8 ideas for celebrating the end of the year with your company

The end of the year is a time to cel­e­brate, reflect, look back and think ahead to the future. It’s also a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to gath­er every­one from your com­pa­ny and show appre­ci­a­tion for all of their work and ded­i­ca­tion by organ­is­ing an unfor­get­table event.

If you’re look­ing for ideas to cel­e­brate the end of the year with your com­pa­ny, look no fur­ther! In this arti­cle we share with you 8 fun and cre­ative ideas that will help you say farewell to the past year and cel­e­brate the new year with enthu­si­asm.

1. Organise a team-building activity to strengthen team spirit

The end of the year is a per­fect time to enjoy time spent togeth­er and strength­en team spir­it. Organ­is­ing a team-build­ing activ­i­ty is a great idea for fos­ter­ing a sense of belong­ing and col­lab­o­ra­tion.

When plan­ning the activ­i­ty, it’s impor­tant to take into account the needs and inter­ests of team mem­bers, as well as the objec­tives to be achieved. Team-build­ing activ­i­ties should be col­lab­o­ra­tive, such as team sports or games, group chal­lenges and prob­lem-solv­ing tasks. For the occa­sion in ques­tion, you can take inspi­ra­tion from the usu­al team-build­ing activ­i­ties and give them a more fes­tive, Christ­mas-relat­ed or New Year’s Eve char­ac­ter. For exam­ple, if you want to organ­ise a triv­ia-type activ­i­ty in teams, with ques­tions and answers, make it about the tra­di­tions and his­to­ry of the hol­i­day peri­od. You can even per­son­alise it fur­ther and include ques­tions about your company’s his­to­ry and anec­dotes!

Gen­er­al­ly, the key is to choose activ­i­ties that are fun and engag­ing and which pro­mote cama­raderie and team­work. By focus­ing on these objec­tives, you can cre­ate a mem­o­rable and reward­ing expe­ri­ence that will help strength­en your team’s bonds and improve its over­all per­for­mance.

2. Host a meal or party

A meal or par­ty is a clas­sic and essen­tial part of your company’s end-of-year cel­e­bra­tions.

Like any event, arrang­ing a meal and par­ty requires prepa­ra­tion and organ­i­sa­tion. Some of the main ele­ments that you’ll have to con­sid­er are:

• The date: At this time of year, we’re all very busy and there are lots of events, so you’ll have to find the time and date that best suits most peo­ple. One way to do this is to pro­pose sev­er­al options and put them to a vote using one of the many free tools that exist for this pur­pose.
• The venue: Depend­ing on the needs of your team, the num­ber of guests, your bud­get and your pref­er­ences, some spaces will be more inter­est­ing than oth­ers. This can range from hir­ing a cater­er and hold­ing a meal in your own office to hir­ing out a restau­rant and night­club for your team, or rent­ing more niche spaces such as a boat or even a sports sta­di­um if your com­pa­ny is large enough!
• Dec­o­ra­tion: An end-of-year par­ty can’t just be like any oth­er par­ty. It has to be fes­tive, and the dec­o­ra­tions will be that essen­tial touch!
• Food and drink: At end-of-year par­ties, food and drink play a major role, so don’t neglect them!
• Activ­i­ties and enter­tain­ment: Don’t leave every­thing in the hands of the guests. Include mini-activ­i­ties and enter­tain­ment dur­ing your company’s end-of-year meal or par­ty. This will help guests inter­act with each oth­er and cre­ate mem­o­ries togeth­er, which will in turn strength­en the team.
• Invi­ta­tions: Even if you spread the word infor­mal­ly, you need to send invi­ta­tions for your par­ty to all staff. The most effi­cient chan­nel for send­ing invi­ta­tions is email. Pre­pare a fun mes­sage and don’t for­get the prac­ti­cal details: when and where they have to arrive, if they have to bring some­thing, whether they can bring com­pan­ions, etc. To man­age all this and find out the num­ber of peo­ple who will attend your end-of-year event, you can set up a reg­is­tra­tion process. Weezevent offers you a sim­ple and cus­tomis­able plat­form that will make it eas­i­er to man­age reg­is­tra­tions and to which you can add a fes­tive touch by choos­ing colours and images.

3. Arrange volunteering as a team or a joint donation

The fes­tive peri­od and Christ­mas are a time when we’re more aware of the impor­tance of help­ing and giv­ing back to the com­mu­ni­ty, which makes it a good time to do it togeth­er as a com­pa­ny.

Whether it’s at a food bank, a home­less shel­ter or pick­ing up lit­ter in the moun­tains, vol­un­teer­ing can make a real dif­fer­ence to our envi­ron­ment. By work­ing togeth­er to sup­port a wor­thy cause, you can help cre­ate a more mean­ing­ful and reward­ing fes­tive peri­od for you and your team mem­bers. More­over, vol­un­teer­ing can also be a valu­able oppor­tu­ni­ty for per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth, allow­ing you to learn new skills, devel­op new rela­tion­ships and enjoy a sense of sat­is­fac­tion and achieve­ment.

Anoth­er quick and direct way to give back is through a dona­tion. You can organ­ise a fundrais­ing cam­paign in the com­pa­ny, among your­selves and involv­ing your envi­ron­ment to make a joint dona­tion to the char­i­ty of your choice.

4. Organise a secret Santa

Organ­is­ing a secret San­ta with­in your com­pa­ny is a way to cre­ate stronger bonds and rela­tion­ships among the mem­bers of your team. By par­tic­i­pat­ing in this activ­i­ty, the peo­ple who make up your organ­i­sa­tion will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn more about each other’s inter­ests and pref­er­ences and express their mutu­al appre­ci­a­tion and sup­port through small gifts. This helps cre­ate a more pos­i­tive and col­lab­o­ra­tive work­ing envi­ron­ment, where team mem­bers feel more con­nect­ed and val­ued.

Com­mu­ni­cate clear­ly and in detail about the rules, such as lim­its on gift prices, how the pairs are made and when the gift giv­ing will take place. The process of select­ing and dis­cov­er­ing the gifts and pair­ings (if you choose to dis­close this infor­ma­tion, which can also remain secret) can be a fun and excit­ing activ­i­ty in itself.

5. Decorate the office for the festive period

Dec­o­rat­ing the office for the hol­i­days is a fun way to lift your spir­its and get every­one in the mood for fes­tiv­i­ties.

You can hang lights, put up and dec­o­rate a Christ­mas tree or wreath, and place oth­er fes­tive orna­ments and dec­o­ra­tions through­out the space. Don’t focus only on Christ­mas; include dec­o­ra­tions typ­i­cal of oth­er hol­i­days such as Han­nukah for a mul­ti­cul­tur­al fes­tive peri­od. You can also focus on cel­e­brat­ing the new year and use spark­ly dec­o­ra­tions, such as a dis­co ball or a count­down clock. You can also encour­age every­one in the com­pa­ny to bring their own dec­o­ra­tions to per­son­alise their work­space.

6. Organise a party for employees’ children, gifts included!

Involv­ing employ­ees’ fam­i­lies in the fes­tiv­i­ties can be very reward­ing for every­one, espe­cial­ly if you think of the lit­tle ones and organ­ise a spe­cial par­ty for them.

Pre­pare a children’s snack with appe­tis­ers and treats, aim­ing for a bal­ance between, on one hand, the excep­tion­al and fes­tive and, on the oth­er, health­i­er food. Dec­o­rate your office or the space you’re rent­ing for the par­ty with a win­try and fes­tive theme so that, from the moment they arrive, they feel they’re in a space that’s been pre­pared for them and their par­ty.

Take the par­ty a step fur­ther and pre­pare themed activ­i­ties for the chil­dren. Some activ­i­ties could be cre­at­ing snow­men with cot­ton balls and card­board, a hot choco­late stand with dif­fer­ent ingre­di­ents and mix­es or even, if you have room, set­ting up a small hill to slide down with sleds, slides or sim­ply inflat­a­bles with win­ter dec­o­ra­tions. To involve all staff, ask for vol­un­teers to help set up the par­ty and lead or super­vise some of the activ­i­ties with the chil­dren. Employ­ees with­out chil­dren can dress up as elves, rein­deers or the Three Wise Men and their pages and be in charge of hand­ing gifts to the chil­dren, call­ing them by name one by one. This will be an unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence for the lit­tle ones!

For this par­ty it will also be espe­cial­ly use­ful to set up a reg­is­tra­tion sys­tem. You can cus­tomise the reg­is­tra­tion form to ask every­thing you need, from the children’s names to pos­si­ble food aller­gies.

7. Reward your customers’ loyalty

Beyond the inter­nal cel­e­bra­tions among col­leagues, the fes­tive peri­od is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to strength­en ties with your cus­tomers.

The eas­i­est way is to send greet­ings. You can send most of them by email and a small selec­tion on paper. Either way, for the most loy­al cus­tomers, don’t hes­i­tate to per­son­alise them so that they feel that you’ve real­ly thought of them. If they’re impor­tant cus­tomers, send­ing a small detail along with the greet­ing will fur­ther strength­en your rela­tion­ship and could also be an oppor­tu­ni­ty to re-enter into more direct con­tact if this has been lost.

As for small­er cus­tomers, usu­al­ly the major­i­ty of atten­dees at your events, in anoth­er arti­cle we sug­gest ways to reward their loy­al­ty and gen­er­ate sales at the same time via mass reach.

8. Involve the entire company in the process

Even if you have a great idea for your company’s end-of-year cel­e­bra­tions, don’t jump in with­out lis­ten­ing to your team. What would they like to do? How would they like to cel­e­brate the end of the year togeth­er? Lis­ten to their pref­er­ences and wel­come their involve­ment through­out the process, from con­cep­tion to final exe­cu­tion. This will fur­ther strength­en the rela­tion­ships between team mem­bers as well as excite­ment for the par­ty.

All you have to do now is decide which ideas you’ll keep and how you’ll hold your company’s end-of-year cel­e­bra­tions, and get to work! Find out how Weezevent’s tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions can make it eas­i­er to organ­ise your end-of-year event by click­ing the but­ton below:

Organ­ise an event