It will likely be 7 people, give or take 2. In the past we’ve gone to a semi-fancy restaurant, maybe a different one for dessert, then a show at the local comedy club. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the past few years parties, but new ideas are never a bad thing.
We’ll likely do the same dinner thing, what I’m curious about is what to do afterward? It will be December 14th likely at Easton of Columbus. I’ve never heard of the guy at the Funny Bone that night (Darell Joyce?). Ending right after dinner is too soon, and staying out past 1AM or so may be a bit late (stupid babies).
It will likely be 5 that may drink to two that will not if that matters.
The best office party I have ever been a part of is dinner at a restaurant, followed by dessert at a coworkers house with an exchange of funny or weird Christmas ornaments. SO’s were invited. This might not work for all offices, I think what was special for us was were in a profession where we rarely get to socialize during work. If your office time includes a lot of chatting everyone might be bored.
The answer largely depends on the personality types of the staff. You sound (in this admittedly tiny sample size of one post) more like an extrovert - one who recharges by being around people and socializing. If all the staff are extroverts, the dinner/desert/show outline seems like a great idea, almost regardless of who the headliner is.
I am more of an introvert - dealing with people and crowds wears me out, I need alone time to recharge. My preference would be a workday lunch or small “party” at the office. If it had to be something outside of the work environment I would be more comfortable with dinner and desert at one restaurant, some light socializing and heading home from there. If I had to do dinner at one place, desert at another and a club somewhere else with a group of people who are not my closest friends, I would be mentally exhausted by the time it was over. Don’t get me wrong, I’d do it and would most probably have fun, but I would sorely miss my down time.
ETA - Zulema’s idea would be the worst of all worlds for me - hours spent after work with cow-orkers who are not my closest friends, with their spouses/familiy who I likely don’'t know at all, in a “foreign” environment - ::shiver:: - I’m pretty sure I’m busy that night. Thanks anyway.
My favorite Christmas parties are those held during office hours, which usually would include lunchtime (but bonus if it spills into paid time).
I see my coworkers enough as it is, more waking hours than I see my family. So it would be more fun to spend that evening socializing with real friends or family.
I worked for State Farm Insurance once upon a time and was in a small satellite office of about the same size as yours and was tasked with organizing the annual office party. The main facility in Cheshire had the traditional picnic - hot dogs, burgers, salads, chips and dips sort of thing, but being 75 miles away I was given a budget and free rein so nobody wasted the hour+ travel time.
I went to the local BBQ joint, and arranged ribs, fries, slaw, hush puppies, pulled pork - the whole beast feast thing [after ascertaining there were no vegetarians in the office. I love not having to be politically correct and avoid butthurting anybody.] The only thing really missing was beer - it being in the middle of the work day. We did it in the office, the guys from the BBQ place brought everything in, used disposable banquet serving gear and cups, plates, utensils and such. Set everything up and bowed out. All we did for cleanup was haul out a couple large garbage bags and dump everything in and run it out to the dumpster.
How about doing something like that, right after work - simple gathering, couple hours after work - the break room can get decorated, caterers haul in the booty and set it up, everybody shows up at work and parties out, then dump all the trash and head home. If you don’t want it at work, you can rent a small meeting room at a hotel and do the same [with the benefit of booze and a room for the night - I always liked submarine holiday parties in hotels, drink and have a reservation in the hotel to avoid driving home.]
[When I worked for Oakleaf Waste Management, they held the holiday parties at a great place in Hartford that is now closed. Employee only and they paid for everything including an open bar and had door prizes in abundance. Fantastic parties, great bunch to work for. They also threw a picnic for 4th of July onsite that was great, DJ with a dance floor, huge freaking buffet and an open bar of beer/wine/wine coolers, actual buffet servers keeping the food lines going. It was a small company, about 400 people 100 or so offsite around the country. They held the party on Saturday and even people working that shift could go out [no booze but more than one person snagged unopened booze and stashed it in their car for after work.] That was also a great company to work for.]
Our small company always does a party at a nice restaurant, but I find the highlight is the white elephant gift exchange. Creativity and gag gifts are encouraged. It works well for our group.
Some years, we’ll do an afterparty at someone’s house and play Rock Band (once people are into their cups a bit).
While not for the holiday party, we’ve done other events. One particularly good one was at an arcade type place (aimed more at adults) where we got a private room to play mini-bowling in, and little gift cards to go play the other games. We had a pretty good time with that one.
Our small company always does a party at a nice restaurant, but I find the highlight is the white elephant gift exchange. Creativity and gag gifts are encouraged. It works well for our group.
Some years, we’ll do an afterparty at someone’s house and play Rock Band (once people are into their cups a bit).
While not for the holiday party, we’ve done other events. One particularly good one was at an arcade type place (aimed more at adults) where we got a private room to play mini-bowling in, and little gift cards to go play the other games. We had a pretty good time with that one.