With 10 weeks to go until Christmas, cards in the shops already and my Facebook feed filled with festive event promotions, it’s not just the elves who are busy preparing for the festive season. Seasonal events have really taken off in the past few years with stately homes, town councils and other event organisers getting in on the act. These have been met with varying levels of success and a few poorly delivered examples which have made national headlines have done the festive events sector no favours. Here are a few pointers on how to deliver a successful event this Winter.

Is Santa over-exposed?

It’s easy to think that the big guy in the red suit is essential to any festive event. However, if Santa is all over your chosen location (before Christmas Eve) then you might want to consider offering something different.

It’s important to know your competition anyway so investing time on desk research will give you a good handle on what’s available in the area, price points, event content and promotional material.

What makes an event festive?

Other festive traditions such as lights, skating, mulled wine, music, roasted chestnuts, candy canes, snow, decorations and markets can be more compelling for an adult audience than a Santa’s grotto and potentially more lucrative with higher prices, more potential for repeat visitors and longer dwell times. Skating appears to be quite a drawer for older children/families with stately homes and shopping centres as well as independent event organisers offering this usually from November onwards.

Younger visitors may enjoy something different too especially if lots of family members want to take them on a festive outing and they’re suffering from Santa fatigue.

There is only ONE Santa!

Sounds obvious but if you have a large-scale event and need to have multiple Santas in operation, measures need to be in place to prevent more than one Santa being sighted at any one time. Or risk destroying the magic of Christmas forever! How could you live with that?!! Let alone sobbing children and angry parents. Don’t go there. This can easily be overcome with a proper briefing and carefully managed entrants and exits. Elves and other Santa helpers can be particularly helpful in making this happen.

Your biggest critics

Children can prove to be the toughest of audiences. They will know a pound shop beard from a quality Santa so you need to manage their expectations as well as those of their parents.

Value for money is a key consideration for many parents whether the event is in a village hall, garden centre, shopping mall, stately home or in a field. An inspirational setting can also be a big draw.

Younger visitors are looking for authenticity and entertainment. This doesn’t necessarily mean large budgets but festive lights with bulbs missing, long queues in the cold and elves seen smoking during their break in full public view is not the way to go. Make it memorable for the right reasons!

Christmas comes but once a year

But it comes around quickly so plan ahead. If you don’t have your event plans together by the preceding February you’re already on the back foot. Specialist materials and staff can be difficult to get hold of later in the year so it’s important to get these in place early on.

If you’re planning to target the groups market you might want to get organised even earlier (prior to the previous Christmas) so your event can be included in the new year brochures/product offering.

Appropriate licensing, risk assessments, insurance and health and safety are essential to any event and not things to be compromised. If this isn’t your area of expertise, hire an events professional who knows this inside out and build in time to address each of these areas.

A quick call to the event planning team at the relevant local council will give a steer on timeframes required for appropriate documentation. If you’re including animals such as reindeer in the event offering this will also need careful planning in terms of animal welfare, interaction with the public and hygiene.

Good gift guide

Getting the gifting right is a tricky business as children’s tastes change as the latest crazes come and go. A festive-themed gift such as a toy elf, Santa storybook or puzzle are probably safer bets and potentially more economical than jumping on the bandwagon of the character of the moment.

If Santa is the main draw then the gift not being the latest Disney toy is less crucial. The nature of the gift will also depend on your target audience and you may need to consider having different gifts for different age groups.

There are a number of suppliers who specialise in grotto gifts and may even deliver them ready-wrapped. In the past, there may have been ‘gifts for girls’ and ‘gifts for boys’ but with the recent furore over gender-neutral product lines, I suspect grotto gifts may go the same way with organisers keen to avoid any controversy.

Promoting your event in a sea of tinsel

It can be challenging to achieve stand out for your event when the media is packed with gift guides, festive fashion and promotion of other events. It’s worth noting that many Christmas themed events are booked up by September so it’s definitely worth promoting earlier in the year. Digital advertising can be a cost-effective highly targeted option to get you in front of those people predisposed or already looking for festive entertainment. Early bird ticket offers can help with this. Making your creative cut through can also be difficult so you need to identify your point of difference or establish one. For

Digital advertising can be a cost-effective highly targeted option to get you in front of those people predisposed or already looking for festive entertainment. Early bird ticket offers can help with this.

Making your creative cut through can also be difficult so you need to identify your point of difference or establish one. For example, this could be the location, special guests or elements of the content.

Manage your flows

Whatever kind of seasonal event you’re planning, it’s vital to plan how you’re going to manage your flows well before you’re on site and the event is live.

From traffic management and car parking to catering, ice rinks and Santa queues every team member needs to know how to manage this, what the process is if there’s a problem in any one of these areas, who the decision-maker is and how visitor communications will work. It’s how you manage the problem that visitors will remember and they’ll be reassured if the team are visibly dealing with it.

In conclusion

More than at any other time of the year, festive events are about providing a magical experience and all the excitement that comes with the season. Proper preparation from researching the market, establishing your proposition and nailing the creative to getting the appropriate paperwork in place, providing the right mix and number of catering options and queue management are all vital to a successful event this Winter.