Office Christmas party themes, part 4

Why a casino-themed office Christmas party is
a sure bet for success

If you want something a bit different for your office Christmas celebration this year, a casino-themed party is sure to be a winner − and it doesn’t have to cost you big bucks.

There are several things you’ll need to think about, including decorations to create the right atmosphere, which games to provide, what refreshments to offer and whether to introduce a dress code.

  
How to jazz up the place

You’ll be amazed at how a few decorations and touches can give your office or party venue a real casino feel. Having arranged your gaming tables in a way that looks like a casino floor, why not add green or black felt tablecloths? Make your colleagues and friends feel special with a red carpet runner and a VIP entrance sign. Casino sign cutouts, with the names of games on offer, will be useful for guiding your workmates to the table of their choice. Balloons with pictures of cards and dice will also liven up the place, as will playing-card cutouts, casino confetti and banners, or a slot machine backdrop. Go all out or go minimalist. The choice is yours.

What to play?

Give your casino party a genuine Vegas feel with games such as blackjack, roulette and poker. For the more novice gambler, you can put up ‘how to play ...’ and ‘rules of the game’ posters, as well as organising simple dice games and bingo. After all, you’ll want to ensure everyone feels included. You may have to get a few of your colleagues on board to help run each game, but if you’ve got the budget, how about hiring a professional dealer or two for a few hours. If the funds are available, you could also give every party guest real notes or chips. If not, just play with fake money. A nice touch would be to provide everyone with a scorecard to mark down their earnings or a little bucket for their winnings. If using fake money, you could give a prize to the person with the highest score or greatest number of chips at the end of the evening.

Nibbles and tipples

Finger food is definitely the way to go if you’re having a casino-themed evening. It’s easier to carry around and means your workmates will be able to snack between games. Mini sandwiches, chips, chopped veggies and dips, pizza slices, chicken wings, lamb skewers, mini meatballs, mozzarella sticks, garlic bread and slices of bruschette should fill empty tummies, while platters of apples, cherries and bananas provide a fitting link with slot machines. Bowls of crisps, nut, pretzels and wrapped chocolates throughout the room will be a nice accompaniment to the drinks. Make sure you have lots of punch, beer, martinis, margaritas, non-alcoholic cocktails, fruit juices and other soft drinks on hand throughout the evening. And, for a nice touch, add casino-themed plastic stirrers with your beverages.

Dressed up to the nines

If it’s a classy do that you’re laying on, why not get your colleagues and friends to dress accordingly, with tuxedos and suits for the gents and evening gowns for the ladies. But if it’s glitz and glamour that you’re after, encourage the women to accessorise with sequins and boas, and the men to don flashy shirts and ties adorned with playing cards and dice.

If after reading this, you decide that a casino night for an office Christmas party doesn’t come up trumps for you, why not consider organising a casino or Vegas night-themed fundraising event for charity instead. It’s sure to be an ace affair.

One Direction - Putting You in the Know

The ins and outs of your teenager’s favourite band

Here at Party Tracker, where most of us are in our late 30s and early 40s, we always thought that One Direction was just a traffic sign. We’re glad to say we’re now a more enlightened bunch.
 
When we recently got hold of our fabulous new One Direction partyware, including One Direction paper plates, One Direction paper cups, napkins and table covers, and lifesize cutouts of the band members, we were eager to find out more about these handsome young men and why teenage girls are living, breathing and dreaming One Direction. Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!
 
If, like us, you didn’t tune into the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010, then you’ll probably be unaware that this English-Irish pop band came third in the competition. However, these five young men weren’t originally a group when they entered the competition. They actually came on to the show as individual contestants until it was suggested that they form a five-piece boy band. It was this decision that kept them in the competition, now in the ‘groups’ category, under Simon Cowell’s mentorship.
 
Since then, the five members of One Direction − Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson – have gone on to achieve major success. After the competition, the band members got themselves a £2 million record contract with Simon Cowell’s record label.

The band’s first single, 'What Makes You Beautiful', became the fastest-selling single of 2011 and entered the charts at number one in both the UK and Ireland. You may remember the band performing this same song at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In March 2012, One Direction released its first album, Up All Night. It became the UK’s fastest-selling debut album and topped the charts in 16 countries. It also sold 500,000 digital copies in the US – the greatest number for any boy band’s first album – giving One Direction a place in the Guinness World Records. By August 2012, over 3 million copies of Up All Night had been sold worldwide.
 
The band’s second album, Take Me Home, followed in November 2012. It sold 4.4 million copies, making it the fourth best-selling album globally that year. Its lead single, 'Live While We’re Young', reached the top ten in almost every country it charted in. ‘Little Things’, the album’s second single, debuted at number one in the UK at the same time as the album, making One Direction the youngest act in British chart history to achieve this double accolade.
 
The success of the band has also brought a publishing deal with HarperCollins, with One Direction: Forever Young (Our Official X Factor Story), which topped The Sunday Times best-seller list. They were the biggest winners of the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, winning three nominations, including Best New Artist. In the same year, they received two BRIT Awards, including Best British Single with 'What Makes You Beautiful', and performed in the presence of Queen Elizabeth ll at the 2012 Royal Variety Performance. And in August 2013, the band made it to the big screen with One Direction: This Is Us, a 3D film about their rise to fame.
 
Now everyone is waiting eagerly for One Direction’s third studio album, Midnight Memories, due out on 25 November. Here’s hoping the guys knock our socks off again.