. Send me that figure and the headcount and I will tell you plainly what fits inside it — including when the honest answer is a different format.
Dietary requirements are collected with the headcount and planned into every station. The aim is that nobody at your party eats a visibly different meal from everyone else.
Things peoplealways ask.
The ones that arrive in my inbox most weeks. If yours isn't here, send it over.
01When do we need to book our December party?
02Is this a Christmas party or a holiday party?
03What formats can we choose from?
Three, mostly. A hands-on cooking competition, where teams are drawn and everything is judged at the end. A seated multi-course dinner cooked in front of you. Or canapés and grazing for a room that wants to move around and talk.
The competition is the one people remember. The seated dinner is the one to choose when the evening has speeches in it.
04How many people can you handle?
05Do we need to book a venue?
06What does a corporate holiday party cost per head?
07Half our team can't cook. Does the hands-on format still work?
08How do you handle dietary requirements across a whole company?
09Can we do it in January instead?
Tell me what you'rein the mood for.
Booking from this summer onward.
