The best company Christmas parties don’t start with a restaurant reservation. They start with a question: What do you want your employees to remember afterwards?
It’s September.
Outside, it may still feel like summer. Christmas markets are still months away. And yet, somewhere in HR, Office Management or the executive team, the question is already being asked:
“What are we doing for our Christmas party this year?”
Too early? Not really. Anyone who has ever organised a company Christmas dinner knows the same thing happens every year: December arrives faster than expected — and the most popular dates, venues and event options don’t stay available for long.
But there is an even better reason to start planning early. A truly great Christmas party today is about more than choosing a nice restaurant and a good menu. It creates an evening the team will still be talking about in January.
A Great Christmas Dinner Needs More Than Great Food
Of course, the food matters. So do the venue, the service, the atmosphere and perhaps that first glass of Prosecco after a long year.
But think back to the company events you genuinely remember.
Was it the dessert?
Or was it the colleague from Finance who suddenly turned out to be a puzzle-solving genius? The manager who was one hundred percent certain about an answer — and completely wrong? The team that won with only a few seconds to spare?
People Remember Moments
And this is exactly where the traditional Christmas dinner can sometimes fall short. The familiar routine:
Drinks. Dinner. Dessert. Conversations. Home. Enjoyable? Absolutely.
But employees often spend most of the evening with the colleagues they already know well.
Sales sits with Sales. Marketing with Marketing. Management with Management.
And the next morning, the verdict is:
“It was nice.”
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But when a company invests time, budget and organisational effort into a Christmas party, perhaps the goal can be a little more ambitious:
“That was brilliant. Do you remember when…?”
That’s where a truly memorable event begins.
The Best Christmas Parties Tell a Story
As soon as people have something to discover, solve or win together, the dynamic changes.
Someone unexpectedly takes the lead. Someone else spots the clue everyone has overlooked.
The new employee solves the decisive puzzle. The boss gets the supposedly easiest challenge completely wrong.
For a while, departments, job titles and hierarchies become irrelevant.
All that remains is:
one team and one shared challenge.
Perhaps that is the most enjoyable kind of team building — the kind nobody even needs to call “team building”.
No flipcharts. No workshops about communication styles. No forced reflection session between the main course and dessert.
Just people laughing, solving puzzles and experiencing something together.
You Don’t Have to Reinvent the Christmas Dinner
Adding a shared activity doesn’t mean the traditional Christmas dinner has to disappear. Quite the opposite. You can combine the two.
That is exactly the idea behind URBANescape’s Der verwunschene Weihnachtsman.
Guests play in teams of four to six people directly at their tables. Together, they take on a festive puzzle mission while competing against the other teams — and against the clock.
The game takes around one hour and can either be played in one go or broken up with pauses between courses. There is no need for an additional event room.
Dinner remains the heart of the evening. But suddenly, something else starts happening too.
People who might otherwise barely have spoken to one another are solving challenges together. New employees are naturally included.
And between courses, the most important question is suddenly no longer:
“What did you order?”
It becomes:
“Wait — give me that clue again!”
And that’s exactly the point.
The activity shouldn’t replace the Christmas dinner. It should give the evening a story.
Why September Is the Right Time to Start Planning
Planning early gives you something that becomes increasingly valuable as December approaches:
Choice. Choice of date. Choice of venue. Choice of programme.
And, most importantly, the freedom to decide what kind of Christmas party actually suits your team.
Wait too long, and at some point the question is no longer:
“What would work best for our team?”
Instead, it becomes:
“What is still available?”
Those questions lead to two very different kinds of Christmas parties.
Five Questions to Ask Before Making a Reservation
1. How Should the Evening Feel?
Should it primarily be a thank-you to your employees? A celebration? A shared team experience? Or an opportunity to bring different departments closer together?
2. Should There Be More to the Evening Than Dinner?
A shared game or another activity can completely change the atmosphere of the evening — without turning it into a tightly scheduled event programme.
3. Do You Want People to Connect With Colleagues They Rarely Interact With?
If so, this should already be taken into account when planning the seating arrangement and the activity.
4. What Do You Want the Team to Remember in January?
The menu? Or the story of the evening?
5. What Can You Decide Today?
A date or approximate time frame, the expected group size and the general style of the event are usually enough to get the planning process started.
Above All, a Christmas Party Is a Way of Saying Thank You
After a year full of projects, meetings, challenges and achievements, celebrating the end of the year together also sends a message:
“It matters to us that we are all here together today.”
The evening doesn’t need to be extravagant or spectacular. But it should be thoughtfully designed. Because the best company Christmas parties are rarely remembered because everything was perfect.
They are remembered because something happened. Someone made everyone laugh. Someone surprised the team. Someone found the decisive clue.
And months later, someone still says:
“Do you remember our Christmas party?”
Perhaps that is a better goal than:
“The food was good.”
And that is why September is by no means too early to start planning.
In fact, it might be exactly the right time.
A great Christmas dinner brings people together around one table.
A shared experience gives them something to talk about long after the evening is over.
That is exactly why we created Der verwunschene Weihnachtsmann at URBANescape.