Holiday Party Entertainment Ideas Your Office Will Actually Talk About

Every December, the same question lands on someone's desk: what do we do at the holiday party this year? A DJ nobody dances to? Trivia? Another photo booth with the same boa and plastic sunglasses? If you're planning a company holiday party in Dallas–Fort Worth and you want something people will still be talking about in January, here's an honest rundown.

What holiday party entertainment has to do

An office party has a job that a wedding doesn't: get people who sit in different departments to actually talk to each other. The best entertainment at a holiday party is something people do together, something that makes a line, a laugh and a story. The worst is anything people can watch from their seat and ignore.

Ideas that work (and what each one costs you in attention)

• A live sketch artist. Guests take turns posing while an artist draws them in charcoal in about three minutes. Everyone takes home an original. The line becomes the party: people watch, heckle, and wait their turn together. This is what we do, and yes, it's a sketch of your rear view, fully clothed. It's the cheekiest thing at the party and somehow the classiest.
• A photo booth. Reliable, but by now everyone has done it. The strip ends up in a drawer.
• Casino tables. Great for a big budget and a big room; less so if half the office doesn't gamble.
• Karaoke. Loved by six people, feared by sixty.
• A caricature artist. Close cousin to what we do, but the joke is on the guest's face. Ours is on their back pocket, which is why it works in front of the CEO.

How a sketch artist fits a holiday party

One artist draws about 20 guests an hour. For a 150-person party over three hours, two or three artists keep the line moving and give everyone a turn. The artists bring their own easels and paper and set up wherever the room has light and a little space. Companies often have their logo printed on the sketch paper, so every drawing that goes home on the fridge says who threw the party.

The sketches are of guests from behind, fully clothed, and never at anyone's expense. That's the whole secret: it's funny, and nobody gets embarrassed. We've drawn at corporate parties since 1987 and the HR department has never once asked us to stop.

When to book

December dates go first, and the second and third Fridays of December go before that. If your party is in December, book in October or November. If you're reading this in December, call anyway: we'll check who's free.

Ready to plan? Send us the date, the venue and a rough head count through the booking form, and we'll reply within one business day with a quote.