Enquiries open in September
That is the practical takeaway, and it is worth stating before anything else: December books out early, and we take holiday party enquiries from September.
If you are reading this in the autumn and your party is in December, the useful action is not to plan the menu. It is to send a date and an approximate headcount, so the date is held while the rest gets decided.
December is three weekends, not a month
Holiday events do not spread evenly across December. They cluster into the first three weekends, because the last one runs into Christmas itself and the weekdays before it are working days people want to keep working. Every office party, family gathering, community dinner, and client appreciation evening in the GTA is competing for the same handful of dates.
Two things follow from that, and neither is obvious in November:
- The comfortable four-to-eight-week window for a styled table does not apply. Counting back eight weeks from a mid-December Saturday lands in mid-October, which is already late by the time everyone else has booked.
- Venue and caterer dates move together. If you are still choosing a venue, the date is not fixed, and an unfixed date cannot be held. Locking the venue first is usually the faster route.
When dessert is the only food after 8pm
An evening holiday party is a different eating problem from every other event we cater. Guests have often had dinner, or intend to graze instead of eating one, and by the second half of the evening the dessert table is frequently the only food still in the room.
A purely sweet table in that situation gets picked at rather than eaten. The fix is the one we would suggest for any long event: pair the desserts with savoury pastries. Tartlets, croissants, and similar give people something to start with, and the desserts then read as dessert instead of as the whole meal.
Two to three pieces per guest still holds. What changes is the mix, not the maths.
Reserve the date, decide the menu later
The most common December mistake is waiting until the menu is settled before enquiring. It is backwards. The date is the scarce thing; the menu is not.
- September to October — send the date, an estimated headcount, and the venue if you have it. A 50% deposit reserves the date.
- November — settle the menu, the styling, and whether savoury is joining the table.
- 7 to 10 days before — final guest numbers, which is when portions and pricing are confirmed.
Nothing in step one commits you to a menu, which is exactly why it can happen months before you have thought about one.
Office parties and family parties want different things
Both are December, but they are not the same order.
An office holiday party is usually earlier in the evening, has a predictable headcount, and often sits in the office itself — which is easier than a venue, because nothing is scheduled before or after you. A family or community gathering runs later, has a headcount that moves until the week of, and is more likely to be the event where dessert has to carry a long evening.
The order differs accordingly: the office party can be sized tightly, the family party should be sized generously.
Between now and December
Send the date and a rough number. That is enough to hold it, and everything else has weeks to settle. See dessert tables for parties for what a full styled setup includes, or dessert catering if a platter spread suits the evening better than a styled table.
