Office Christmas Party Entertainment That Isn't a Quiz

Why the quiz dies after round three

Every office Christmas party has been to the well of the Christmas quiz, and by round three, half the room is on their phone and the other half is at the bar. It's not that quizzes are a bad idea — it's that they only work as one small part of the evening, not the whole entertainment budget. If you're organising this year's corporate Christmas party, the brief is usually the same: something the whole company will actually use, that doesn't need constant management on the night, and that doesn't blow the budget on a single hour of fun.

The organiser also usually has a second, unspoken brief: whatever gets chosen needs to run itself. Nobody wants to be the person hosting a game from the front of the room at 9pm when they'd rather be enjoying the party too. Entertainment that guests can use on their own terms, whenever they fancy it, solves that problem without anyone having to MC the evening. If you're weighing up the office do against a smaller team celebration, our wider Christmas party options cover both.

Entertainment people queue for

The entertainment that consistently works at office parties is the kind people queue for voluntarily. A branded photo booth with your company logo on every print does two jobs at once — it's the entertainment, and it's a genuinely usable bit of marketing that ends up pinned to desks and shared in the group chat come January. From £179 for weekday daytime hire, it's also one of the easier lines to justify on a budget.

A magic mirror pushes the "wow factor" further with animated overlays and festive effects on top of branded prints, from £289 in December. It's a good fit for parties where you want one clear focal point in the room that different departments naturally gravitate towards — which, for a lot of companies, is the entire point of the night: getting people who don't normally talk to each other, talking.

Both options come with a dedicated attendant on the night, so there's nothing for the organiser to manage beyond pointing people in the right direction. Unlimited visits and unlimited prints are included as standard, which matters at an office party where guest numbers can swing later than expected.

The logistics your venue will ask about

Whoever's organising the party will almost always get asked for the same details by the venue or the events team, so it's worth having them ready. Our equipment needs a minimum of 8ft by 8ft of floor space for a booth, or around 10ft by 8ft for a magic mirror, plus a standard 13A power socket within 10 metres of the setup area. We carry full Public Liability Insurance and all equipment is PAT tested, and we can send certificates, risk assessments and method statements in advance — most hotels and function rooms want these on file before the day.

It's worth sharing these figures with your venue or events coordinator as soon as you've picked a date, so they can confirm the room layout and power supply before the day rather than discovering a clash on arrival. We've worked with hotels, function rooms and members' clubs across the North West and are used to liaising directly with venue teams if that's easier for you.

Invoices and POs

For business bookings, we offer 30-day invoice payment and can issue a formal quotation, purchase order and VAT invoice, working directly with a procurement team where needed. That means the person organising the party doesn't need to pay out of pocket or wait on a card payment to be approved — the finance side runs on the same terms as any other supplier.

Book the date first

December only has a handful of Thursdays and Fridays before Christmas, and those are the dates most companies want. Most of them are booked by the end of October, so the safest approach is to lock the date with a deposit as soon as it's confirmed internally, and sort the finer details — branding, guest numbers, exact timings — afterwards. The balance isn't due until two weeks before the event, so there's no pressure to have everything signed off on day one.

If your date is a weekday, you're also in the best pricing bracket — booth hire from £179 is only available for weekday daytime slots, so an office party that runs over lunch or straight after work on a Tuesday or Wednesday tends to be the best value option on the calendar.

See full details, pricing and FAQs for corporate Christmas parties, or browse our wider Christmas party options if you're also planning something smaller alongside the main office do. We cover Lancashire and the North West, working with companies including Grant Thornton, Novuna and Quinn — who've booked us three years running.