I’m always astounded on the Monday morning after Halloween how the scary witches, ghouls and ghosts have suddenly and cunningly turned into smiling Santa’s and cosy Christmas scenes. I can’t help myself though, a little tingle of the Christmas spirit sneaks in, and I have to quickly snap out of it. I often wonder how much of the Christmas spirit our office manager really has in her, she has to make it last almost the whole year! Organising the staff Christmas party starts in March.

Are you surprised? Many of you won’t be – you are the people who are the Unsung Heroes of Yule – the Christmas Party Organisers. You are the ones who scour the newspapers and magazines for mention of the word “party”, hoping to find some new ideas to make the next one even better. You’re the ones spending hours telephoning hotels and venues finding that elusive venue that will suit everyone. You’re making the critical decisions that set the scene for how your colleagues will anticipate and enjoy the evening. Decisions like whether or not the party should be held in town. If so, does the venue offer special accommodation rates? If not, do you bus everybody there and back? Should you hire 3 mini-buses or one coach? Then there’s the menu – try getting Chef in the Dublin Ritz Carlton to commit to the Christmas 2004 menu in March 2004! Should it be turkey and ham with a vegetarian option, or will everybody be sick of turkey and ham already at that point? What exactly is a veloute?

In the run up to the Christmas Party, your time is spent ticking people off your list as they pay for their ticket, answering the same questions over again – how will we get there? What’s the menu? Are partners allowed to come? Why aren’t partners allowed to come? Do I have to dress up? Is there a late bar? What exactly is a veloute?

You finalise the numbers, tot up the cash, realise you’ve got €60 too much and have to hunt through your e-mail in-box for all the e-mails about the Party. After an hour and half of comparing your lists to the e-mails with no success, you eventually find the post-it note stuck on the back of one of your Excel print outs. Mandy from accounts and her fella, of course! Phew!

On the night itself you’re all dolled up, looking fantastic. You realise you’ll have to get a taxi as you have all the raffle prizes with you and you just won’t be able to carry them on the bus. You’re one of the lucky ones, your taxi arrives just 20 minutes late. You snag your tights on the wicker basket full of wonderful smellies that was a gift from the shredding company. You’re organised, you have a spare pair! You arrive, and everybody’s already there. The fun has started, the fights will be later. You distribute the drink vouchers, let everybody choose their own raffle ticket, head to the bathroom to change your tights and emerge looking radiant. Already, you’re thinking about next year’s party – thinking how much fun it would be to go to the Christmas on Ice, wishing you’d known about it back in March...

I don’t know about your place, but in many, the work that the Christmas Party Organiser puts in is rarely recognised. This year, make sure she gets applauded – and if she’s a he, give him a double round, by the way. At Eventznet, we see the massive amount of work that’s done by event organisers, that’s why we developed our automated event management and marketing system. Eventznet makes it easy for your guests to say “yes” to attending your event, and makes it easy for you to manage their responses. Take a look at www.eventznet.ie and see how using Eventznet’s web based software can assist you in your event management. We don’t manage the event, we just provide you with the tools to automate the tedious and time-consuming tasks.

If you’re organising a Christmas party, for the office or anywhere else, and want to e-mail your guests to invite them, keep track of attendees, answer common questions and add a little something extra, why not make an invite site for the party at www.partyplatform.ie? The Party Platform is a free service offered by Eventznet, along with access to the best of party shopping on the net.

Oh, and a veloute? I’m reliably informed it’s a white sauce made with stock instead of milk.