Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, many small business owners are looking to do something special for their employees, something for their customers to carry on the holiday spirit. Beyond being fun, beyond being an effective way to further endear your business to your clients and employees, this also helps to sort of "legitimize" a newer business.
Think about it. Suppose it's December fifteenth and there are two local shops that only opened their doors for business a few months ago. One has their Christmas decorations up, the other doesn't. Clearly the one with some decorations up is going to look a little more professional than the other, a little more like the management really cares and is trying to put every effort into their business.
So, if you're looking for something special to do but can't make up your mind, take one of these suggestions and see if you can work it into your own plans. These are all designed to go a step beyond simple decorations to spread the holiday cheer, but without forcing you to dig deep into the corporate account.
Red and Green Paper
This is just a little thing, but you might be surprised what a difference it makes. Clearly you're not going to replace all the printer paper with red and green Christmas themed stationary, but if you get a roll of red or green receipt paper, some red and green post-it note pads and so on, it can really brighten up the atmosphere around the office.
Secret Santa Gifting
The whole secret Santa thing is a longstanding workplace tradition. The anonymous gifting allows workers to give away only one present, as few people can really afford a present for each and every person at the workplace on top of all of their own family and friends. The Secret Santa tradition gives employees something to look forward to when they get to work and encourages a friendlier atmosphere around the Holidays.
Thanksgiving Office Pot Luck
The problem with the holidays is that people tend to skip right from Halloween to Christmas when it comes to decorations and parties and so on. Other than the family feast, you'd almost think Thanksgiving was just another Thursday. Well, with an office pot luck as a warm up dinner about a week or so before the big day, it's easy to encourage the notion of treating your co-workers as family and boost the office morale. Just provide the paper plates and maybe a treat of your own and you're good to go.
The bottom line is that running a business can't all be boiled down to spreadsheets and numbers and business intelligence and so on. There's also a human element that is often neglected, and the holidays are when that human element becomes very important. If you have employees and clients who are happy around December, you can consider office morale to be far above and beyond average.