How To Have A Great Christmas Party On A Budget
PLAN EARLY
If you’re throwing a Christmas party this year you need to start planning it early. The earlier you start making your party plan the better. You will be giving yourself plenty of time to budget and organise the event. You will also save money and avoid the stress of a last minute mad rush to get everything done.
By planning early you will be able to take advantage of special offers and discounts that come up during your preparation period. Frozen food and food that has a long shelf life can be stored for months before it needs to be eaten. Alcohol and soft drinks also keep for a long time if they are unopened.
If you’re holding your Christmas party at a venue, rather than at home, you will need to book it as soon as Christmas bookings become available. Party venues generally start advertising their availability once the summer is over. Keep a lookout for ‘early bird’ offers on Christmas party venues, you could get a discount on the booking and save some money.Try to keep the Christmas party venue as local as possible. A local venue will keep travel costs down for you, your friends and family.
Throwing a Christmas party at home with close friends and family means you save on the cost of a venue. Holding your party at home will also create a great atmosphere and many happy memories. People are more likely to bring contributions and help with the clearing up if they have been invited into your home.
SET A BUDGET
So you’ve decided to throw a Christmas party this year but how are you going to pay for it all? You need to set a budget.
The first thing you need to do is to write a list of everything you will need for your party. Not just the food and drink but also decorations and tableware (and venue cost if you’re booking a function room). Calculate the total cost.
A bit of a shock? Parties can be expensive especially if covering the cost is just down to you, so get the people you’re inviting to make a contribution. Family, friends and colleagues will be happy to contribute to a great Christmas get-together. You don’t need to ask them for money if you don’t feel comfortable about that, but they can contribute to the cost in different ways.
Deduct their contributions and offers of help from your initial budget and recalculate your budget total. You should find your Christmas party is getting cheaper.
Below are a few more ideas of how to cut the cost of your Christmas party further and how to get your guests involved in helping to cut the cost.
ASK GUESTS TO BRING A BOTTLE
Alcohol is likely to be the most expensive part of your Christmas party budget. The easiest way to cut down on the cost is to ask your guests to bring a bottle of their favourite tipple to the party with them.
You only need to supply a basic stock of soft drinks and a small supply of alcohol as an addition to what your guests will bring with them. Don’t buy expensive spirits. Instead buy squash, bottled water, fizzy pop, a few beers/lagers and a few bottles of wine. If someone’s favourite tipple is whisky or vodka they will bring it with them. Asking people to bring a bottle will cut your costs by a significant amount.
You can now make another deduction from your Christmas party budget.
GET PEOPLE TO BRING A ‘PLATE’
In other words, ask each guest to bring a contribution of food.
You need to allocate a particular food to each person, couple or family so you know what food you will end up with. If you don’t allocate it and keep a list of what food is already catered for you will waste money on buying duplicated food. Mince pies are lovely, but you don’t need dozens of them.
Make sure you’ve allocated a mix of sweet and savoury foods and snacks so that there will be a variety for people to nibble on at the party. Once you know what food will be brought to your party you can buy, or make, the other things that you want to add to the buffet.
You can now make another deduction from your Christmas party budget.
COUPONS/OFFERS
You can save on the cost of buying food and drink using money-off coupons. There’s always a lot of coupons available so it’s worth checking online for promotions. There are websites that specialise in money saving coupons. These sites often have a range of savings on food, drink, snacks and sweet treats, so they are ideal if you are putting a Christmas party together. You can print the coupons for use in store or use the code for a discount when buying online. You can also get money-off coupons from magazines and flyers.
USE DISPOSABLE CUPS AND PLATES
Disposable cups, plates, serviettes and cutlery can be bought cheaply. You can often buy party size bags of these on offer in supermarkets and discount stores. Disposable tablecloths are another good idea and can also be picked up cheaply. Keep a lookout for promotions and offers on disposable tableware instore and online throughout the year.
You don’t have to wait until the Christmas design ones are available. Buy plain plates and bowls when they are on offer. Make them look festive by adding a Christmas serviette to each one. You can jazz up a plain disposable tablecloth using seasonal table confetti such as snowflake or santa shapes. Table confetti can be bought cheaply and adds a nice festive touch to your buffet table.
Using disposable crockery and cutlery saves a lot of work after the party is over. You won’t need to spend ages washing up. It’s usually made from cardboard or plastic so you can recycle it too. And as a bonus you won’t be worrying about your best china or crystal being broken once the party gets into full swing.
You can also ask your guests if they have any leftover disposable tableware that they would like to contribute to the party. People generally like to help and to feel that they are part of things so don’t be afraid to ask for contributions.
PARTY INVITATIONS
Formal party invitations can be expensive. The cost of printed invitation cards, envelopes and postage stamps soon adds up and eats into your Christmas party budget. Even if you deliver some of them by hand the cost still adds up. If your Christmas party is for family and close friends you can send party invitations in different and less expensive ways. In fact, you can send your invitations for free.
Here are a few different ways to send your invitations for free:
- Word Of Mouth – Once you’ve set the date for your party tell your family and friends the date and the time of your Christmas party. Make sure you let them know about food and drink contributions. Ask them if they have anything else they can contribute, disposable tableware or decorations for example. Write down on your party plan what each person will bring so you know what items are already covered.
- Text Message – Send a ‘Round Robin’ text message to all the people you want to invite to your Christmas party. Add the date, time and information about food and drink contributions. Add a request for offers of further help that will be gratefully received. When you get replies to your messages add each person’s contribution to your party plan so you know what they will bring.
- Email – For friends and family members that have email addresses (and check them regularly) you can create an email invitation. Add the date, time and information about food and drink contributions. Add a request for offers of further help that will be gratefully received. When you get replies to your email add each person’s contribution to your party plan so you know what they will bring.
- Social Media – If you are friends on facebook, or any other social media site, with family members or friends you can send them a Christmas party invitation this way. Again you need to add the date, time and information about food and drink contributions. Add a request for offers of further help that will be gratefully received. When you get replies add each person’s contribution to your party plan.
SECRET SANTA
Secret Santa is popular in the office and other places of work, but is also fun at a Christmas party. And it doesn’t need to be expensive. Santa can have a Christmas budget too.
If you’re having a Secret Santa at your Christmas party the first thing to do is to set a minimum to maximum spend budget for the gifts that will be given. By setting the spending limits you will avoid any ‘un-seasonal’ feeling between your guests.
There are different ways to organise Secret Santa depending on the age range of the people you have invited to your party. Here are a couple of variations:
- Put Everyone’s Name In A Hat – write everyone’s name on a slip of paper, fold it, place it in a hat, box or container. Each person that is participating in Secret Santa picks out a slip of paper at random. The name on the slip is the person they will buy a gift for. If they pick their own name they put it back in the container and pick again. The name of the person they will buy a gift for is kept secret.
This way of doing Secret Santa does rely on everyone being in the same place at the same time to pick out name slips, so is probably more suited to a work environment. If your Secret Santa is for a family and friends Christmas party you can do it another way.
You can decide who each person will buy for and let the buyer know. Swearing them to secrecy of course. This works well if your guests range from small children to adults because everyone will receive an appropriate gift.
- Each Person Buys One Unisex Gift – This is a good way of doing Secret Santa if your party is for adults only, both men and women. There’s no picking names out of a hat which needs everyone to be there at the same time. The gift doesn’t need to be unisex if the party is made up of all men or all women.
Because the gifts are not named they can be dished out or chosen at random. Whatever you get becomes your Christmas gift.
To add more fun you can dress up as Santa once the party is in full swing and give out the gifts (or talk someone else into doing it!)
FANCY DRESS
You can add a theme to your party by making it a fancy dress party. Obviously this decision will depend on you and the people you have invited, after all, you know them best. It doesn’t have to be a Christmas theme. You can add a little twist to the celebrations.
Pick a theme that you think will be fun for your guests and will give them a wide choice of characters to choose from. Here are a few ideas for fancy dress themes:
- Nursery rhyme characters
- Superhero characters
- Historical figures
- Children’s TV characters (from all eras)
- Characters from famous/popular novels
You can make the fancy dress optional so those who would rather not dress up can come as themselves without feeling left out.
Let everyone know that they don’t need to spend money on an authentic fancy dress costume. Tell them to have some fun putting together something from things they already have, or can put together at home. It doesn’t need to be professional it’s just for fun. You’ll be surprised by how inventive your guests can be.
You could offer a small prize for the best or most imaginative costume, or the costume that gets the most laughs.
PARTY MUSIC
Every party needs some background music. It helps to create a party atmosphere. It also covers any uncomfortable lulls in the conversation util the party gets into full swing and everyone is feeling more relaxed.
You don’t need to pay for a DJ even if you’re holding your party at a venue. There’s a lot of free downloadable music available. So if either you, a friend or family member are a whiz with a the technology you can make the most of free party music.
If you’re throwing a party at home you can use your TV/satellite/cable networks music channels to provide non-stop free music for the evening. DAB radio usually has a Christmas music channel that starts playing in November, so if you have a DAB radio check it out on the run up to your party. You can play music CD’s.Enlist the help of a couple of your guests with changing the CD’s when they end.
