Small Business Builder: The Right Holiday Party

Nov. 14 -- Who's stealing Christmas this year? The Taliban? The economy? The anthrax scare? Or the closet Scrooges in our midst?

Consider the comments I overheard at an early-November retail marketing seminar recently:

"We're sending our company's Christmas-party fund to the American Liberty Partnership."

"Our holiday party is going to be pretty somber. Nobody feels much like celebrating."

"Management wants to tone things down this year. We canceled our restaurant reservation; we're having a holiday pot luck at lunchtime instead."

Many a Small Business Builder topic comes from eavesdropping at business breakfasts and professional meetings. At last week's seminar, the buzz was all about the "climate" for the employee holiday party.

Cut the Comedy

Companies of all sizes are planning scaled-back festivities or none at all. According to recent reports, Alaska Airlines canceled its event to cut costs; and a New York Ernst & Young office, among its many laudable contributions to the cause, donated its holiday-party funds to three nearby fire stations.

Even Martha Stewart is exercising restraint. Last year, 660 employees at Martha Stewart Living enjoyed a sit-down meal; but "in the somber post-Sept. 11 climate," Stewart asked for "smaller, more intimate gatherings" at employees' homes, according to a Nov. 7 Reuters report.

Whether it's a question of taste, budget, philanthropy, or apathy, the trend — at least temporarily — is to shun splendor in favor of moderation at this year's office bash. Stan Heimowitz, who owns Celebrity Gems Entertainment in Castro Valley, Calif., told the East Bay Business Times that many customers had already called off their holiday parties — bad news for Heimowitz and his cast of musicians, magicians, mimes and jugglers.

East Bay employers Mervyn's and St. Rose Hospital, on the other hand, plan to party hearty. Heimowitz, who is supplying a steel-drum band, balloon-sculpture artists and face painters for the Mervyn's event, told the Business Times that Mervyn's "made the right decision … It's still important to have fun... and to enjoy ourselves."