A company Christmas party in Cesena: a creative workshop before the toast

The company Christmas party nearly always has the same shape: a long table at a restaurant, people sitting next to the same people they sit next to all year, the owner's speech between the first and second course. It is a moment people care about, but it is rarely the one where one department gets to know another.

A creative workshop of an hour and a half or two hours, before the toast or instead of dinner, changes exactly that: people work side by side on something nobody already knows how to do, they talk while their hands are busy, and at the end everyone takes home an object they made themselves. Which, in December, is also a small Christmas present.

Why a workshop, at Christmas

• Everyone takes part in the same way. It is not karaoke or a quiz: nobody performs, nobody is left watching, and the new hire and the director start from the same point.
• It mixes departments. You only need to decide the work tables in advance, seating people who do not usually cross paths next to each other.
• It leaves an object. A decoration, a candle, a small ceramic piece: unlike the group photo, it stays on the desk or on the tree at home.
• It is inclusive. It requires no alcohol, adapts to different diets if there is cooking, and anyone with accessibility needs mentions them in advance in the notes.

What you make in a Christmas workshop

• Ceramic decorations: baubles, stars, small nativity scenes. They need firing: the piece comes back a few weeks later, so to have them on the tree the workshop has to be early, at the end of November or the start of December.
• Candles: everyone chooses the container and the scent, and takes it away the same evening.
• Wreaths and arrangements: branches, berries, dried flowers. Work that fills the table and the room with scent.
• Paper and cards: hand-printed or hand-sewn greeting cards, gift wrapping, small notebooks.
• Cooking: in Romagna, in December, cappelletti. Rolling out the pasta together and then eating it is the most Romagnolo way to get to dinner.

In the form you can choose several types of experience and the main goal of the event: the proposal starts from there.

On site, in a studio or at the restaurant

There are three formats, and the choice depends on the number of people and the spaces you have.

On site

The workshop comes to the company: a meeting room, the canteen, a large clear space. It is the most convenient format for large groups and for those who work in shifts. Before using a warehouse or a production area, check with your health and safety officer.

In a Maker's studio

For smaller groups it is the fullest experience: real tools, materials to hand, the atmosphere of a workshop. You leave the office, and that alone feels like a party.

Before dinner, in the restaurant's room

If dinner is already booked, the workshop can be held in the private room before service, if the venue allows it. In the form you say whether you already have a venue, with name and address; if you don't, we find one together with the Maker.

When to ask

December is the busiest month of the year for company events, and the best dates, the Thursdays and Fridays before the holidays, are the first to go. It is worth asking between October and mid-November, with two to four possible dates. A time that works is late afternoon, from 5 to 7 pm, with the toast straight afterwards. And if December is full, a New Year party in January has the same effect and freer dates.

How the request, the proposal and payment work

1. You fill in the request for companies: people, at least two dates (up to four), city, indicative budget per person, type of experience and whether you already have a venue.
2. Within 24 hours we reply and within 2 working days you receive the proposal: what you will do, date and time, number of people and price per person, all-inclusive. No commitment until you confirm.
3. To secure the date you pay online the amount shown in the proposal, with your VAT number and SDI code (or PEC), and you receive the corresponding electronic invoice.
4. You have a single point of contact for the whole organisation: Handsome. We take care of the Maker, the materials and the timing.

If this is the first event of this kind you are organising, the guide to creative team building for HR and the one on how to read a quote answer the questions that come up next. For a company of ten to thirty people there is also what works in small companies.

Cesena, Forlì and the rest of Romagna

The request works for Cesena and for any other city: in the form you write the one where you want to hold the event, whether it is the centre of Cesena, an office in Forlì, Cesenatico or the Savio valley. If the party becomes the occasion to show the town to colleagues from other offices, there is the guide to what to do in Cesena, from the Malatestiana Library to the Rocca.