’Tis the season for corporate workers to log off Slack, don a fancy sweater, and spend an evening awkwardly mingling with colleagues (and their partners!) while noshing on canapés and downing themed cocktails.
While company holiday soirees were temporarily killed by Covid, they’ve been ramping up and were fully resurrected this year, albeit with post-pandemic adjustments, according to local party planners, caterers, and performers.
“We saw an increase in guest size and also number of events within a very tight two weeks of December,” said David Zlatchin, CEO of Betty Zlatchin Catering and Events. The company even had to turn away prospective customers: “We had multiple clients calling us to see if we were available, when we had actually been booked out for this block of time since the beginning of October.”
It’s been a welcome return from the pandemic’s event evaporation, when Betty Zlatchin started working with the city and nonprofits to provide meals to low-income, homeless, and senior residents to stay afloat. It also cobbled together virtual cooking classes for corporate clients.
“We completely pivoted to keep our staff employed,” Zlatchin said.
For this year’s holiday season, the firm worked a mix of small shindigs and massive blowouts at lavish venues like The Pearl, The Regency Ballroom, the Asian Art Museum, and City Hall. The most elaborate bash catered to about 1,500 people at the de Young Museum for a masquerade ball complete with aerialists, palm readers, and servers strutting around in champagne skirts.
Budgets increased from last year, too — these days, the company’s clients paid around $350 to $500 per person, including Michelin-level food stations and specialty cocktails. “The demand for our company and services is higher than ever,” Zlatchin said.
City Hall went from hosting five company parties last December to eight this year. Themes included “neon fireworks, speakeasy, masquerade, gilded winter, snowy wonderland, and a Renaissance Faire-esque ball,” according to Angela Yip of the city administrator’s office.
Companies hired stilt walkers, acoustic ensembles, large bands, magicians, and caricaturists to entertain their employees, she added.
The Hibernia — the historic bank turned events venue — also saw a bump in corporate holiday spending this December, reeling in nearly 55% more in booking revenue than it did in 2023, an increase of $130,000.
“It felt like people were able to let it rip a little bit more,” said Terry Lim, chief revenue officer at the 132-year-old venue. In addition to booking fees, clients splashed out on high-end food and drinks. One firm even carted in arcade games.
“It was a very good holiday season,” agreed magician Kevin Blake, who pauses his regular show at the Palace Theater for corporate gigs in December. His appearances this year ranged from strolling through parties for several hundred employees, doing close-up tricks, to performing for 25 at a startup that had just locked in fresh funding.
The biggest splurge he saw was a firm that raffled off 30 big-ticket items, including a flatscreen TV, a Playstation 5, and Bose headphones. “To see the absolute shock and joy on their faces, you could tell they didn’t expect to walk home holding a humongous box,” Blake said of the employees.
Even as parties made their return, one remnant of the pandemic remains: virtual events. Blake got hired for about 20 online shows this year, as remote-only teams have continued to try to find ways to celebrate.
Work-from-home routines have affected celebrations in other ways, too, according to Marissa D’Orazio, founder of Arrow Events.
“The trend has definitely been to catch folks when they’re already in office,” she said. It used to be that employees would take off the afternoon of their holiday party to go home, change, and grab their plus-one. Now her corporate clients are more likely to start their parties at 4 p.m. on a mandatory in-office day.
Another trend she has noticed: less booze. “I don’t think it’s budget-related; I think it’s HR related,” said Arrow event manager Kristin Chantry, who has seen an increase in mocktails and alcohol-free beer. “It’s also a societal change, too, where a lot of people are just not drinking as much.”
While Arrow had a full slate of holiday parties this year, D’Orazio doesn’t believe they’ll ever be as wild and extravagant as they were in the late 2010s. After several years of brutal layoffs in the tech industry, some companies are more conservative and less likely to put down a deposit early. (And maybe for good reason: One of The Hibernia’s corporate clients announced a round of layoffs shortly before its party, which created a funereal atmosphere at the event.)
To that end, Zlatchin’s biggest customers this year were in accounting, law, healthcare, and venture capital, as opposed to tech, and clients focused on creating special experiences for employees without being too ostentatious.
Everything just costs more this year, thanks to inflation, he added. “We’re still doing kilos of caviar,” he said. “That hasn’t changed — it’s just gotten more expensive.”