Office shindigs can be fun, you just need the right caterer
When the office needs its halls decked on a budget, many companies call in the professionals to avoid turning the Christmas party into unpaid overtime. With the right caterers, companies can throw an affordable, environmentally friendly Christmas.
Toronto’s Daniel et Daniel takes on extra staff to handle the business boom at Christmas.
Vice-president Russell Day says the economic downturn means offices are looking to keep the annual party low key, but that low cost doesn’t have to mean low fun.
“The best way is to keep it internal. Have an office party and have us come to you,” says Day. Cocktail parties or lunches are popular, featuring easy, affordable menus, “so we can bring the joy to people’s offices.”
The key is to transform the ambience so people don’t just awkwardly lean on the photocopier and wonder when they can leave.
Dim the lights, light a few candles and turn on the holiday music, Day says. Daniel et Daniel will decorate, too, bringing feather trees for offices that prefer to celebrate “the holidays,” rather than Christmas. Decorators can turn the reception desk into a bar, the boardroom into a buffet and even bring in lounge furniture and DJ to really spruce it up.
“All of a sudden, people are dancing on the photocopier,” Day laughs. “It’s not a party until it’s a little rocking.”
In Vancouver, Michael Krauss is changing the idea that Christmas equals wastefulness. One Planet Catering opened its doors in January and is gearing up for its first green Christmas. It focuses on local, organic food and creating a smaller carbon footprint.
“The idea behind our company is no paper, no plastic, no styrofoam,” Krauss says. “It’s more of a state of being that’s important.”
He decided to form his eco-catering company a few years ago when he was working at another Vancouver eatery. A girl sat at the counter opening sugar packets and writing her name in the grains while her mother ignored her.
“I thought, more than 680,000 people died in slavery being shipped from Africa into the Caribbean for the sole purpose of sugar plantation, and 150 years later we seem to have lost all the respect for where the food comes from, how it’s grown. We seem to be taking food for granted,” he says. “I wanted to create something that has more meaning.”
