The December crunch: a festive season checklist for event pros and venues

It is the second Friday in December. You have three bookings tonight.

A 120-pax office party in the function room, plated, with a speech at 8pm. A long lunch for a law firm that started at noon and shows no sign of ending. And, for the caterer among you, a 60-person drop-off and serve at a client's warehouse across town, staffed by four casuals, two of whom you met yesterday.

At 3:40pm the office party's organizer emails to say they are now 134, and two of the new people are celiac. At 3:55pm one of the casuals texts to ask what time they start. At 4:10pm a lead comes in for a 200-pax party next Thursday, the one week you had quietly hoped would stay empty.

None of this is unusual. That is the problem with December. Nothing goes wrong that has not gone wrong before. It all just goes wrong at once, and you have no spare hour to fix it in.

The good news is that almost every one of those moments can be settled in October and November, before the rush, instead of at 4pm on the day. Here is how.

Leads arrive in a pile, and the first reply wins

End-of-year leads do not trickle in. They land in batches, usually from someone in an office who has been told to "sort the Christmas party" and is sending the same brief to four or five places at once.

Whoever replies first, with something useful, sets the terms everyone else is judged on. I wrote about this at length in how faster response times win bookings, and December is when it matters most, because the person enquiring wants it off their desk by Friday.

What to set up before the rush:

• A festive reply template. Your dates still open, your packages, your deposit terms, and the three questions you always ask (guest count, budget per head, dietary needs). Write it once. Send it forty times.
• Follow-ups on every lead you have quoted. In December a quiet lead is rarely a no. It is usually someone waiting on their manager. A follow-up set for three days out means you chase on purpose instead of remembering in January.
• A clear "no" for dates you cannot take. A fast, polite "we are full that night, but here is the Tuesday" keeps the lead warm and saves you a phone call.

Sell packages, not custom quotes

In March you can build a bespoke quote for every client. In December you cannot, and you should not try.

Pick two or three festive packages and price them per head: a cocktail package, a plated package, maybe a long-lunch package. Include what people always ask for (drinks for a set number of hours, a festive menu, the room) and list a few add-ons for the clients who want more.

This does three things. You quote in minutes instead of an hour. The kitchen preps from a short, known menu instead of fourteen variations. And clients decide faster, because choosing between three options is easier than reading a custom proposal.

In 1pm, a package goes onto a quote in one click. You can also let the client pick the package and adjust the guest count themselves before they accept, which removes a round of emails at exactly the time you do not have one to spare.

Deposits and final numbers: decide once, before anyone asks

Two things cause most December money headaches: bookings held without a deposit, and guest numbers that keep moving until the day.

Set both rules before the season starts, and apply them to everyone.

• A deposit holds the date. No deposit, no hold. In a month where every Friday is wanted, a date held on a promise is a date you could have sold. Set a default deposit and balance so every confirmation carries the same terms without you typing them.
• Final numbers close on a set day. Seven or ten days before the event is common. After that, the number you have is the number you charge for and the number the kitchen preps to. In 1pm you set Final numbers due before event once, and the client updates their own guest count on their booking page until that date. You get an email every time it changes, and the BEO's guaranteed pax follows it.

The 3:40pm "we are now 134" email does not disappear. But it arrives a week earlier, through a box the client fills in, and the kitchen has the new number before anyone has bought the produce.

The handover is where December breaks

Here is the part most festive-season advice skips. You can sell the booking perfectly and still have a bad night, because December is when you work with the most people who have never seen your venue or your kitchen before.

Casual staff. Extra bar hands. A second AV tech borrowed from another job. A supplier you booked last week. They all need the same three things: when to arrive, where to go, and what happens when. They usually get it from a group chat, a forwarded spreadsheet, or a phone call made while you are also doing something else.

What works instead:

• One BEO per booking, kept current. The BEO is the kitchen's and the floor's single source of truth: pax, service style, dietary summary, access and vacate times. If the guest count changes, the BEO changes. Nobody should be cooking from a printout made on Tuesday.
• A run of show every crew member can open on their phone. In 1pm each crew member gets their own link: no login, no app to download, and it shows their call time and only the items they are responsible for. When you move the speech from 8pm to 8:15pm, it updates on their screen. The casual who texted at 3:55pm already has their start time.
• Call times, not "come in the afternoon". A call time is a promise both ways. Give each person their own, and put it where they will look.

Five minutes before the rush: a quick check

Answer these honestly. Every "no" is something to fix in November, not on a Friday in December.

1. Do you have a festive reply template written and ready to send?
2. Is every quoted lead set to follow up, with a date?
3. Do you have two or three priced festive packages?
4. Is your deposit rule written down, and does every confirmation carry it?
5. Is there a final numbers date, and does every client know it?
6. Does the kitchen get dietary needs from the BEO, not from a forwarded email?
7. Can a casual on their first shift find their call time without phoning you?
8. If a time moves on the day, does everyone working see it?

If you got eight yeses, you are in better shape than most of the industry. If you got three, you are in very good company, and you still have time.

Back to that Friday

Run the same Friday again with all of this in place.

The office party's extra guests came through the guest numbers box last week, before the cut-off, and the two celiac meals are on the BEO. The casual opened their link on the bus and knows they start at 4:30pm, at the loading dock. The 200-pax lead for next Thursday got your festive template within the hour, with two packages and a deposit link, and it is now somebody else's job to decide.

It is still December. It is still busy. But the busy is the work itself, not the chasing around it.

Have a good season.

Chris Founder, 1pm.app