November 21, 2019

Everyone’s chosen their festive outfits, and the function band hire is all sorted, but the super organised among us have next year’s Christmas party on the brain too!

Whether you’re the family’s designated party planner or you’re always first on the list to organise corporate events at work, this should convince you to start prep for Christmas 2020 early. 

Book early = book the best

This goes for venues, catering, entertainment, function band hire, decorations, and pretty much everything else you can think of. It’s perfectly possible to throw something together in a month, but you’ll probably end up making a lot of phone calls to different suppliers, being told the haven’t got much left, and settling for what’s available.

It’s definitely not too early to start discussing party plans with caterers, venues, and entertainment agencies. They love planning ahead too.

Planning is easier without pressure

Event planning can be stressful, and nothing increases stress like being short of time. If you have months and months of planning time, you’ll have loads of opportunities to consider all the options, avoid disasters, and spend time on the details that matter.

Even the best Christmas party in the world isn’t worth bucket loads of stress. With time on your side, you can balance party planning with all the other important stuff in life.

You can undo this year’s mistakes (if you made any…)

Hopefully this year’s Christmas party will be a huge hit, but if anything doesn’t quite go to plan, Christmas 2020 is the perfect opportunity to make sure it doesn’t happen again. If glasses run out, the venue turns out to be disorganised, or a supplier makes life difficult, make a mental note of the problem and how to fix it or avoid it completely.

You’ll enjoy the event more

If everyone else is having a great time, so should you! The party planner is often burdened with all the decision-making, and that means their job doesn’t finish until the party does. If everything is organised well in advance, you’ll be able to let your hair down just as enthusiastically as everyone else.

How to get started

Start small with a budget, timeframe, and a list of things you need for the perfect Christmas party. Then you can work out which jobs are the highest and lowest priority.

1. Theme. The initial planning stage is more about floating ideas and considering what guests will enjoy. Once you’ve settled on a theme, you can start making decisions.
2. Venue. This should be booked first so you have a concrete date. Many suppliers won’t commit until that’s sorted.
3. Guest list. Numbers are crucial. People should receive their invitations, or at least know about the event 4-6 weeks beforehand. You’ll need to estimate numbers while you’re planning, so have a maximum and minimum capacity in mind.
4. Decorations and suppliers. With a date, guest list, and theme, you can start to choose decorations, entertainment, catering, and everything else.
5. Finishing touches. Anything that’s less time dependent or easier to source can be taken care of last. Your suppliers will be able to tell you what they provide, when, and what’s not included.

Function band hire your guests will love

Silk Street Swing are experienced jazz musicians with years’ of big and small events under their belt. They play a huge range of swinging jazz tunes you’ll recognise, as well as some Christmas favourites.

Whether you want to bring the rat pack back to life, throw an authentic 1920s party, or give your guests something a little bit different, Silk Street Swing are the big band you need.

Book Silk Street Swing now!