KEY POINTS:
The Grinch has got his paws on the staff Christmas party.
Lavish venues are out and workplace parties are back in, as companies react to the economic gloom by snipping at party budgets.
Party planners say many of us will usher in the festive season sipping drinks around the water cooler. Others will be at a scaled-down version of last year's big corporate bash. And others will get no party at all, after their bosses pulled out of planned functions.
Total Events owner Malcolm Jordan said people were moving from having big functions in glitzy venues to office parties. Some were spending as little as a quarter of last year's budget.
He did not want to say which of his clients had canned their Christmas parties, but he said a lot of people who had private functions last year were "just having drinks at the office".
Baxters catering owner Hamish Murphy said companies which had pre-booked parties were calling to cancel after they decided they could no longer afford the bill. And, with food prices rising, even some large companies were giving staff main meals but no desserts. "Everybody's looking at the price of everything," he said.
Other companies were cutting costs by combining two or more parties. Mr Jordan said rolling staff parties into client functions was becoming popular because it helped to justify the cost as marketing.
According to party planner Stu Robertson, some companies were also blending corporate and family parties.
NZ Events director Tony Grist - who has sold 2000 tickets for six pre-planned Christmas parties this year - said more companies were opting for pre-planned events. Some companies had bought 50 tickets to a themed dinner with other companies' staff, rather than paying for a private function.
Not all companies were scrimping on party costs. Vodafone - which is known for its corporate festivities after a risque Christmas bash involving topless Thai strippers, 200 extras and a live elephant in 2000 - hired Vector Arena and "a couple of bands" for a joint Christmas party and 10th birthday celebration two weeks ago.
Yellow Pages Group cancelled its separate staff party but invited staff to a 12,000-guest party at Vector Arena on December 11. CEO Dudley Enoka said Yellow had splashed out some of its marketing budget for a Kiwi music extravaganza including acts such as Dave Dobbyn, Supergroove, Hello Sailor and Opshop.
Mr Robertson said some clients had surprised him by spending more on Christmas parties than they did last year.
But Mr Jordan said that while many parties would go ahead as normal, some that were planned in the middle of the year were "just falling over".
Mr Robertson said the trend was towards "value for money" events with themes that were easy to dress up for. Pirates, Sex in the City and James Bond were popular.
