Anonymous wrote:Last really good Holiday Party I went to was xmas 1999 when my friend invited me to her AOL/Time Wartner Holiday Party in Manhttan.
They had Aerosmith perform at the Holiday Party. I heard they paid Aerosmith one million for the performance. May not sound like a lot of money today. But in 1999 was a good amount of money.
I think xmas 1999 (pre-9/11) and pre 2000 Stock Market Crash and pre the PC police distroying fun was last big fun parties.
A brief comeback in xmas 2003-2007 but Financial Crash of 2008 killed it off.
I went to one when in College. My older brother had a plus one WOW. They had several very famous older people on board. A movie star, her TV star husband, Brother in law current President and they actually line up to shake our hands. Was at Waldorf Astoria. And we invite some really big clients and such. Was real A list.
My Mom's company had a team that their job YEAR ROUND was to plan the holiday party.
They hada 100,000 employees, everyone could bring a guest and so 200,000 people attending. They had offices in multiple cities so was a lot of planning. Was highlight of year for most people. I know my Mom it was the single biggest event she ever attended. Her even was at a very fancy catering hall that held up to 3,000 people. Can you imagine her party was only 1.5 percent of the 200,000 invited.
I remember these days. Husband worked for PWC and they hired KC and the Sunshine Band (it was recent enough that this was a retro band, but we still knew all the songs), and had a dessert room and a cigar room at some big hotel in DC. It was pretty spectacular. At another company, we rented a club in DC for a day time party and the booze flowed freely. It was a blast. Even when HR called me into their office the following Monday to share some printed photos of me as I was very much overserved. I was in my 20s and HR laughed and gave me the photos. I miss those days.
Holiday parties are fun when the focus is on showing appreciation for your team in a meaningful way. If you have to cut corners to save a buck please don’t bother. Here’s a hint, if the same department/person plans it every year and the numbers dwindle every year, it’s time to rethink your efforts.
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