Festive Frolicking
#6 Party Principles
1. Don’t Be Staff.
While my CV is eclectic, by normal, sane human’s standards – the running theme has been standing-in-front-of-people-teaching-them-stuff.
One thing kind of morphed into the next; I kept some of them, and discarded others.
All of it was useful, and every now and then I find I have the perfect random skill to bust out at an opportune moment.
I was once ‘The Party Professor’, and in the few years I was a Party Entertainer I delivered almost 700 parties.
Ergo… I know a good party game when I see one
(which is what I want to talk about next time).
Just as importantly, even though I haven’t technically delivered parties for a couple of decades, I use party principles in almost everything I do.
(I hope, anyway)
Gather people together to have a nice time – and it’s a party.
Your Christmas Day is a party.
I remember mums of children’s parties or hosts of adults’ parties
(not ‘adult’ parties – for clarity),
obsessing over the food, party bags, and invitations.
These things are spectacularly unimportant.
Unless you are Heston Blumenthal, it’s raw or you burn it, people really won’t remember the food you cook on Christmas Day – that much.
You might spend a week on its planning, days on its preparation, and a whole day on the cooking.
I have done this myself.
(note: I totally get this. I am ‘extra’ by nature when it comes to food, I cook too much, make it too fancy, and overcomplicate things. If I’ve cooked you food, you know this – I try not to, probably childhood issues, but here we are.)
But when it’s a party (like your Christmas party), it really just has to be good enough.
As Delia Smith wrote a book about How to Cheat at Cooking, that’s by royal decree.
If you can buy it pre-prepared – do it.
If Aunt Bessie wants to part-cook and freeze perfect roast potatoes for us, ready to pop in the oven – who are we to argue?
There are great desserts you can buy
(add up the ingredients cost for making things yourself, with fuel, etc.. there won’t be much in it).
You’ve got enough to do.
There are no extra points for staying in the kitchen all day, and in fact, if you do that – I am going to deduct some.
Even if you love cooking, and you want to macerate, roulade, Wellington, julienne and chiffonade things, aim to chip away and get as much of that done in advance as possible.
Imagine you got a party planner like previous-me in, to run a party for you, you’d have:
- Caterers,
- Someone to decorate the place,
- Someone to entertain
- Someone to top drinks up
And you’d be there in the centre of things, able to enjoy it.
Tough Love:
If you are spending most of the day in a room separate from where everyone else is.
You’re not the host.
You’re staff.
When I delivered a children’s birthday party, my focus wasn’t just on the children.
Children are basically predisposed to having a laugh.
It was just as much about the parent(s).
If the parents tried to move chairs, pour drinks, wrap cake, etc, I would gently bat those things out of their hands and escort them back to the fun.
“They will only be 6 years old once, come and join the fun”.
You will never see a more delighted child than one whose dad is doing a roly-poly, jumping on a parachute or dancing to the Spice Girls.
Or whose mum has a pair of bloomers on her head, winning the sack race.
That’s what everyone remembers.
The shrieks of laughter are the lasting memories.
And the feedback consistently was:
“I didn’t expect to have such a great time too, I can’t thank you enough”.
This principle goes for your Christmas ‘party’ too.
I appreciate that unless you are a Kardashian or a Bezos – you probably won’t have an events team running the day for you.
I’ve touched on it before in these Christmas musings, but I urge you to share the workload.
The Aunt Bessies, M&S etc – even if it’s just for some of the food – is essentially getting catering help.
Put a child on dishwasher duty for the whole day, another on wrapping paper duty, a family member on topping up drinks, another clearing plates away.
Whoever you have joining you – give each of them a clear and concise role.
Do it now, so there is no misunderstanding.
Once I asked for a ‘just before/after Christmas Day cleaner’ as a present – mundane as it sounds, the reality felt like a Christmas miracle.
If I’ve mentioned before, if you can get someone to bring the sprouts, another to bring the spuds, another on pud, another on games etc – you will buy back hours.
Trust me – people want to do this.
They feel included, involved and that they are contributing.
It’s not cheeky or lazy, it just makes everything better.
Your job on the day is HOST.
(Like Ken’s is Beach)
You bring all the components together like a glorious ringmaster, spending as little actual time away from the people you love as possible.
Aside from not ending the day utterly exhausted and potentially seething about being unappreciated, you get to be present with the people who want to spend Christmas with you.
Action
Take 5 minutes to list ALL of your Christmas Day jobs
(right down to taking the recycling out).
Who can you allocate that task to, now?
Then let them know.