When I was working at a big firm, I was a part of the party planning committee. My job was to plan and throw the corporate party entertainment and have the food and drinks at the ready. The holidays we recognized were Christmas, Thanksgiving, and July 4th. They were our big holiday parties. Corporate would come down and we’d all eat and drink and then have a good time together.

One of the biggest events I had ever thrown was the Christmas party a few years back. The corporate party entertainment was going to be based on the Christmas Story movie, as we did themes every year. My job was to incorporate that theme into our holiday party. When I decorated, I was looking for leg lamps for centerpieces for each table. There was only 5 tables in the conference area, so the amount I needed and the cost were justifiable. I found a crate like the one that leg lamp was shipped in and made it my task to put “frag-ile” on the side like the movie. For food, we had it catered to a catering company that was willing to cook a duck. We had mashed potatoes, meat loaf, and all the food that was featured in the movies. The party was a huge hit with decor being like the movie and the food being from it as well.

The employees loved it, all of them being huge fans of the movie. When we sat down and people were taking photos of everything, including themselves with the leg lamp! I would say it was a huge hit at the time, but I had no idea that it would still be talked about to this day! Every so often, it gets brought up as one of the best corporate parties to date!

In my years of party planning, at the corporate level, I’ve always found getting the theme perfect to be the biggest issue. I never want to isolate anyone or make someone feel uncomfortable. Parties should be more of a fun event, not a hassle for other people. I’ve found that movie themes are always perfect!