A good company Christmas party is the one night of the year when people from different teams actually talk to each other. We plan corporate Christmas parties in Barcelona so that’s what happens: the right venue, food people enjoy, music that gets them off their chairs.
You deal with one person on our side, and you get to enjoy the night too.
When do companies in Barcelona have their Christmas party?
Shorter season than you’d guess. First week of December until about the 20th, then the schools close and the city empties out. Thursdays and Fridays go first, Saturdays a bit later.
Foreign teams are always a bit surprised by the timing. A cena de empresa here starts at nine, sometimes later, and if you leave before one somebody will ask if you’re feeling ok. That’s fine when everyone is from Barcelona. But most offices we work with are mixed, and the guy who moved from London last spring is used to eating at seven. By ten he’s starving and on his third beer, while the locals are only just looking at the menu. We sort the timing out beforehand, so both groups actually have a good night.
A lot of companies skip December completely and do it in January, after Reyes (6th). Easier to get a venue, nobody has three other dinners that same week, and people aren’t dead tired from closing the year. Some of the best company parties our team has organised were in January, to be honest.
Why December is harder than it looks
The places people actually want for a company Christmas party get booked from the summer on. The restaurant with the private room, the hotel with the terrace, the masia outside town. What’s still free in November is often perfectly fine, you just need someone who knows which ones and can check twenty of them in a day. That’s where we start. You give us a headcount, a budget and an area, we come back with venues that are really available on your date, and from then on we deal with them: deposit, timings, all the emails.
Then there’s the food. In December most restaurants switch to a fixed menú de Navidad. Sometimes it’s great. Sometimes it’s three courses nobody would have chosen, at a price that isn’t what it was in October. We sort the menu out with the venue, and if the kitchen can’t do what you need we bring in our own catering. Vegetarians, allergies, the colleague who doesn’t eat pork: send us the list once and we check it on the night.
Nobody thinks about getting home. Try finding a free taxi in Barcelona at 2am on a Friday in December. You can wait an hour, really. If the venue is out of town or the party goes late, we arrange a bus or transfers back to the city, so the night doesn’t end with forty people staring at their phones outside the door.
Venues close. Kitchens here stay open later than in London, but every place still has a closing time, and usually neighbours. If dinner starts at half nine and the venue shuts at one, your party is about two hours long whether you like it or not. We check that before booking, not on the night.
And your team is busy that week. Client lunches, the other department’s drinks, the kids’ school show. People arrive tired. So the evening needs a bit of a plan. Something to do when they walk in (a photo booth with Christmas props works well, and people keep the printed strips for months). Then after dinner a DJ, often with a live sax player, to get people from the tables to the dance floor.
One of our coordinators is there from setup to the last song. You get to be a guest.
What kind of party is it?
Most of the Christmas parties we organise are some version of dinner followed by dancing. It’s also the format that goes wrong most easily. Dinner’s lovely, dessert disappears, and then nothing. People drift to the bar, then to their coats. So we plan that switch properly: when the tables get cleared, when the music goes up, where people will dance.
Then there’s the awards night. The CEO thanks everyone, a few awards get handed out. Keep it short! Twenty minutes is fine, forty and they’re all on their phones. If what you have in mind is more black tie than Christmas jumper, look at our gala dinner page.
Starting late? This is the order
- Date and venue first. Right away, those go fastest.
- Menu, entertainment and decoration can wait a bit, about a month before is fine. Think about transport too if the venue is outside the city.
- The week before you’ll need final numbers, the dietary list and the order of the speeches and gifts. We send a short checklist for that so you don’t have to remember it all.
A few things people forget about Christmas party
Some colleagues leave at midnight, parents mostly. Make sure the good part of the night happens before they go.
Give the Secret Santa or company presents their own five minutes with a mic and some music. Otherwise it happens between the main course and dessert while half the table is outside smoking.
And don’t overdo the Christmas songs. A few when people arrive, none during dinner, one big sing-along later. That’s plenty, with people from eight countries there isn’t one Christmas playlist everyone shares anyway.
Questions we get every Christmas
Is November too late?
Usually not, it just gets harder each week. Smaller groups and Monday to Wednesday are easiest. Send your first choice and a backup and we’ll answer the same day.
Can we do a Christmas lunch instead of a dinner?
Yes, and more companies do every year. A long Friday lunch that slowly turns into the evening is very Spanish, it’s cheaper, and nobody has to stay out until two.
We already booked a restaurant. Can you do the rest?
Sure, plenty of companies come to us like that. Entertainment, decoration, someone running the night, whatever you need on top.
December or January?
Venue gone, team exhausted? January.
Our team is half Spanish and half international, does that matter?
A little. Dinner time, menu and music all have to work for both sides, so we plan it that way from the start. We speak English, Spanish and some other languages too.
What about doing it in our office?
Send us some photos and a floor plan. We’ll tell you what’s needed, power, where the catering goes, where the speakers go, and whether the neighbours are going to be a problem.
Planning your company Christmas party in Barcelona?
To get started we only need the date (and a backup), more or less how many people, and whether you already have a venue. We’ll come back with what’s available and a proposal.
Christmas parties are only one part of what we organise for corporate events in Barcelona, but they’re the part where waiting too long really costs you.
No long brief, promise.
Tell us when, how many of you there are, and whether you’re thinking cosy dinner or full-on party.
We’ll take it from there.