Everyone’s second favourite holiday of the year is frighteningly close. The last batch of pumpkins are screaming out to be carved up, the final pack of fake blood on the local supermarket shelf is more than ready to be splattered all over last year’s work shirt, and yet, you still haven’t started organising the Halloween office party…
Time is running out. But, if you’re afraid you won’t have enough time to organise your party, you can stop having nightmares because we have you covered. See below for how to survive and organise your last minute office Halloween party!
Step 1: Spread the Word
If you start off sourcing supplies and planning where to buy what you need for the party, you’ll have less time getting the word out to the people you want to turn up. And, if no one turns up, there was no point in planning the party in the first place.
Get a ‘save the date’ calendar event out immediately so people can stick the date in their diaries.
Step 2: Schedule Your Schedule
Let’s face it, you’re probably a very busy person and even thinking about planning an office party wastes time that you should be using on the things you already have scheduled to get done.
You need to schedule WHEN you’re going to plan the party. Find an open slot in your calendar and allocate one hour to sit down and get it done.
Step 3: Power Hour
A ‘Power Hour’ is a practice used for getting tasks that you may normally struggle to find time for, done in one hit.
In this case, you need to spend half of that hour:
- Listing how you want the office to look and which type of activities (if any) you want to happen (20 minutes)
- Listing the materials you need for decorations (5 minutes)
- Listing what items you need for activities (5 minutes)
The other half of the power hour can be used to order everything you need. To help, please see the next step:
Step 4: Get Creative and Collaborate
You don’t need Helen from Accounts or Marco from the Marketing team to order Frankenstein masks for you but you can use their help with other things. And, you certainly don’t need to rush out of the office at 7pm to do a last minute witch hunt for pumpkins.
Get creative with your decorations by customising easy to buy items into a Halloween theme: (maybe Helen and Marco can help with the customising!)
- Can’t find any pumpkins?
Buy orange balloons to draw pumpkin faces on or green balloons to draw Frankenstein / monster faces on with a sharpie - Haven’t got a budget for beer and wine?
Make a big Halloween punch with easy to find drinks from the local supermarket - Haven’t got time to buy food?
Ask everyone to bring in one food item and have a Halloween themed potluck lunch - Haven’t had a chance to make a playlist?
There will be plenty of Halloween playlists on Spotify, copy one of these into a collaborative playlist and share it out to the team for them to add their own
Think about how you can achieve what you wanted from step 3 by using materials you already have in the office or items that are always in stock in the supermarket. Use the help from your team in a way that makes them feel part of the event, rather than just asking them to do the work for you.
Step 5: Get Involved!
If you don’t get excited, then your team won’t get excited. Send reminders to the team and encourage everyone to dress up (including you!). Making people plan ahead with their costume is the easiest and quickest way to get people excited.
While some employers may not think a party in the office is important for the occasion, it is to their employees.
A themed office party gives your team the opportunity to relax and socialise with their coworkers and colleagues from other departments that they may not regularly interact with. The event can help new hires feel part of the team, and to make no bones about it: an office party can help with building morale and teamwork across the entire office. Who doesn’t want a team howling with happiness?
