Christmas Party Packages That Do More Than Entertain

Here is a slightly radical idea: your Christmas party entertainment should pull its weight.

If you are the EA, People and Culture leader or workplace organiser holding the whole event together, you do not need an activity that arrives, fills 60 minutes and leaves you with exactly the same to-do list.

You need one decision to knock over four or five others.

The right Christmas Party Package does not just sit somewhere in the middle of the celebration. It gives the whole event its shape.

It can entertain the team while moving everyone towards the venue where the party will finish. It can create genuine team bonding and workplace outcomes without making the day feel like training. It can build CSR into the celebration, rescue those awkward gaps between courses or turn the meal itself into the main event.

Now your entertainment is earning its place on the run sheet.

Choose the right experience and suddenly you are not trying to assemble a Christmas party from a pile of disconnected pieces. You have the energy, the flow and the reason for bringing everyone together.

More importantly, you have a much shorter list.

Here are four Christmas Party Packages designed to take care of more than the fun.

Hunt for Santa’s Sleigh: Turn the Journey Into the Party

Getting everyone from the office to an activity and then to the final venue can create three separate decisions before you have even sorted the entertainment.

Hunt for Santa’s Sleigh gives you another option: make the journey part of the celebration.

Santa’s sleigh has gone missing, Christmas is in danger and your team has been recruited as the elves responsible for saving it.

Teams receive Christmas packs containing maps, clues and costumes before setting out through the selected area. Along the way, they tackle festive, recreational and problem-solving challenges, with every completed task revealing another clue to the missing sleigh.

It is playful and competitive, but there is plenty happening beneath the Christmas storyline.

Teams need to plan their route, manage their time, share responsibilities, communicate under pressure and decide when to move quickly and when to stop and think.

The finish point can be placed near the restaurant, hotel, bar or function venue where the rest of the celebration will take place. Instead of booking separate transport between an activity and the final venue, your team can make its way there as part of the experience.

Decisions you can cross off

• Entertainment: The festive hunt becomes the main event.

• Team bonding: Teams work through clues, challenges and plenty of friendly competition together.

• A means of transport: The route can move everyone from the starting point towards the finish-line venue.

• Workplace outcomes: Planning, communication, time management and problem-solving are built into the program.

• Festive energy: Costumes, clues and the Christmas storyline make it feel like an end-of-year celebration from the beginning.

What will you still need?

• A finish-line venue: We can recommend venues in your area that work well with your team size and put you in touch with suppliers we love.

• Food and drinks: Choose the lunch, dinner or drinks package that suits your team and budget.

• Invitations: We can create these for you, ready to send to the team.

If the brief sounds something like, “We want people out of the office, moving, laughing and doing something together before lunch or dinner,” this is the package to shortlist.

Explore Hunt for Santa’s Sleigh.

Santa for a Day: Add CSR Without Losing the Celebration

You want the Christmas party to feel fun, but you would also love it to achieve something meaningful.

Now you are trying to plan the entertainment, team bonding and CSR component as three different parts of the event.

Santa for a Day brings them together.

Teams are given a Christmas wish list, a limited budget and one important mission: fill their Santa Sack with gifts that will make a genuine difference at Christmas.

The challenge is not as simple as heading to the shops and filling a trolley.

Teams need to stretch their budget, manage their time and agree on how they will tackle the wish list. Along the way, challenges give them opportunities to earn additional funds, bonus toys and other items that could make the difference to their final result.

There is strategy, creativity, movement, competition and plenty of festive fun. Then comes the moment that changes the meaning of the whole experience.

When the teams return and their full Santa Sacks are brought together, the gifts are presented to a local charity for distribution to those who need them.

The CSR element is not added through a donation link after the party. It is part of what everyone has been working towards together.

Already taken care of

• Festive entertainment: The shopping mission and challenges keep the experience fun and fast-moving.

• A shared bonding experience: Teams make decisions, manage their budget and complete the mission together.

• Movement between locations: The program can take the team from the starting point to nearby retailers and back towards the final venue.

• Valuable team outcomes: Creativity, communication, leadership and time management all come into play.

• Your CSR component: The gifts collected create a real community contribution and a meaningful finish to the experience.

The shorter list that remains

• Somewhere to continue celebrating: We can suggest nearby venues and introduce you to suppliers we trust.

• Lunch, dinner or drinks: Select the format that best fits your timing, culture and available budget.

• The invitation: We can create it for you, so you can send it straight to the team.

This is ideal for organisations that want their end-of-year celebration to reflect their values without losing the laughter, competition and festive energy people want from a Christmas party.

For more ideas on bringing purpose into the event, read our guide to turning a Christmas party into a charity experience that leaves a legacy.

Explore Santa for a Day.

Win It in a Christmas Minute: Fill the Gaps With Laughter

The venue is booked. The food is sorted. There may be speeches, awards and a few drinks.

But what is actually going to happen between all those things?

Without something to bring the room together, a Christmas lunch or dinner can quickly divide into separate table conversations. The food arrives, the speeches happen and half the room starts wondering when it is acceptable to leave.

Win It in a Christmas Minute is made for those gaps.

Teams compete in a series of hilarious Christmas-themed challenges, each lasting just 60 seconds. They work together to earn as many candy canes as possible before the Christmas champions are crowned.

The challenges are quick, simple to understand and surprisingly easy to become invested in.

One minute someone is feeling completely confident. The next, they are trying to complete a deceptively difficult festive task while everyone at their table shouts conflicting instructions.

Because each challenge is short, the program can be woven throughout lunch or dinner. It can lift the energy after guests arrive, create a burst of laughter between courses, bring everyone back together after speeches or give the function a competitive finish.

What you can stop worrying about

• The entertainment: A complete series of festive challenges is ready to bring the room to life.

• Those awkward gaps: The games can sit between drinks, courses, speeches and awards.

• Getting people involved: Each table has something to work towards and plenty to cheer about.

• Creating team interaction: Quick thinking, delegation, communication and collaboration happen naturally.

• Keeping the energy up: Short challenges prevent the event from falling flat without taking over the whole celebration.

To complete the party

• Book the venue and meal: We can recommend local venues that suit your group size and introduce you to suppliers we love.

• Confirm the running order: Tell us when the food, speeches and awards are happening, and we can shape the program around them.

• Send the invitations: We can create these for you, ready to go.

This is the right choice when you do not need another destination or a major standalone activity. You need something that can bring the whole room together while still allowing the lunch or dinner to remain the centre of the celebration.

Explore Win It in a Christmas Minute.

Christmas Dinner: Make the Meal Part of the Experience

Food is already one of the biggest decisions on your Christmas party list.

Christmas Dinner turns it into the entertainment as well.

Rather than completing an activity and then sitting down for a separate meal, the team works together to create the Christmas feast it will share.

People naturally talk while they prepare food. They divide responsibilities, make decisions, solve small problems and discover who reads the recipe, who takes charge and who believes every dish can be improved through improvisation.

The meal gives the experience a natural finish. Once the preparation and friendly competition are over, everyone sits down to enjoy what they created together.

There is no awkward point where the team-building activity ends and the Christmas party is supposed to begin. The whole experience builds towards the shared table.

Handled through one choice

• The main entertainment: Preparing the Christmas feast becomes the activity.

• The team-bonding experience: People cook, create and solve problems together.

• Workplace outcomes: Collaboration, communication, creativity and delegation are all part of the process.

• The meal: The experience finishes with everyone sharing the food they prepared.

• A natural event flow: Preparing, presenting and eating the meal gives the celebration its beginning, middle and end.

The finishing touches

• A suitable cooking venue: We can recommend options in your area and connect you with suppliers we trust.

• Drinks: Choose the package or arrangement that best suits your team.

• Invitations: We can create these for you, leaving one less job on your list.

The venue matters for this package because the preparation, cooking and dining areas need to work together. A professional kitchen, cookery school, hotel cooking space or suitable outdoor setup may all be options depending on the group and location.

Our guide to choosing a Christmas party venue that helps your team connect can help you look beyond capacity and the drinks package.

If the brief is, “We want everyone doing something together, but we also want it to feel relaxed and centred around good food,” Christmas Dinner brings those decisions together.

Compare the Four Christmas Party Packages

The simplest way to choose is to look at which decisions are currently taking up the most space in your head.

Package	What it covers	Best for	What remains
Hunt for Santa’s Sleigh	Entertainment, bonding, transport and team outcomes	Teams wanting an active festive adventure	Finish-line venue, food and drinks
Santa for a Day	Entertainment, bonding, movement, team outcomes and CSR	Organisations wanting a meaningful celebration	Final venue, food and drinks
Win It in a Christmas Minute	Entertainment, event flow and team interaction	Teams with a venue and meal already planned	Venue, meal and running order
Christmas Dinner	Entertainment, bonding, team outcomes and the meal	Teams wanting a social, food-focused experience	Cooking venue and drinks

If two options still look right, go back to the experience you want people to have.

Do you want them exploring together? Giving back? Competing over lunch? Or creating something they can share?

That answer will usually make the shortlist much clearer.

For more inspiration, explore our broader collection of corporate Christmas party ideas and Christmas team-building activities.

Need Help Finding the Right Venue or Suppliers?

Once the main experience is selected, finding the venue becomes much easier because you know what the space needs to do.

Hunt for Santa’s Sleigh needs a walkable area and a finish point close to the final clue.

Santa for a Day works best with nearby retailers and somewhere for teams to return with their Santa Sacks.

Win It in a Christmas Minute needs a room where everyone can see and hear the facilitator while enjoying the meal.

Christmas Dinner needs cooking, preparation and dining spaces that work together.

Corporate Challenge Events can recommend venues in your area that suit the selected program and your team size. We can also put you in touch with suppliers we love, giving you a much stronger starting point than another open-ended Google search.

For destination-style events, it can help to consider how the setting and accommodation contribute to the celebration. This example of a self-contained Huon River estate shows how the location itself can shape the experience.

If you still need dedicated transport, particularly for a Sydney event, this collection of staff Christmas party and transport ideas provides some additional planning considerations.

Christmas Party Package FAQs

Can Corporate Challenge Events help with the invitations?

Yes. Once the program and event details are confirmed, we can create the invitation for you, ready to send to the team.

That is one more decision and one more job off the list.

Can you recommend a venue?

Yes. We can recommend venues in your area that work well with the selected program and your team size, then put you in touch with the supplier directly.

How early should we book?

As early as possible if you want a peak Thursday or Friday in December.

Popular dates and venues fill quickly. Booking earlier gives you more freedom to choose the program that suits the team rather than settling for whichever option still fits the remaining date.

If time has already escaped you, our last-minute Christmas party planning guide will help you focus on the decisions that matter most.

Which package is best for a large team?

Hunt for Santa’s Sleigh, Santa for a Day and Win It in a Christmas Minute can all be adapted for large corporate groups.

The better question is how you want the group to interact.

Do you want smaller teams moving through an area? A shared CSR mission? Or table-based challenges that bring a large function room together?

Can the programs support workplace outcomes?

Yes. The Christmas theme keeps the experience light and festive, but each program can still support outcomes such as communication, planning, collaboration, delegation, time management and problem-solving.

The outcomes can be discussed when planning the event so they are reflected in the experience without making the Christmas party feel like a training workshop.

What should we budget for?

The final budget will depend on the selected program, group size, location, venue, food, drinks, transport and any extras you choose.

Start by deciding what matters most to the team, then build the budget around that priority. Our Christmas party budget guide will help you work through the main cost categories.

Workplace Christmas events may also have fringe benefits tax implications depending on their cost, location and attendees. The Australian Taxation Office provides guidance on common entertainment-related fringe benefits scenarios. Your finance team or accountant can advise how the rules apply to your event.

Can dietary and accessibility requirements be accommodated?

They should be raised at the beginning of the planning process.

Accessibility requirements may influence the route, venue and challenge selection. Dietary requirements will need to be confirmed with the selected venue or supplier, particularly for Christmas Dinner or any package followed by a meal.

You Do Not Need to Have It All Worked Out

You do not need to arrive with the perfect venue, a finished run sheet and every Christmas party detail neatly tied in a bow.

That is what our Trusted Play Process is for.

It is the 10-step process we have refined over more than 30 years to make planning your team experience feel clear, supported and, dare we say it, the highlight of the year.

It begins with a short 20-minute conversation. Tell us what you already know, even if that is only your approximate group size, preferred dates and the kind of experience you want people to have.

From there, we will help you:

• choose the Christmas experience that best suits your team

• shape it around your timing, location and workplace outcomes

• recommend suitable venues and suppliers in your area

• create the invitation, ready for you to send

• prepare your pre-event toolkit and confirm the important details

• meet the facilitator who will be looking after your team on the day

When the event arrives, you are not introducing yourself to a stranger and hoping they understand the brief. Your facilitator already knows your team, what you want the experience to achieve and how the celebration needs to flow.

Afterwards, we will share the connection wins and team moments we noticed, along with ongoing access to resources that help you build on the experience.

You do not need another Christmas party supplier who adds more questions to your inbox.

You need a Play Specialist who can help you answer them.

Send us your estimated group size, location and preferred date, and we will take it from there.

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Corporate Challenge Events designs and delivers Christmas Party Packages that turn a complicated end-of-year booking into one clear, workable plan. If the goal is to sort the celebration without juggling five suppliers, visit Corporate Challenge Events and choose the package that fits the team’s style, timing and budget.