Party Madness, Corporate Style : Holiday Bashes: Renting a hotel ballroom and passing the peanuts and punch are out. Now many firms fete employees and clients in fantasy settings with lavish food and entertainment.
If you are planning the company Christmas party, forget the fruit punch and cookies.
Instead, why not hire masseurs to rub the guests the right way? Or how about renting snow machines to blow 20 tons of snow around the entrance to your bash? What about inviting your guests to party in a Russian village constructed on a San Francisco sound stage?
In recent years, company holiday parties have gone into orbit with all of the above. This year, caterers and party planners are competing to top each other’s food fantasies and party settings. One of the first holiday parties in Beverly Hills featured a full-scale carousel set up next to a 30-foot Christmas tree on a tennis court.
“People are trying to move out of the hotels into more interesting, innovative party venues,” said Mary Micucci, owner of the Along Came Mary catering and party planning company in Los Angeles.
Micucci, who is throwing 50 parties for clients this holiday season, has turned the Santa Monica Pier carousel into a Nutcracker Suite and the London Club near Beverly Center into a Dickensian Christmas fantasy. She has rented Hancock Park mansions for traditional Christmas gatherings and is booking an airplane hangar for a party early next year.
To entertain her demanding clients, Micucci has hired fortune tellers and English serving wenches. One year at the Wiltern Theatre’s Christmas party, she found a Santa Claus with a lap big enough for grown-ups to sit in while they had their pictures taken.
“The Christmas party has become a very personal representation of what the company is all about,” said Micucci. “It also allows people to give generously of themselves.”
Companies of all sizes pay dearly for these extravaganzas. A party for 1,000 guests can cost $100,000 or more, according to Micucci and other party planners. Renting a mansion for an event can run $4,000 to $5,000. The food, paper goods, decorations and servers cost thousands of dollars more.
Party planners say they spend hours with their clients before a single table is set. Then, once the party is under way, they must attend to every detail from setup to cleanup.
“We try to find out who is going to be there, what’s the company’s goal for the party and what kind of an impression they want to make on their clients,” said Jane St. Claire, with An Entertaining Company in San Rafael, Calif. “Our clients want every single aspect, from the color of the cocktail napkins to everything on the menu, to reflect the right image.”
This year, An Entertaining Company is transforming a massive movie sound stage in San Francisco into a Russian village for six company Christmas parties. “We are spending thousands of dollars to create a spectacular setting,” said St. Claire.
Kristen McCormick, owner of the firm, also arranged for Citicorp to host a sit-down dinner in the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Griffith Park.
For one evening in mid-December, the museum’s mural room will be the backdrop for an elegant, Southwest-flavored black-tie affair for about 120 Citicorp executives and their associates. Waiters in tuxedos will serve marinated scallops, fresh corn soup, beef tenderloin and apple raisin spice cake from Texas, according to Roberta Deen, owner of The City Catering.
Deen, a veteran Los Angeles caterer, is also planning an elegant Rose Bowl brunch for executives of a local bank and their clients. That bash will take place Jan. 1 in a huge tent outside the stadium in Pasadena.
“This company can really show off at these brunches,” said Deen. “Last year, they served white chocolate baby grand pianos for dessert.”
Gilda Marx Industries, which makes exercise and body wear, is hosting a yacht party for employees and clients this year. Guests will board a ship in Marina del Rey to dine on pasta salad, fresh vegetables, exotic fruits and frozen yogurt. In keeping with the company’s fitness philosophy, each dish will be marked with the calories per serving and the exercise time required to burn them off, according to a spokeswoman.
Not every firm is going to sea or building a set this Christmas.
The Los Angeles-based law firm of LaFollette, Johnson, De Haas & Fesler is renting trendy Citrus restaurant on Melrose Avenue for its client Christmas party. The firm’s 16 partners have invited about 400 clients, judges and associates to mix and mingle at its annual holiday cocktail party.
“The party has gotten too big for the office,” said Sandy Mason, the firm’s office manager. “A Christmas party is a way to thank the clients for their support all year,” said Mason, who began planning the event in July. “It’s also an excellent opportunity for people to meet each other and put the faces and names together.”
Many companies still prefer to host a party at the office. Paramount Studios is preparing for its annual Christmas tree lighting party on the studio’s back lot. About 3,000 people will gather after work one night in December to watch Paramount Chairman and Chief Executive Frank Mancuso light up a giant tree, according to a studio spokeswoman.
Warner Bros. Records’ 400 employees are also partying in the office this year. The company plans a festive rock ‘n’ roll Christmas party, complete with dancing, disc jockeys and a jukebox.
“Morale is the No.1 reason for a Christmas party,” said Jeannie Lumley, head of human resources for Warner Bros. Records. “You try to give people a thank you, whatever your budget is.”
Lumley is responsible for all of Warner’s parties. She once put together a party for Madonna; 500 people were invited, but 1,000 showed up.
And she’ll never forget the birthday beach party for the chairman’s wife. At that event, guests nibbled on caviar served in sea shells under palm trees planted in the sand.
