The festive season is all about indulgence especially when it comes to food and drink. So choosing how to cater for your office party is very important.

From small to large groups you’re often faced with varying tastes, likes and dislikes and choosing a style of food to suit everyone can often be a bit of a headache.

Here we look at a few things to consider when choosing the food for your office Christmas party.

Food

What you’re going to serve guests to eat and drink is the central part of any party, and needs to be carefully co-ordinated with your theme, if you have one. Don’t feel like you have to stick to Christmas food either, explore all your options available to you. Depending on your choice of venue, you can either rely on in-house catering (if it has a good reputation) or, venue permitting, you could hire an external caterer. Things to consider for food are:

• How do you want the food to be served? Do you want a formal, sit-down meal, or do you want a buffet-style event?
• Make sure you consult with the chefs to choose a style of food that incorporates your theme
• Organise a vegetarian option, and ensure that individuals with other special dietary requirements are catered for.
• Always insist on a menu tasting

Drinks

When it comes to drinks, budget is a massive factor. Are you going to prepay up to a certain amount, or are you just going to pay for everything that gets consumed on the night? Obviously, depending on how much your guests drink, the latter can result in spiraling costs and a whole lot of sore heads the next day, so maybe consider either narrowing down the options or having drinks vouchers for attendees to spend as they want.