Christmas Party Speech for Employees

Even if the company has had the worst year on record, a Christmas party is still a time to celebrate. It’s the perfect time to toast the possibility of a better year next year and give your employees a bit of a boost.

Furthermore, if you’ve had a great year, your Christmas party speech is a terrific opportunity to praise your team for their hard work and success.

Either way, your speech at the office Christmas party is a time to be positive, not to whinge about a difficult year or the targets that were not achieved. Of course, you will need to talk about these issues and you may even decide that you at least want to mention them during your Christmas party speech, but the overall tone of this speech needs to be ‘thanks for a job well done’ and ‘Happy Christmas’!

Here is a template to help you set the right tone for your Christmas party speech to your employees – without sounding like Scrooge!

1. Upbeat Introduction

As you are making a speech at the Christmas party, it is likely that your employees are in a good mood. It’s probably outside of the office, possibly in the evening and everyone is likely to be dressed up with a glass of wine in their hands. You don’t want to ruin a festive, happy atmosphere, so keep it upbeat.

• Welcome everyone to the party
• Say how great everyone looks

Example: Good evening everyone! It’s lovely to see you all looking so festive. I promise not to take up too much of your valuable Christmas party by talking about work, but I wanted to thank you all for a great year.

2. Reflect on the Year

You need to remember that it’s a party, but you also need to acknowledge the preceding year. Mention something about key details of the year – projects won and lost, key staff changes – but keep it positive and upbeat. This is not the time for any sneaky comments that could embarrass anyone; you want your staff feeling good at the Christmas party.

• Comment briefly on the year
• Don’t make any criticisms – now is not the time

Example: This year has been difficult and successful in almost equal measures. Winning the Parker project was a real high, with losing three account managers to the competition a bit of a low. However, I’m really proud of how you’ve all pulled together and the terrific results you have achieved.

3. End on a High

Seeing as this is your Christmas party speech and not a dissection of where people went wrong over the year, or an opportunity to illustrate the targets for next year (discuss these at another opportunity, not now), you don’t want to be a party pooper. End on a high – mention something about the excitement of the evening (don’t make this speech to late in the evening – straight after the meal is the best time, before too much wine is flowing). Finish by raising a toast to get everyone patting themselves on the back and in the mood for a great evening.

• Reveal a surprise about the party
• Congratulate everyone for a great year
• Raise a toast

Example: That’s all I want to say for now…other than to tell you that there will be free champagne at the bar for the next hour to help the party go with a swing! I’d really like to take this opportunity to thank you all for a great year – Cheers and Merry Christmas!

The Next Step

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