Experts Weigh in: How are you celebrating the holidays?

Each business celebrates the holidays a little differently. Last year, MyCorp tried its hand (or vocal chords) at some karaoke. This year, we’re headed to a local restaurant for some food, drinks, and general merriment! We asked some of our small business experts how they were celebrating the holidays with their businesses. From having a dance off to holding their own charity event, take a look at what our experts had to say!

“How do I celebrate the holidays? By taking them all off!: Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa !” -Bettina Seidman, SEIDBET Associates

“We are empowering employees who wish to give back to the community to organize their own charitable efforts- and cultivate pride and camaraderie amongst our crew of employees. We are a family driven business and it is vital that we show our appreciation to the local community from which we get the vast majority of our employees and suppliers.” -Billy Bauer, Royce Leather 

“Our agency, The Media Captain, is going to an arcade bar for a fun night of drinks, food and 80’s arcade games. We are always looking for a cool spot in downtown to attend to celebrate the holiday’s and we felt like this would make for an awesome night.” -Jason Parks, The Media Captain

“We’re an International Digital Marketing agency, so we celebrate with 3 parties at our international locations: US (Baltimore), UK (London) and South Africa.” -Sean Mulcahy, Jellyfish

“The company I work for, Questis, has a holiday party every year called  Questivus. We usually rent a unique space (in the past we’ve used a distillery or a book store) and have it catered with delicious food and drinks. It’s not only a party for our employees (we have less than 10) but we invite all of our family and friends to join us. The party usually gets  upwards of 150 people. It’s always a blast!” -Natalie Tucker, Questis 

” Bluewater celebrates its holiday not by giving gifts but by giving back. This year we’re holding a Pie in the Face fundraiser for Second Harvest Heartland in conjunction with Minnesota’s Give to the Max Day.

So in essence, we’re throwing pies in our leaders faces for the holidays.” –BlueWater  

“At National Builder Supply, we celebrate the holidays throughout the entire month of December. We hold a room decorating contest and have a third party come in one week before Christmas to celebrate. Last year the themes were Christmas in July, White Trash Christmas, Gingerbread Land, and Winter Wonderland. And we’ll conclude the holidays with a party at Thunderzone, where employees will eat, drink, bowl, and play laser tag.” -Rachael Nichol, National Builder Supply

“We’re having a dance off! We’re renting a local space, wearing our ugliest winter sweaters, and enjoying some food and drink.” -Maggie McCombs, Creative Lodging Solutions 

“As a small company we get the luxury of being able to do more than the traditional holiday party. Since December is a slower month for auto detailing, I like to make the most of that time by taking my employees and their families on a modest all expense paid getaway as my way of saying thanks for all the hard work they do all year. This year, we are all going to Colorado and taking skiing lessons. This doubles as a holiday party and team building exercise making the trip well worth the expense.” -Austin Melton, Albino Rhino Detailing

“CatPrint.com, LLC has a Holiday party every year! This year, we are going out to a client’s restaurant where we’ll be all dressed up and having a fancy yet delicious feastful dinner. At the dinner is also where we’ll be exchanging the gifts for Secret Santa.” -Saloneer Sao, CatPrint.com, LLC  

“Processing Point likes to switch things up each year when it comes to the holiday party. When we were smaller (10-15 employees), we held it at our corporate office in Carlsbad, CA (San Diego area). Last year, we reserved a suite during a Lakers game and took a party bus from the office to LA to watch the game. This year we are staying local and have rented space at the San Diego Zoo¹s Safari Animal Park. We¹re offering free parking and admission for all our employees, their significant others and any children under 18. We have two group activities planned ­ a private exotic animal presentation before dinner and a night prowl tour of the park for after dinner. This is a great way for our employees to have a full day with their families and celebrate a little with co-workers as well.” -Dawn Berry, Processing Point, Inc. 

“This year, Expert Market has rented a part of a club in London to celebrate the Christmas season properly and reward it’s employees. 

Everyone will be treated with a lovely dinner and a free bar during the entire evening. Of course there will be much dancing too. This will take place at the beginning of the month of December. 

Later in the month, teams are organising their own Christmas dinners and celebration. For example the SEO Team will be leaving the office slightly earlier on a Friday and go for a nice meal and party before everyone leaves to their respective homes to celebrate with their families around the world.” -Cyrielle Bourgeois, Expert Market UK 

“Our company is celebrating the holidays this year by having a BBQ party at our local park. That’s right BBQ in the winter! We are very fortunate to have nice weather here in Chino California. Our BBQ party will be a great winter feast that includes a lot of delicious meats!” -Lisa Chu, Black n Bianco 

“Typically we have an office-party pot luck with ugly holiday sweaters. Each team member brings in their own holiday treats whether it’s cookies or chocolate, and we try to keep the festive feeling for at least one week before the holidays start.” -Nabeel Mushtaq, AskforTask.com  

“At the end of every year, we like to throw a corporate party for the holidays. We hold them in different locations and sometimes we might take everyone out on a boat for some fishing, go bowling, or just decide to stick to a nice traditional restaurant, etc. We always cover all expenses, including the cost of cab rides home at the end of the night. It’s an event that all of our employees look forward to and it really helps relieve any build up of stress they may be feeling during the busy holiday season.” -Ian Aronovich, GovernmentAuctions.org 

“I myself am an immigrant and I was fortunate enough to be able to draw on Toronto’s extremely diverse population to assemble my TorontoVaporizer team, collectively representing over 9 different nations, and as such, we have extremely diverse holiday traditions! We are overall an extremely inclusive office but we make a special effort around the holiday’s to make sure our seasonal party is a celebration of everyone’s culture and background, rather than just one specific holiday, like Christmas or Chanukah. So, The last day before we break for the holiday’s we hold an in-office potluck and ask everyone to bring a dish traditional of their own holiday meal, so we can all enjoy each other’s culture in the holiday spirit! For example, this year we’re planning to have Trinidadian pasteles, Mexican bacalao, Indian butter chicken, Vietnamese Pho and Portuguese custard tarts! Having a holiday party pot-luck like this means we can create an extremely inclusive party which kicks off the break with good food, good fun and good friends!” -Nima Noori, TorontoVaporizer  

“We are planning to spend a Family Saturday outside the city; each one of us will bring our partner and kids. We are planning some contests like Karaoke, Dancing and sports, all of that accompanied by a succulent lunch, drinks, a lot of holiday treats, and a present from the company to each employee.” -Maria Camila Bernal, www.doitwiser.com