ZeroCater’s Official Guide to Totally Owning Your Office Holiday Party

Holiday survival guides are ubiquitous these days. For some reason, while family and friends celebrate wonderful things like birth, dedication and heritage during this time of year, the holiday season also tends to overwhelm.

Shame

Common sources of holiday terror:
  • What if my last-minute shopping spree is an epic failure and I don’t get the latest god-awful incarnation of the Furby? Will I be doomed to dash around idiotically like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad in Jingle All The Way? That was a terrible movie! I don’t want to live like that!
Perhaps the single most terrifying task of the season is planning the office holiday party. Not only do you face the aforementioned risk of setting your dignity on fire, you’re also on the hook for showing everyone a good time.

Hey Frankie, ZeroCater says relax. Leave the survival guides to wilderness explorers, disaster experts and Chuck Norris. Let’s take on planning your office holiday party, in five easy steps.

Step One: Venue and Setting
If your office is large enough for a proper fête you’ll need to deck the halls with holiday decorations. Adorn your cubicles with pine cones, garlands or even some lights. Extra wrapping paper lying around? Use it for cheeky, temporary wall art, or wrap the desk of the guy who chose to go on vacation and skip your party -- sucker. By the way, snow globes and lit menorahs are out unless you enjoy shards of glass in your office or fires.

Step Two: Invitations
Whether you invite everyone online via Evite or Eventbrite or real cards via Tinyprints, make sure these items are crystal clear: date and time of the party, the dress code and whether guests are welcome. Otherwise somebody might show up the night before, in a burlap sack, with an escort. Also, don’t write “MANDATORY PARTY” on the invitations and don’t mistakenly (or intentionally) exclude anyone.

Step Three: Refreshments
If you’re making everything on your own food...wait, really? Dang, that’s a lot of work. If your office party isn’t formal, why not do a potluck? Note: Only do this if you are capable of making delicious food, otherwise you’ll be “that girl who brought an inedible mass of green stuff and claimed it was artichoke dip, bleghhhhhh now we shun her.” If you’re a fool (in the kitchen at least), try this foolproof recipe for caramelized onion tarts with apples. Or, if you’re in the San Francisco and would like to do a dinner outing, check out the tablehopper’s recommendations for office holiday dinner spots.

Better yet, leave it to ZeroCater. We’ll set you up with food that will make your party the perfect celebration.

Step Four: Entertainment and Activities
Hold a contest in the office and the loser must dress up as Santa for the party. Just kidding. It’d be nice to make your party a charity drive, or there could be a silent auction or white elephant gift exchange. As long as your co-workers aren’t cutthroat competitors, gingerbread house building can be fun. Or keep it simple and let your food, drinks and carefully non-denominational music work its magic!

Step Five: Mingle and Enjoy

Seriously, have fun. You deserve it.

You know what’s worse than nervousness about attending an office holiday party? Planning an office holiday party. Leave the food to ZeroCater and take a load off!