The festive season is nearly upon us, and it’s the time of year when people catch up with friends and family, toasting festive cheer and bonhomie to all! Here we give you
Our top 10 ideas for decorating your venue for Christmas!
1. Decorations
When it comes to Christmas decorations in venues, you can chuck away the old saying that ‘less is more’ and replace it with ‘more is definitely more’! No-one wants to go into a pub or restaurant that’s paid lip service to Christmas with a pathetic attempt to exude Christmas cheer! A solitary bauble or a lonely piece of tinsel just won’t cut the mustard! But a pub just brimming with interesting decorations and a heavily laden Christmas tree will bring customers through the doors in their droves! One idea is to hang bunches of hops from the bar service areas. A nice touch that won’t go unnoticed by your customers!
2. Menus
Your menus could take on the Christmas theme also. By making them decorative and different from the norm, you’ll add interest and show that you care about the atmosphere you’re trying to present. You want your customers to rave about your menu, try out your food and tell others what a fantastic time they had! Attention to detail pays dividends at this time of year. Perhaps your customers have been out in the cold weather all day, slogging around the shops in search of the perfect present. What a treat it would be to go into a warm, friendly and cosy pub, mull over your Christmas menu and eat some delicious festive food!
3. Smells
When people think of Christmas, there are some distinct aromas that get conjured up in the mind! Pine, Cinnamon, Vanilla, Orange are some of the distinctive smells that capture this time of year. Why not consider putting some Christmas fragrances around your venue that will gently waft over your customers to really get them in the spirit!
4. Christmas trees
Whether your venue is large or small, there is always the perfect size of Christmas tree to fit it and decorating your venue for Christmas just can’t do without a tree! There’s nothing nicer than walking into a pub that shows off a magnificently adorned tree as the centre point of the room. If you theme your venue with just a couple of colour ways, then make sure your tree decorations follow suit.
5. Lights, Camera, Action!
Lighting is key to decorating your venue for Christmas, and we say, the more the better! Long strings of fairy lights can be trailed across the ceilings, down the walls, around the fireplace – you name it! Obviously, check that they’re not a safety hazzard first, and that they don’t encroach on your customers space, but the correct lighting at Christmas time will transform your space into a winter wonderland for grown ups!
6. Consider some festive give aways
How wonderful would your customers feel if they were offered a free glass of mulled wine and a mince pie or sausage roll when they arrive at your venue? Many may refuse, but that’s OK – it’s the thought that counts and it shows your customers that you care about them and are offering your own Christmas cheer to them.
7. The archetypal Christmas fire
Oh goodness – what venue would be complete at Christmas without an open, log burning fire? On chilly winter days, there’s nothing more inviting than the look and feel of a roaring log fire and a glass of something warming! If you have a fire, then Christmas time is the time to make the most of your asset. Your customers will LOVE you for it!
8. Enhance your entrance
Let’s face it, Christmas time is probably one of the most important times of the year for venue owners. It’s the time of year that we expect an increase in footfall and equally an increase in sales. To make sure your business is getting its share of the uplift in traffic flow, you could think about making the entrance of your venue as inviting as possible with decorations, wreaths, ribbons and bows.
9. Create a Christmas Cocktail Menu
You could get really creative here and rename some classic cocktails with Christmas themes! Or you could put together a menu of warming spirit based ‘hot toddies’ for your customers to try out! A whiskey mac or a mulled wine would warm the cockles of any late night Christmas shopper!
10. Have fun
Chances are that if your staff are having fun, then your customers will also! Christmas is the time of year that we all enjoy, so why not your staff? Hopefully they’ll be as busy as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, but it doesn’t stop them from having fun with the customers and colleagues alike! Let’s face it, that’s what Christmas is all about!!
So, there you have it, our top 10 ideas for decorating your venue for Christmas. We are Inndecs – a family run business, based in Gloucestershire, working across the South West of England and have been providing outstanding construction, renovation and specialist refurbishments for the leisure and hospitality sectors. Take a look at our website www.inndecs.com for more information or call us on 01452 618 411.
