Notes from the year-end season

Between November and the first weeks of the Lunar New Year, many Singapore offices run two or three gatherings back to back: a dinner and dance, a Christmas party, then a company reunion dinner with lo hei. The people asked to plan them are usually doing it alongside a full day job. This journal is written for them.

Each entry picks one kind of gathering and works through the decisions that shape the night. We write the way we would talk a colleague through it over lunch: what to settle first, what tends to go wrong, and which questions to put to the venue.

Entries in this journal

Sizing a mid-sized dinner and dance: what changes when roughly a hundred colleagues are in one room.
A year-end dinner for a public agency: working through approvals before you fall in love with a venue.
Hosting clients at Christmas: a quieter, more polished evening where every detail is noticed.
One hotel, many rooms: picking between ballroom, garden and a smaller room for the office party.
Lunar New Year games at the office: short, fair games that fit into a working day.
Pacing the reunion dinner: fitting speeches, lo hei and courses together.

One habit worth keeping: write down the purpose of the gathering in a single sentence before anything is booked. Most later arguments are settled by that sentence.

A word on comfort and wellbeing

Festive evenings often mean late nights, rich food and drinks. For general health guidance you can share with colleagues, HealthHub is a sensible official starting point.