# A work Christmas party *checklist* Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday, so the last ordinary Friday before it is 18 December. If you are reading this in late October, you are inside the window where those Fridays get slow answers. This is the list to work through, starting with the date. Updated 25 October 2026 ## The dates that are actually left Friday 25 December 2026 is Christmas Day, and Saturday 26 December is Boxing Day. A work party on either is a public-holiday booking: ask what that does to the rate before you fall for the room. The Fridays people usually want are 4, 11 and 18 December, and the Thursdays just before them. Name two dates in the first email so a no on the first doesn’t end the conversation. ## Timeline - **This week**: Pick the date, the suburb, and a headcount that includes partners if they’re invited. Name the person who can say yes to the spend. - **Within two weeks**: Send the same enquiry to several rooms. Ask for room hire, minimum spend or per head as a total for your headcount. One follow-up is fair after a few quiet days; two is enough. - **About a month out**: Compare totals, not the rate on the brochure. Visit the room you are likely to take, at the time of day the party will be. - **Three weeks out**: The company approves the venue. You pay the deposit they asked for, in their contract, not through Eventier. Collect dietary needs and a drinks choice. - **The week before**: Send the final headcount the venue asked for. Confirm the finish time, the invoice details, and who is in charge on the night. ## Checklist 1. Date, with a second date, and the time you must be out. 2. Headcount, including partners, plus a number a bit smaller in case people drop out. 3. Suburb or a travel time from the office. Don’t say “the CBD” if half the team is elsewhere. 4. Budget owner, and whether the quote must be a tax invoice with GST stated. 5. Seated dinner, stand-up drinks, or both. The capacity on a venue’s site may be the larger of the two. 6. Whether the room is private, and whether other groups will be in the building. 7. Drinks: a package, a bar tab with a cap, or both. Ask what happens when the tab runs out. 8. Dietary needs, a cake if you want one, and whether there is a fee to serve it. 9. Music and speeches: when the volume has to drop, and whether a microphone is in the room. 10. Step-free access, an accessible toilet, and how people get home. 11. The deposit, when the rest is due, and what is refunded if you cancel. ## Budget, without a made-up average Venues quote in three shapes. Room hire is a fee for the space, and food and drink are on top. A minimum spend is the amount the group has to reach on food and drink, even if the room itself is “free”. Per head is a price for each guest, usually for food and sometimes drinks, for a set number of hours. A cheap per-head figure with a short drinks window can cost more than a higher one that runs all night. In Perth, Eventier’s catalogue on 25 October 2026 has 806 rooms with an email whose published capacity falls between 20 and 200. 288 of those publish a price on the venue’s own site. That is a count of rooms, not a typical price, and it is not a national figure. The [Perth page for this occasion](https://eventier.app/venues/perth/christmas-party/) records the capacity rule and the Overture Maps attribution. Ask every venue which of the three you are being quoted, then put the same guest count through each answer. The [cost per head calculator](https://eventier.app/guides/venue-cost-per-head/) does that arithmetic in the browser. [how to compare venue quotes](https://eventier.app/guides/compare-venue-quotes/) is the same method written out. ## What to ask every venue Five questions fit in one email. The [venue enquiry email template](https://eventier.app/guides/venue-enquiry-email-template/) has room for them. The longer list is in [questions to ask a venue](https://eventier.app/guides/questions-to-ask-a-venue/). 1. Is the room free on our date, and what time do we have to be out? 2. What is the total for our headcount: room hire, a minimum spend, or a price per head? Is GST included? 3. Is the space ours alone that night? 4. Can you invoice the company, and whose name should the contract be in? 5. What changes if the date is a public holiday, or the Thursday or Friday before Christmas? If a venue goes quiet, one follow-up is normal and a second is the last one worth sending. [when a venue doesn’t reply](https://eventier.app/guides/venue-not-replying/) has the wording. Chasing five times doesn’t make a December Friday appear. ## What Eventier will and won’t do Eventier finds rooms, writes the enquiry, and sends it only after you approve it. It sends up to two follow-ups if a venue goes quiet, and lines the quotes up side by side. It never signs, books or pays. Finding venues and writing the emails are free. Sending them takes an Event Pass (A$11.99) or Eventier Pro (A$39.99 a year). Place leads come from [Overture Maps](https://docs.overturemaps.org/attribution/) Places (Overture Maps Foundation). That theme includes data from Meta, Microsoft, PinMeTo, Krick, RenderSEO, DAC, BrightQuery, Birdeye, Uberall and the OpenTravel Alliance under the [CDLA Permissive 2.0](https://cdla.dev/permissive-2-0/) licence, Foursquare data under the [Apache Licence 2.0](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0), and AllThePlaces under CC0. These pages do not republish those records. Counts are rooms Eventier read from venues’ own websites, on 25 October 2026. ## Start with the room. Eventier finds venues and writes the enquiry. You approve it before it sends. Up to two follow-ups. Quotes side by side. It never books or pays. Free to search. Sending the emails takes an Event Pass (A$11.99) or Eventier Pro (A$39.99 a year). Eventier never books or pays. More - [Christmas party venues in Perth](https://eventier.app/venues/perth/christmas-party/) - [Venue cost per head](https://eventier.app/guides/venue-cost-per-head/) - [Questions to ask a venue](https://eventier.app/guides/questions-to-ask-a-venue/) - [Venue enquiry email template](https://eventier.app/guides/venue-enquiry-email-template/) - [How to compare venue quotes](https://eventier.app/guides/compare-venue-quotes/) - [All planning guides](https://eventier.app/plan/)