As we write this, we are now within Autumn (or Fall for our American readers). And before you know, Winter will be upon us. Winter is our busiest time of the year because of a little holiday you might have heard of called Christmas. You might have heard of it, a big fat bearded man flies through the night on a sled, pulled by flying reindeer and gives presents to all the children around the world!
Arranging the Ideal Christmas Party for Kids
Over the last few years, Christmas has become a bigger deal for us. Now Christmas parties start as early as mid November and go onto mid January. As well as the normal birthday parties that we perform at, there are literally thousands of Christmas parties that we are hosting throughout the UK. Everything from small family gatherings to large corporate Christmas parties for the children of their staff. It seems everyone wants to plan a Christmas party.
Christmas Party Tips!
In this blog we are going to give you a few tips that you can follow if you are planning a Christmas party. It can be stressful planning a Christmas party especially for kids so hopefully this will make things a lot easier for you.
Plan Early!
Ever heard the saying, "Don't leave planning to the last second"? We have clients that book their Christmas Parties in January. By the time we get to Octobers, 90% of our parties are booked and yet we always get people calling a week beforehand to organise our services. Don’t leave it too late or else you will be very disappointed. Get in early and secure.
Don't Forget The Entertainment!
We have seen people try to plan Children’s Christmas Parties without hiring an entertainer. They think they can do everything themselves. From experience, we have never seen this strategy work. The key to a successful Christmas Party is entertainment. If you leave kids in a room with no plan, they will run a mock and you'll be pulling your hair out. Christmas is a time of joy and the last thing you need is the constant pressure of trying to handle everything yourself. Hiring an entertainer will make sure that the party is run and hosted correctly. It will be a hassle free experience for you and people will remember the party for all the right reasons.
Pick The Right Entertainer!
You tend to find at Christmas parties, you have a very wide age range of kids and normally more kids than a standard birthday party. You want to make sure that your entertainer is used to working with lots of kids of a mixed age range. You would be amazed how many entertainers can’t do this as they only trained to perform for one specific age range.
Have A Back Up Plan In Case Of Illness!
If you are hiring a one man band, there is always a possibility they might be ill (it is the season for illness after all). What would you do if you were told last minute your entertainer wasn’t coming? Fear not, for there is always a solution to fix a problem. Have a contingency plan of something you can do if the entertainer doesn’t turn up. The best option would be to hire a National Company like us. We have the resources to ensure that even if an entertainer is ill, we have another entertainer on hand to cover. We never let people down, regardless of circumstances.
Don't Bother With Hiring Costume Mascots!
There are a couple of reasons for this. The first reason is, although mascots look great, they don’t really do anything, just stand around with the occasional wave. Christmas entertainment needs to be more interactive to keep the children”s attention and mascot isn't the way you want to go about it. Secondly ,companies like Disney are cracking down on people using their Intellectual Property without permission. What would you do if you booked an Elsa appearance (for example) and they just didn’t turn up because the company was put out of business?
Don't Hire A Clown!
Normally at kids' Christmas parties, you have lots and lots of ages of children. It’s nothing like a birthday party where everyone's the same age. They can range from toddlers to teenagers and in between. Clowns tend to turn off older kids because they think the entertainment will be babyish. It needs to be something that appeals to all ages and clowns just don’t cut the mustard.
Don't Go For The Cheapest!
There are a lot of cheap options when it comes to children’s entertainment and we understand you want to spend as little money as possible. However, it can be dangerous going for the cheapest option. There are many reasons why. In fact, there are so many we wrote a blog about why you shouldn’t hire cheap entertainment. The bottom line is if it’s important enough to plan a Christmas party, then it’s important enough to make sure the entertainment is good.
Let People Know About The Party Early!
Everyone gets busy over Christmas, no doubt about it. There are lots of parties to attend and lots of presents to buy. If you don’t let people know about your Christmas party early enough, nobody will attend. As soon as you have set a date, inform everyone immediately and allow them plenty of time to get it into their diaries.
Make Sure Santa Knows His Place!
One aspect about Christmas Parties is there is normally an appearance by Santa. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you are planning on doing this, we would advise having Santa appear at the end of the party, not during. Perhaps to say hello to the kids or perhaps to give out some presents. Bringing him out at the beginning doesn’t work. He should be the main event. We always suggest after the entertainment, having your entertainer compere Santa on. It produces a great ending to the event and really gives the kids the WOW Factor.
Make Sure Santa Knows What He Is Doing!
It baffles us that companies will spend so much time and energy on the Christmas party and then get some poor bloke from accounting to put on a red suit and a fake beard and call himself Santa. Kids aren’t stupid and they know what Santa should look and act like. They're expecting to see a man bring joy and happiness, not speak and act like the Terminator. Professional Santas do actually exist and that is your best option. If you are unable to acquire one, make sure that the person you put in the suit wants to do it and is capable of doing a great job in the role.
Offer Snack Boxes For Food!
Consider not having a buffet and instead, have snack boxes. A buffet can become a free for all and there will always be left overs. Having snack boxes makes things run so much more smoothly.
So there you have it - how to plan the perfect Christmas party. I hope you enjoyed reading this. Visit out website to vill in our form and we will get back to you ASAP about how we can help make your Christmas party the most successful one yet!
