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How To Plan Your Club’s Christmas Party

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Category: Events

In this article, we will discuss why you should plan a Christmas party for your club or association members, how to throw a great Christmas party, and how the Member Jungle system can help. 

Before we dive in, however, I wanted to say one thing. It’s not super important, but I think we should clear the air. Part of the Member Jungle promise is that we will always be open and honest with you, and part of my promise as the person who writes the articles for Member Jungle is to also be open and honest with you at all times. 

So, with that in mind, I have an admission to make. I don’t like Christmas. It’s not a cultural thing. My family celebrates Christmas; they decorate the house, put on Christmas carols, the whole nine yards. There isn’t some great, mysterious Christmas-based tragedy in my past that caused me to turn away from the holiday in disgust. I had really nice Christmases as a kid; I just don’t like the holiday. The music is horrible, the decorations are gaudy, the mascots are creepy, and the colour scheme is a genuine crime. Red and green, seriously? 

 

fashion police meme

 

But if I ran a club, I would absolutely throw a Christmas party for my members despite my personal distaste for the season. As even I can see the undeniable value of throwing a Christmas party for your members. It's a fantastic opportunity to foster camaraderie, strengthen bonds between members, and create a shared sense of belonging.

So, when I say that throwing a Christmas party is a must for your club, you know I'm being completely objective because I'm not blinded by sentimentality or infected with the dreaded Christmas cheer. 

So, with no further ado, let’s get into it. 

Why You Should Throw A Christmas Party For Your Members 

Christmas is undoubtedly the biggest annual holiday in the Western world and offers a fantastic opportunity to unite your members in a festive and social environment. A Christmas party can significantly enhance your club's sense of community, boost morale, create lasting memories, and foster a stronger sense of belonging among your members. In short, it is a great way to turn club members into something more like friends. 

Think of the Christmas party as an opportunity to pause the usual routine and celebrate the successes of the past year. It's a time for members to connect on a personal level, forge new friendships, and strengthen the bonds that unite them. Whether through a lively Secret Santa gift exchange, a festive sing-along, or simply enjoying good company and delicious food, the party creates shared experiences that enhance the sense of belonging within the club. 

Additionally, many members join clubs to make friends and find companionship. For some, their friendships at the club may be closer than those with their family members. For some, the club's Christmas party will be the biggest and maybe the only Christmas party they have that year. Ensuring that they have this celebration with friends is extremely important and will mean a lot to them.

Here is a little fun fact about that. I'm sure you’re aware of the saying, “Blood is thicker than water,”. Well, the original saying is actually “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,”. This means the complete opposite of how we tend to use it today; it really means that our friendships and the bonds we choose to make are more important than those we were born with. For very many people, getting to celebrate Christmas with their friends will be more important than any other Christmas celebration they attend. 

 

Merry Friendsmas

 

Moreover, a well-organised Christmas party can enhance your club's image and attract new members. It's a chance to showcase your club's culture, values, and community spirit, leaving a positive impression on potential recruits.

So, while the holiday season might be a busy time for everyone, carving out time for a Christmas gathering is an investment in your club's future. That’s why this article was published at the beginning of November, because if you are going to throw a Christmas party this year, you are going to need to get cracking to plan it in time. 

Here's a quick Christmas fun fact for you now. On June 28th 1945, Robert and Edna Christmas saw the birth of their second daughter. What did they name her? Well, Merry, of course. So Merry Christmas went through the first part of her life just being called Merry Christmas, and yes, it was spelled Merry, not Mary.  

Eventually, Merry Christmas got married to Arthur Tarrer, often pronounced terror. Apparently Merry thought it was very funny that her name went from Merry Christmas to Mrs Terror.  

How To Throw A Great Christmas Party For Your Club Members  

There are a lot of great ways to run a Christmas party and a lot of great little tips and tricks you can add to make it the best Christmas party ever. So let’s get into it. 

Choosing A Date

First, pick a date that isn’t too close to Christmas Day. Too close to Christmas and school will be off, people will be taking holidays, going on trips and too busy listening to “How To Make Gravy” to actually attend your event. 

So, you need to pick a date that isn’t too close to Christmas Day itself; probably early December or even late November will work well. Also, give your members as much notice as possible; it’s a busy time of the year, so giving people lots of notice isn’t just polite; it’s a necessity if you want people to be able to make it. 

Organising The Food

Food is one of the most important parts of Christmas; the ham, the turkey, the cranberry sauce, the fresh prawns, and, of course, the Christmas pud.  

 

Organising The Food meme

 

Would it even be Christmas if we didn’t all reach the end of the holiday several kilos heavier and with dangerously high cholesterol levels? So, if you want to make sure that your club’s Christmas party is a great one, you need to ensure there is a good spread of food for everyone who attends. 

One fantastic way to do this is to turn your Christmas party into a potluck. Organise that all attendees are required to bring a dish to share with the rest of the group. Not only will this create a delicious spread with various options to satisfy different tastes and dietary needs, but it will also relieve any single person from the pressure of catering to the entire crowd.

Think about it: If 100 members turn up at your Christmas party, all needing to be fed, that is going to be an absolutely insane amount of time, money, and effort that your club would need to put into catering for them. If each of those 100 people brings even a small dish to the party, there will be enough food for everyone, plus leftovers. 

If you are using the Member Jungle system to run your event, you could use the event-based chat feature to help plan dishes, where everyone can put in which dish they are bringing, so you don’t get 45 pavlovas and one small honeyed ham.  

Set A Venue

Next, choose the perfect setting for your festive gathering. Will you utilise your club's facilities or opt for an external venue? Consider your guest list, budget, and the atmosphere you want to create. If you choose an external venue, remember to book it well in advance to secure your preferred date and avoid disappointment.

It doesn’t need to be anything fancy either; I’ve attended a really great Christmas party that was just a bunch of tables pushed end to end in someone's front yard. 

Organise The Activities & Entertainment  

Any party, especially a Christmas party, needs a few events and activities to keep it fun and lively. This could be something as easy as making sure there is Christmas music playing on a speaker or something as complicated as having a live band playing Christmas covers. 

Look, I realise that I am kind of advocating playing Christmas music for people, but there is Christmas music that isn’t by Maria Carey, Michael Bublé, and long-dead crooners. Plus, there is no rule that the music at a Christmas party actually needs to be Christmas music. As long as you play good music at your Christmas party, people won’t mind if it’s not Christmas-based. Of course, I’m not implying that Christmas music is bad; I would never insinuate that all Christmas music is terrible and hasn’t evolved in 80 years. I would never do that. 

 

secret santa meme

 

One classic activity you can run at your club Christmas party is a Secret Santa. Everyone loves a Secret Santa. Just set a price limit, ensure everyone sticks to it, and then do an exchange during your Christmas party. What is there not to love about a Secret Santa? Surprises, that sweet feeling when you see someone get something they really wanted, and of course, you will also get something awesome. 

Last year, for the Member Jungle Secret Santa, I got an adorable little skull candle holder that, when the candle melts, looks like the skull's brains are melting out of its eyes. 

 

adorable little skull candle holder image

 

Seriously, I’m in love. 

The point is that running a Secret Santa for your club members at your Christmas party is a great idea and is sure to help make it memorable for everyone. To find out more about the best way to run a Secret Santa, check out How To Run The Perfect Secret Santa For Your Club.

How Member Jungle Can Help You Throw The Perfect Christmas Party For Your Club 

The Member Jungle platform offers a range of features that can streamline the process of planning and executing a great club event, and it can do the same trick for a Christmas party. So, let’s have a quick look at it. Also, if you are already a Member Jungle customer, you'll probably already know most of this stuff, but I’m sure there’ll be a couple of good little tips you can take from this section, too. 

Event Creation & Management With Member Jungle

The Member Jungle system allows you to create events online, add in all the details you need, such as locations, time, ticketing, images, etc., and share them with all your members. Your members can register or buy tickets online through your website. You may not charge members to come to the Christmas party, but if you did, the system would handle that, so there’d be no need to take payments in cash or cheques unless you wanted to. 

Organising your event online through Member Jungle lets you track how many attendees you'll have, which helps you plan accordingly. It also enables you to limit the number of participants and set a registration cut-off date. For larger clubs, gathering everyone together might not be feasible, so capping the numbers is often necessary. Regardless of your club's size, it's essential to know the expected attendance in advance, especially for events like Secret Santa. You can't have ten people deciding to join just two days before the event. 

Promote Your Event Easily & Effectively 

With Member Jungle, you can promote your upcoming Christmas party on your website via push notifications to their phones, email campaigns, and SMS messages. You can even use scheduled emails to send out reminders at set intervals to members to remind them to register for the event. Once they do register, they can instead receive different scheduled emails reminding them about the upcoming event and what they need to prepare rather than no longer helpful ones telling them to register for it. 

On The Day Of Your Club’s Christmas Party

On the day of your event, you can use the Member Jungle app to scan in members, making check-in quick and easy. All attendee information will be stored in the system so you can review it later. Plus, you can sell club merchandise in person using the mobile app and take digital payments all through the app and without a POS system, and all that information is stored in the system, too. 

So, after your event, you can hop onto your member jungle system and see a full digital record of who attended, who didn't, what they bought while at your event, and more. You can also use this to send surveys and follow-up emails to your attendees to find out what they liked and didn't like so you can improve the following year's Christmas party.  

What Else Do You Need To Know About Using Member Jungle To Help Plan Your Christmas Party?

Well, that’s about it for this article on planning a Christmas party for your club or association. If you want a more detailed breakdown of how the Member Jungle Events Module works, have a peep at How To Run An Event With Member Jungle - A Guide.

I truly hope all this helps and that you throw an incredible Christmas party for all of your members. 

As for me, I’m writing this before the true king of holidays, Halloween, so I’m going to go purge Christmas from my mind by blasting Misfits and watching horror movies.

 

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