Christmas parties with a twist

With lots of companies feeling the pinch this year, many are sidelining the annual Christmas party. But some firms are finding fun – and frugal – ways to celebrate the festive season

WHEN MORGAN Ruigrock of training company Alaymont Trading in Co Dublin was making the decision about his company’s upcoming Christmas bash, he knew exactly what he didn’t want. For the past several years he has treated staff to a five-course, booze-fuelled dinner, a “tradition” he felt was out of step with the mood of both his employees and the country.

A recent survey suggested 84 per cent of bosses were contemplating not having a festive bash at all, but rather than cancelling Christmas, employers such as Ruigrock are getting more creative with the annual celebrations. “With everything that has been going on I was really looking at how to boost morale and I didn’t think the traditional way was the answer,” he says. “What we are doing this year will be cheaper, which of course is a factor, but we also didn’t want everyone turning up for dinner boozing and bitching about how difficult everything was, so we tried to come up with something a little bit different.”

This year his 15-strong team will be heading to Neptune Outdoor Centre in Clogher Head, Co Louth for some “fun, alcohol-free team-building”. In the morning, they will go rock climbing, then they’ll sit down to lunch and in the afternoon get stuck into water-based activities, such as raft building. “It’s not so much a HR thing as a chance for a bit of craic,” Ruigrock says. “What normally happens at the night out is that people turn up, shake hands, slip away early, go home and say ‘that was rubbish’. We were finding that people were sick of the traditional Christmas do. This year is all about breaking that routine.”

Another company taking a different approach is not-for-profit organisation Tolka Area Partnership in Dublin. They are using their grand headquarters, Rosehill House in Finglas, to have an office “house party” which will be paid for by employees. It will cost far less than their usual overnight trip away, where the party is usually shared with employees of other companies and Bernie D’Arcy, a manager with the company, is hoping it will be a more intimate occasion for the 35 staff.

“We took a vote on it and the majority were keen on the house party idea,” D’Arcy says. “It’s a beautiful house, we are having a drinks reception, food will be laid out in the training room and upstairs in our conference room, where there is a lovely old fireplace, we will have karaoke and eighties music.” The whole event is costing around €40 a head.

Food for the party is being provided by the Silk Road Café at the Chester Beatty Library. Owner Abraham Phelan reports a brisk trade in Christmas bookings with some companies booking a tour of the museum and lunch for employees, another example of more creative Christmas entertainment.

Many employees around the country will still be left without a party to go to, something venue owner Michael Wright is hoping to address. After hearing of the high numbers of companies going without parties, he decided to create an alternative company night out.

He is planning to make his 3,000-capacity Wright Venue in Swords, Co Dublin – which this week won a global design award in New York – available on Thursday December 9th to revellers whose companies have put the holiday season on hold. “Christmas is a time for employers to reward staff and even if other companies aren’t in a position to do that, we figured with so much doom and gloom around, we should do something,” he says.

The details are still being finalised but Wright hopes to team up with a national radio station who will hold a competition for companies to win entry to what is likely to be the country’s biggest Christmas bash. Wright is taking his own staff away for the Christmas party as he does every year. They have been to Prague and Paris in past years. “If you get the flights right, it can work out to be very reasonable cost-wise,” he says.

Rahul Rana of website christmasparty.ie says enquiries to the site are up 25 per cent on last year, with more employees than usual organising their own functions. “We also believe the 84 per cent who said they weren’t going to entertain staff may be a reflection of the ‘uncertainty principle’, which has led companies to delay the decision on whether to hold a Christmas party for a lot longer than usual. It’s as though they were holding off to see what kind of budget they would have for entertaining staff,” he says.

Some owners of smaller businesses are making their own arrangements and getting together with colleagues in a more low-key way. Eilis Boyle, co-owner of Bow Boutique in the Powerscourt Townhouse in Dublin, is joining up with other sole traders in the fashion industry for her Christmas party. “In keeping with the economic situation, we are paying for ourselves but we still want to get together because it’s a kind of solitary business,” she says. They will be going to the Make and Do Night at Panti Bar, in Dublin’s city centre, where the entertainment is provided in the pub. “We like the idea that we are supporting a local bar, everyone wants to party at this time of year but you can still do it on a shoestring and have fun,” Boyle says.

Claire MacManus of Open Office Architects agrees: “We are a small company so it never felt right splashing out in an over-the-top way,” she says. “For our office party this year, we are planning to take a walk around the Howth Peninsula followed by fish and chips.”

Some feel those firms – many of them banking institutions – who are not marking the festive season by holding some kind of staff celebration may be making a mistake. “I feel quite strongly about people continuing to hold parties,” says Caroline Kennedy of Kennedy PR. “People have been supporting each other through the difficulties and managers have had to work harder to motivate staff so you would wonder what the actual saving of not holding a function will be in terms of how much these kinds of events can do for team spirit and morale.”

Morgan Ruigrock certainly believes his alcohol-free adventure trip will make for a Christmas party to remember: “It will be cold but it will be good and it definitely won’t be as forgettable as every other year,” he says.