Office Christmas Party Ideas Your Team Will Actually Enjoy

Why does the office Christmas party so often fall flat?

Because most teams no longer know each other well enough for the standard options to work.

The Office for National Statistics puts hybrid working at 28% of working adults in Great Britain, and 42% of those with a degree, from its Opinions and Lifestyle Survey of adults aged 16 and over, fieldwork 2 to 27 October 2024. Before the pandemic the Annual Population Survey put working from home at around 12% across 2019.

An activity that assumes people already talk to each other is betting on something that stopped being true. Two departments who last shared a room in March will not warm up over a set menu.

So the question is not whether something sounds fun, but how many people are doing something at any moment and whether the format moves them around. If you are choosing between formats rather than activities, we have compared fifteen work party formats and what each costs.

What should you ask before you book an activity?

Five questions, and you want answers to all five before a supplier name enters the conversation.

What does the per-head price include? Most quotes cover the activity alone, so the £30 you budgeted is £75 once everyone has eaten.

How many of your group are doing something at any given moment? Nobody answers this one. A supplier quoting ten to five hundred people is giving you the booking range, not how many play at once, and a room that holds 120 is telling you about the room. Ask for the number active at the same time, and what everybody else does meanwhile.

Can somebody who does not drink, has a dietary requirement, or cannot stand for two hours have the same evening as everyone else?

Does the format move people around, or does everyone spend the night with whoever they walked in with?

What are the deposit, the deadline and the change policy? Headcounts move in December.

What is ice-free curling, and how does a game work?

Curling without the ice. Stones run on a smooth synthetic surface laid over a solid floor, indoors, at room temperature. There is no sweeping technique to learn and no balancing about in borrowed shoes, so a beginner knows within four minutes whether they are any good at it, and there is more on how a session runs if you want it.

Two teams take turns sliding stones towards a target at the far end. One set of throws is an end. Whoever leaves a stone closest to the centre scores, and scores again for every stone of theirs nearer than their opponent’s best. The last stone of an end is the hammer, which is why teams manoeuvre all end to keep it.

Why does it work for a team that barely sees each other?

Taking those four questions in order.

On price, The House buys three hours with a drink, a small plate and an hour of curling at, and Curls of Wisdom four hours with three drinks, a main meal and an hour of curling at. Food and a drink sit inside both figures, and the menu is published.

On participating numbers, teams rotate through in blocks, so whoever is not throwing is eating, drinking or heckling rather than queueing.

On inclusion, nobody needs a drink to have a role in an end, and vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free are fine with notice. There is more on how group bookings work.

On mixing, this is the thing curling does that a dinner cannot. You throw, then the person after you throws, so you talk to whoever is next in the rotation, not whoever you arrived with.

You can always check what is open for The House.

Who do we work with?

We are an Official Partner of the Team GB Foundation, working with the Olympic curlers Eve Muirhead and Jen Rouse, and we ran the first UK Floor Curling Championships. None of that makes your office party better on its own. It does mean the people running the game know what they are doing.

Where can you play, and what does a package include?

Two London sites and a mobile option. Vinegar Yard sits near London Bridge and Chelsea runs alongside the Winter Illuminations.

For a team outside London, or one not in a single city at all, curling sheets go into your own space anywhere in the UK. Offices, village halls, warehouses, conference floors. The trade-off is worth saying plainly. You supply the room, the food, the drinks and the music, so the part of a booking that removes stress stays on your desk.

Give us a date and your numbers and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.

What else could you book, and what is wrong with each?

The first three are the genuinely different options and the last two are the safe ones, which is worth saying rather than pretending the safe ones are second best. There is a longer argument about why so much team building loses the room elsewhere.

A hosted quiz or game show in your own space

Anywhere you have a room. Everyone plays, in teams, no cap. Around £300 to £600 for a host, so £6 to £15 a head across forty or fifty people, food and drink separate. It lives or dies on the room. Under office strip lighting a quiz reads as a long meeting, and phones are out by round three.

A cook-along or cookery class

Most cities have one. Classes cap at twelve to twenty working at once, at roughly £95 to £150 a head, normally including what you cook and eat . The cap is the problem. Over twenty, you split across two sittings and the team never eats the same meal.

A murder mystery or escape-style game

Most cities, and plenty of operators will come to you. Everyone takes part, but in fixed teams of four to six], at £45 to £75 a head. Those teams are the difficulty. People pick the colleagues they already know, then spend two hours with exactly the ones they did not need to meet.

A set festive menu with Secret Santa

Everywhere, at roughly £40 to £80 for the menu with drinks almost always extra. Everybody eats, but a table over about fourteen stops being one conversation, and whoever you sit next to is your entire night.

An in-office party with catering brought in

Roughly £15 to £30 a head for food, limited only by your largest room. It is still the office. People leave an hour earlier than they would from a venue, and somebody ends up stacking chairs.

When should you book, and what should you pay?

Now, if the group is over fifty, and two months earlier than feels necessary if it is not.

The bands above run from £6 to £30 a head in your own space, £40 to £80 for a seated meal, and £95 to £150 once a chef is involved. Anything quoted as “from” is the activity alone. December Fridays and Saturdays go early, so groups over fifty should be shortlisting now.

Our own weakness belongs here. The venues trade for a season, roughly November to February. If the only week that works is late October or mid-March, both are shut and the mobile kit is the only route. This season’s dates and packages are published, and you can see which December dates are open.

So which one should you book?

Go back to the five questions. What the price covers, how many are doing something at once, whether everyone can take part, whether the format moves people around, and what happens to your deposit when the headcount changes.

Ice-free curling answers the middle three well and the first honestly, because food and a drink sit inside the package price. It is beaten on geography if your team is nowhere near London, and on availability outside the season. Send us a date and a headcount and we will tell you either way.

Frequently asked questions

What activities work for a big office Christmas party? Anything with no cap and no queue. Quizzes and hosted game shows scale to any number; lanes and tables do not. Ask how many are active at once before counting seats.

What can you do at an office Christmas party that is not drinking? The test is whether the format gives people a reason to stand up and talk. Games, quizzes and workshops do. Facing a stage in the dark does not.

How far in advance should you book an office Christmas party activity? Under twenty people, six to eight weeks is enough outside early December. Over fifty, start in August and confirm in September.

What are good Christmas team building activities for work? The ones where everybody has a job. Rotating games, hosted quizzes and cooking work. Fixed small teams leave people with the colleagues they already knew.

Do you need any experience to curl? None at all. There is no sweeping to learn on a synthetic surface and no ice to slip on, and most people land a decent shot in their first few throws.

Can it work for a group where some people do not drink? It can, provided the reason people are on their feet is something other than the bar. A free bar with nothing else happening leaves non-drinkers on the edge of the room.