The Minneapolis holiday party has an advantage most cities lack: nobody expects to be outdoors, so the whole event is designed indoors from the start. The disadvantage is that a December snowstorm can take out an evening entirely, and everyone books the same three weeks.
Nine options and their trade-offs.
1. A hosted murder mystery at your own venue
Ours, and first because a party at your own office is the only kind a blizzard cannot cancel. We bring everything to you, so there is no venue to lose and no drive across town in bad weather.
It also gets people out of their departmental clumps, which is the usual failure of an office party.
2. A restaurant buyout
The standard. Book by September; the good rooms downtown and in the North Loop go by late October.
3. A hotel ballroom
Right for several hundred, and the skyway access genuinely matters in December — guests can arrive without going outside.
4. A brewery buyout
Northeast again, and good value. Casual, and it needs planning for non-drinkers.
5. A venue with skyway access
Worth treating as its own category here. In a city where a January evening can be minus fifteen, being able to walk from the car park indoors will do more for attendance than the menu.
6. A daytime lunch
Attendance is much better when nobody has to drive home in the dark on ice. Cheap, and done in ninety minutes.
7. An ice skating outing
Very Minnesota and genuinely fun for some of your staff. It is also cold, physically excluding for others, and about an hour long.
8. A cooking or cocktail class
Indoors, good for twenty to thirty, and the task covers the awkward start.
9. Charitable giving in place of a party
Lands well in this city's civic culture. Worth doing, and not an event by itself.
The timing that matters
Book December by the end of September. We ask for about 45 days, so early October is the last practical moment — and whatever you choose, have an answer for what happens if it snows heavily that day.
If you want the version that goes ahead whatever the forecast says, We bring the host, the storyline and every piece of the game to your venue, and we ask for about 45 days so it can be staffed and prepared properly. Pricing and availability shows what your guest count works out to, you can book a date directly, and the contact page reaches a person if you would rather talk it through first.