{"id":75665,"date":"2025-12-19T17:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/75665\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T17:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:04:10","slug":"manhattan-office-holiday-parties-get-creative-amnewyork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/75665\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan office holiday parties get creative \u2013 amNewYork"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Manhattan has more than its share of restaurants and catering halls, companies are marking the end of the year with parties everywhere from bowling alleys to Broadway, their own night at the museum to high-tech holiday celebrations.<\/p>\n

As workers at many companies spend less time in the office than in the past, the office party has transformed, becoming about connecting, not just celebrating and cuisine. And creative venues and approaches are becoming part of the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has a similar sentiment,\u201d said Eric Wielander, vice president of strategy and creative at Eventique, a live event production agency in Manhattan. \u201cThey want to engage with each other. It\u2019s almost an extension of a team-building event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some companies hire event planners to do all the planning, while human resources executives and holiday party planning committees also take the lead to bring the company together to celebrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start planning after Labor Day.\u00a0 You come up with ideas,\u201d Alice Winkler, a fractional chief human resources officer who has worked for various companies, said of holiday parties.\u201d You need to get your executive team on an actual date and budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wielander said events these days are typically called end-of-year or holiday parties.\u00a0 The phrase \u201cChristmas party\u201d isn\u2019t as common in the corporate lexicon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen anyone describe a holiday party as a Christmas party for years,\u201d he said. \u201cEnd of year celebration is a more neutral way of expressing it. You want to look back and acknowledge and celebrate hard-working team members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winkler said the process ideally starts well in advance, so companies can send out hold-a-date place holders by November. Wielander said parties typically start occurring after Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>An office party Eventique produced at Artehouse earlier in December in Manhattan.Photo: Gruber Photographers<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sweet spot for holiday parties I think are the first two weeks of December. Those are the most optimal times we\u2019ve seen,\u201d Wielander said. \u201cI think people\u2019s mindsets are in a different place (closer to the holidays), finishing up tasks by end of year and starting to take their PTO.\u201d<\/p>\n

In-office parties remain common, but Winkler said they might include casino nights or transforming offices into luxurious spaces with decorations and rented furniture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou come up with creative ideas. Sometimes we do a nice dinner in the office,\u201d she said. \u201cWe brought in custom furniture, tables, and tablecloths. We piped in music and had dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sit-down dinners provide an option, but Winkler also planned dinner with a Broadway show, including busing in employees from Philadelphia to take part.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no better place to celebrate holidays than in New York City,\u201d Broadway League President Jason Laks said, noting companies can come into town to celebrate with dinner and a show. \u201cSharing the experience of live theater is a wonderful way to bring your colleagues, friends and family together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winkler said a bowling alley, such as Bowlmor, can provide another option, doing something different rather than repeating the same event.\n<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s all about the food, drinks and music for some, Wielander said his company specializes in treating spaces as a \u201cblank canvas\u201d where they create experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just great food and an open bar. It\u2019s different moments, interacting, playing games,\u201d he added, noting they this year already did office parties ranging from 40 to 800 people. \u201cThere are multiple touch points where they can share in taking a photograph together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movie \u201cNight at the Museum\u201d is a fantasy about what happens after hours at the American Museum of Natural History, but that museum sometimes comes to life for after-hours parties.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sculpted ice rose above tables with white tablecloths in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life near the shape of a gigantic, suspended whale in one office party Eventique organized. A dance floor was set up for guests to enjoy as a DJ played tunes in the space that seats up to 900.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted us to design a fire and ice theme,\u201d Wielander said. \u201cIt was a combination of different seating with a large dance floor, a DJ and a live band with a number of food stations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>A Museum of Natural History party by EventiquePhoto: Luis Ruiz<\/p>\n

While that museum offers a unique setting, Eventique frequently creates scenic environments often built around a message with a certain look and feel including a recent party where winter wonderland met magic.<\/p>\n

Branding, motion graphics, projections on walls and screens combined with live entertainment, Wielander said, are part for the course of setting the scene. Eventique often uses Lavon 541 and Lavon Midtown, sister properties that serve as \u201cwhite box spaces\u201d they furnish to fit events, establishing an environment with projections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology companies are largely flexible (with a lot of) remote work. They\u2019re finding the value in investing in in-person holiday parties,\u201d Wielander continued. \u201cTheir team members aren\u2019t congregating as much (as in the past) with each other as often in an office environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventique threw a party for the company in the Artechouse in the Chelsea Market featuring floor-to-ceiling projection mapping. Mercer Labs, another high-tech event space, is located in the financial district.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all comes down to what\u2019s most important to the client. Unique food and beverage, cocktails on fire, culinary experiences,\u201d Wielander said. \u201cEverybody has different expectations and desires.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said office parties these days sometimes include \u201chiring talent to give great performances and experiences\u201d such as DJs, aerialists, illusionists, dancers and singers.<\/p>\n

Mustang Harry\u2019s, near Penn Station, touts ease in coming into Manhattan and their two-floor venue featuring 7,500 square feet of flexible event space, including lounges and bars and more than 20 HDTVs.<\/p>\n

In addition to location and look, they tout their ability to \u201ccapture the charisma of old NYC with an authentic twist of Dublin.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are seeing a clear uptick in holiday party bookings compared to last year, parties now tend to be more intimate,\u201d Mustang Harry\u2019s Co-owner Ian Conroy said.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s a wide range of spaces from Mustang Harry\u2019s to museums, a party with a view can be memorable, even outdoors, if it is held a little earlier in warmer weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne year we did a rooftop holiday party prior to Thanksgiving with a DJ,\u201d Winkler said. \u201cWe wanted to do a party on the roof, so we wanted to make sure it wasn\u2019t too cold. If you do it a little earlier, you don\u2019t compete with all the other holiday parties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Manhattan has more than its share of restaurants and catering halls, companies are marking the end of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[249,31192,75,84,83,9,24,63,37959],"class_list":{"0":"post-75665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-holiday","9":"tag-holiday-parties","10":"tag-manhattan","11":"tag-manhattan-headlines","12":"tag-manhattan-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-office-parties"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}