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Got a Christmas party fail? Spill it.

ended 02. December 2025

If you run a small business, chances are you planned the party, ordered the food, poured the fizz and probably ended up cleaning it all up too. Ever had one go a bit off the rails?

Someone said something they really shouldn’t

Someone did something you still can’t quite believe

Or maybe it was just a total flop that you learned from the hard way

I’m putting together a piece for small biz owners to help avoid the classic festive fails, so if you’ve got a story or lesson learned, I want to hear it

  • What happened
  • What would you never do again
  • What would you tell someone else planning a party on a tight budget

No need to name names, just share the good stuff so the rest of us can learn (and maybe have a little laugh too)

Hit reply and tell me what went down

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Kate UnderwoodVerified
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR and Training
Nothing says festive fun like someone sledding down the stairs on a whiteboard after too much homemade limoncello.

If you run a small business, work in HR or both, you’ll know the Christmas party can go off the rails fast. One client went with a bring-your-own-booze office party. All fine until someone’s mate turned up with limoncello. Cue dance-off, broken chair, and the now-famous whiteboard sled.

Lesson learned? Even small teams need ground rules. Set expectations, skip the homebrew, and keep furniture where it belongs.

We always know it’s been messy when January hits and new clients come in with party fallout. Secret Santa fails, oversharing, you name it.

What would I never do again? Assume everyone knows what “keep it low key” means. They really, really don’t.
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Sophie Whitbread
Employment Lawyer at Penningtons Manches Cooper
Remind your staff that they are still "at work" when they are partying, to try to avoid a myriad of possible employment issues that could result from the office party. That means they could disciplined for sexual harassment or bringing the company into disrepute, to give just two examples of what might come of too much alcohol and reduced inhibitions.
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Samuel Mather-HolgateVerified
Managing Director & IFA at Mather and Murray Financial
If you’re going to do a lot of it yourself, don’t scrape on the caterers. Last year, the vegetarian option proved extremely popular, and ran out half way through- rather than look like they hadn’t turned up with the right numbers they improvised with sausages only suitable for carnivores in the main. This was only discovered the day after, and several people were less than pleased. I’ll never hire my cousin to do the catering again!
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Colette MasonVerified
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
Working in IT I was asked to erase some of the party CCTV footage after two staff members got a little too well acquainted behind a skip in the dispatch bay! Not the usual sort of tech emergency I was used to solving.
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Patricia McGirrVerified
Founder at Repossession Rescue Network
Seeing a number of colleagues being asked to leave a venue having put a new spin on the Hokey Cokey. Having played along with gusto, ‘putting your whole self in’ resulted in two of the group vomiting copiously on the floor along with other festive partygoers. Bad as this was, the main participants in the Christmas ‘do’ were doctors, nurses and coppers! Needless to say, it was one of those nights best forgotten.