Season's Best - Top Christmas Party Trends
(menu)Planning your festive frivolities? Make sure you’re bang on trend with our pick of the hottest party ideas
The Christmas party is
undoubtedly the most important event in the company social calendar. so it’s vital to get it right. While larger companies sometimes still opt for bespoke events, many employers are discovering
that it no longer makes financial sense to go it alone. ‘With large parties such as our Christmas party, the extra costs for theming are just for one night,’ says Philippa Whiting, who organises
the Christmas event for chartered accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg. ‘To install lighting, decoration, DJ equipment and a dance floor makes the cost per head too high – you are better off going
for a fully themed venue or a landmark venue where the location is the theme.’
Once you’ve decided to go for an organised event, the options are endless. There’s everything from an intimate black tie dinner in one of the City’s elegant livery halls to a riotous night of dancing and cocktails at a huge, shared event such as ‘Après Ski’ at Battersea Marquee.
CLASSIC STYLING
This year, when event organisers say Christmas, they really mean it. Clunky themes and over-elaborate room-dressing have been replaced by a more refined and elegant take on the festive season.
Inneventive’s MD, Lucy Stoddart, says: ‘There’s been a bit of a U-turn for the 2007 season. People want to go back to the reason why they’re having a Christmas party by bringing back the tradition to celebrations. Everyone’s done ‘Arabian Nights’ and ‘Rock Around the Pyramids’; the heritage of Christmas is more central this year.’
At The Guards Museum in Birdcage Walk, SW1, Inneventive’s ‘Nutcracker Ball’ combines a traditional setting with one of the most well-loved Christmas tales. Guests will be greeted by members of the Scots Guards and serenaded by a regimental piper.
In another homage to yuletides past, ‘Christmas on a Cruiser’, held on Sodexho’s HMS Belfast, seeks to recreate the magic of the 1920s cruise-liners, albeit on a 1940s battleship. Waiters will be clad in steward’s jackets with epaulettes and gold buttons, and waltzes can be arranged on request.
If it’s more than a nod to times past you’re after, you can feast in the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, Sir Winston Churchill’s underground headquarters during the Second World War.
Launch Pad’s David Stringer believes that good Christmas parties are built around quality venues, enhanced with subtle, classic decoration. ‘The trend has definitely moved towards styling with traditional or contemporary flourishes,’ he says. ‘Our events have always taken the essence of a theme and used the most design-led aspects to add an interpretation of a style to an event.’
The trend for traditional patterns and furnishings with a modern twist has had a strong influence on Launch Pad’s ‘Baroque and Roll’ event at Shoreditch Town Hall. The evening – a fusion of lavish baroque design and 1950s party spirit – can include entertainment ranging from a baroque harpist to a swinging Elvis aerial show.
Fancy dress and theming can work for smaller groups, but it’s safer to keep themes to a minimum for large parties with a wide cross-section of guests. Senior members of the company might feel uncomfortable cavorting about in afro wigs, but a smart, elegant dinner has across-the-board appeal.
This style of event is a strong suit for the Oriel Group, which offers simple festive events for different-sized groups. ‘Christmas by Candlelight’ at the Tallow Chandlers Hall, Bishopsgate, offers intimate, candle-lit dining in an oak-panelled livery hall for up to 100 guests. Larger groups of up to 1,000 can drink and dine under the sweeping arches of the Great Hall at the Royal Courts of Justice.
Simple styling translates well to modern settings. Impulse Events has kept things minimalist at The HC in Marylebone, focusing instead on the details of a successful Christmas party. White decor
and napery provide a blank canvas for
state-of-the-art lighting and sound, and allow the impressive food from caterer Mint to shine. Food station options include a Bangers and Mash stall, American Burger bar and an English Roast
stand.
CIRCUS CABARET & COMEDY
A night of rip-roaring entertainment has always been a popular party option, and this year is no exception. From Moulin Rouge and Las Vegas-themed festivities to circus shows and comedy nights, event companies are going all out to impress party-goers in 2007.
‘We want our guests to be entertained from the second they walk in to the minute they leave,’ says Vicky Hartley of Eventwise, which will be hosting ‘Cirque de Noël’ parties at Lindley Hall, Pimlico. Guests will be entertained by a variety of circus performances, including jugglers, contortionists and acrobats, and an impressive contemporary light show.
Continuing the success of last year’s cabaret-themed parties, Mask will be staging ‘Heaven’s Above!’ in the London Pavilion, Piccadilly. Inspired by the Hollywood stars and famous musicals of the 1930s, guests will be welcomed in old-fashioned style by uniformed doormen and entertained by a resident classical pianist and a Fred and Ginger ballroom-dancing demonstration.
A flair for the dramatic will also be evident at Old Billingsgate this year, where The Ultimate Experience is putting on a ‘Spectacular!’ party, featuring live circus acts and an energetic jazz band. A similar vaudeville-style celebration will be held at the Porchester Hall, Bayswater, where you’ll be whisked away to a world of glitz and glamour in a Vegas-themed ‘Showtime!’ party.
Awesome Events’ ‘Viva Las Vegas’ will also transform the New Generation Novotel, Southwark into a party space inspried by the entertainment capital of the world. On entering, guests will be greeted by beautiful showgirls and led to the dining area along the ‘Sunset Strip’, where each table will be topped with an operational slot machine. After dinner, the venue will come alive with a spectacular floorshow featuring George ‘Elvis Lives’ Elias, ahead of gambling in the Plaza Fun Casino.
A tribute to the original and most well-known cabaret of them all, the Moulin Rouge, the Victory Services Club in Seymour Street will take you back to hedonistic 1890s Paris. With can-can girls and Parisian-style dancing on offer, you could almost be in the world-famous venue itself.
For non-stop hilarity, you can’t go wrong with an evening of comedy and, if that’s what you’re after, the ‘Christmas Comedy Nights’ at the Congress Centre won’t disappoint. Shared nights will be offered on two nights in December, while larger groups can be accommodated on a bespoke basis. Packages include a two-course buffet and a disco for afters.
SNOW & SKI
The hottest theme on the market this year also happens to be the coldest. Helping to keep things seasonal, the trend for 2007 is all about snow, ice and skiing.
Sarah Webb of A Mumford Events, which is organising the ‘Off Piste’ event at City Production Centre @ The Barbican Exhibition Halls, puts the theme’s popularity down to its glamorous associations. ‘We wanted to bring some of the adrenaline and après-ski glamour of the French Alps to the grey London winter,’ she says.
‘Chalet kitsch’ is the concept behind the 2,500-capacity event, set against the backdrop of a snow-capped pine forest at the Barbican halls. Raucous après-ski also features as guests move in to the Après lounge bar and disco for the latter stages of the evening.
Esther Wyatt at The Finishing Touch agrees the glitz of the ski season is a draw for party-goers this year. ‘The winter ski season is something many of us spend most of the year eagerly anticipating,’ she says. The Battersea Marquee, among the capital’s largest party venues with a capacity of 3,500, will become a vast ice palace, with skaters whirling round a rink and a blazing log fire.
At Savoy Place, organisers of the ‘Alpine Après Ski’ evening are going to town in an elaborate take on the theme. The venue will feature a cosy chalet-style room with a roaring fire and rocking chairs, snow-dusted pine trees in the après-ski bar and an alpine dining area with picnic tables. A Christmas-themed bar will be decorated with Nutcracker soldiers and candy canes, and a band of carol singers will provide a festive soundtrack.
Meanwhile, sleek white backdrops and clever lighting arrangements can lend the snow and ice theme a more contemporary edge. At the Oriel Group’s Freeze 2007 event at Vinopolis on the South Bank, the styling reflects the modern feel of the venue, with minimalist furniture, decorative snowflakes and soft, glacial lighting. Additional extras include a snowflake vodka luge, and a ski and snowboarding simulator is also offered for a more dynamic taste of the pistes.
At the 600-capacity Mermaid Conference & Events Centre at Blackfriars, white Christmas trees, iceberg murals, icicle lights and frosted windows will create a fresh wintery backdrop for the venue’s ‘Big Freeze’ evenings.
And who could forget the only venue that can legitimately claim to be the coolest bar in London? At the Absolut Ice Bar, which packs a whopping 50 tonnes of ice, everything from the walls, tables and bar, right down to the cocktail glasses is frozen. Now that’s cool.
This article first appeared in Square Meal Venues & Events magazine, Summer 2007.
Christmas Parties - City Venues
