How to Host a Hanukkah Celebration

"Hanukkah is the festival of lights. Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights."

-Adam Sandler, The Hanukkah Song

Celebrate the Festival of Lights with a Hanukkah party complete with great decor, amazing food, and fun activities. Whether you celebrate by hosting an event on all eight nights or just one big celebration, these tips will ensure that your guests have a great time.

Decor: Hanukkah is observed by lighting one light of the Menorah for each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. Since the Menorah is so important, it should be at the center of your decor. If you don't own a Menorah or want a more decorative one, retail stores like Macy's now sell them. You can also find many creative ones online that you can buy or learn how to make. To enhance your table and other areas around the Menorah, set up linens, plates, balloons, and other decor in the traditional Hanukkah colors of silver, blue and white. You can also hang images of the Star of David, the religious symbol of the Jewish faith. Bags of gelt (chocolate coins) can be placed on each plate. Decorations that are also edible are always a hit!

Food: All food served at a Hanukkah meal should be as festive as the decor. Foods served are those cooked in oil, as it represents the oil found in the Temple of Jerusalem. Typical dishes served include fried latkes, braised brisket, and jelly-filled donuts (called sufganiyot). Not only are these dishes symbolic but they're delicious! To mix things up, you can try something new like having a latkes bar with a variety of toppings that guests can choose, including apple sauce, sour cream, horseradish, or tomato and roasted garlic relish. For dessert, serve up some kugel, rugalach, or blintzes. Don't forget some kosher wine!

Activities: The lighting of the menorah can be an activity in itself if guests are at the celebration after sundown. Call up different guests and have each one of them light a candle. The dreidel game is a traditional game played at Hanukkah celebrations. Printable instructions for the game can be found here. Gift giving is also a major part of Hanukkah. Make it extra fun by pulling names from a hat to see who you'll give a gift to, or do a Yankee swap! Since you'll have eight nights of gift giving, the gifts are typically small and inexpensive so you don't have to get too extravagant.

Are You Prepared For Thanksgiving?

While you may not consider Thanksgiving dinner an event, it really is! You invite guests, provide food, and very likely have some sort of entertainment (even if it's just your crazy uncle). Earlier this month we gave you ideas for events you could host or partake in on Thanksgiving. With just a week left until the big day, it's time to start finalizing the details of the most important event of the day - the dinner!

While Thanksgiving isn't a holiday people tend to go crazy with decorations for, you can easily put together a beautiful table at a low cost. Napkins, candles, table chargers, and centerpieces in rich fall colors act as great accents around your plates. If you don't want to buy a centerpiece or aren't craft savvy, try an edible centerpiece! Not only does this type of centerpiece pull the whole design together, but it will bring guests to the table and kick off their meal in a fun way!

Another great item to add is a place card for each table setting. Place cards are great because they're both decorative and functional. You can use an online template to print out a simple one for each guest, or get crafty and make fancier ones like pine cone turkeys. The great thing about place cards is that they help you control where people sit, which helps you manage dinner conversation. If half of your friends are quiet and half are extroverts, mix them together! You can also use them to separate family members who may not get along.

While a nice table display will be appreciated, the menu is what guests really care about. When planning the meal, always remember that this is your event and no one will hate you for taking charge. If you plan out the menu in advance and tell guests exactly what to bring, it will help you make sure you don't end up with 5 variations of green bean casserole! When planning the menu, sticking with a traditional Thanksgiving menu is nice but don't forget to add in your own twist. If you're tired of plain mashes potatoes, try making chive and garlic potatoes or southwest mashed potatoes. Don't want to serve the same stuffing from a box that you made last year? Add in your own fresh ingredients and guests will think you made it from scratch! 

Another important tip is that less is more. Rather than serving 10 different sides along with pre-meal snacks and the turkey, keep the  menu small! Doing that will ensure that everyone can fully enjoy the smaller selection instead of having only a bite or two of each dish. Make some boxes or buy extra Tupperware so guests can take home leftovers. As they leave, they'll be thankful that they get to enjoy the delicious meal all over again the next day!

Holiday Party Trends for 2013

Many companies host end of year holiday celebrations for their employees. If you've been tasked with planning your company holiday party, time is running out to come up with ideas! If you want your party to be up to par with this year's trends, follow the tips below:

Food Should Be Your Focus 

When people think about holiday parties, they often envision a nice dinner. That still holds true, but nowadays people aren't interested in a generic, one-size-fits-all meal. Food should be your priority when planning the budget. Your guests probably aren't expecting caviar and filet mignon, however they'll appreciate you taking the time to create a custom menu with lots of options, including seasonal dishes, especially if you can put a new twist on a classic dish or present them with something new and exciting. Most importantly, don't forget to have options for vegetarians.

Room Decor

Red and green are the two colors the probably come to mind when planning a holiday event, but they aren't at all a requirement. Many event coordinators actually try to avoid the combination to prevent from making it seem like they're favoring Christmas over other holidays like Hanukkah. With that said, using red, especially when it's paired with silver, gold or black, is a classic choice that still gives a nod to the holidays. White and gray winter tones also invoke the same snowy, holiday idea.

Make Seating Flexible

Holiday parties often have table seating for 8-10 people, which means guests only get to interact with a small group of people they're stuck with for the whole night. Parties like this should give guests the opportunity to mingle and catch up with people at the company they may not get to see on a daily basis. A free-flowing setup of high-top tables in various sizes and cozy lounge areas are much more likely to encourage interaction. 

Show Employee Appreciation

A company holiday party should be all about showing your employees that they're appreciated. Many companies hand out awards during their holiday parties to give the event a business focus and emphasize the appreciation message with an optimistic future. Some companies show their appreciation by giving guests a gift, which could just be something simple like an ornament. Even something like putting money into a photo booth so that employees can take home a memento shows employees that you care.

5 Things You Don't Want to Forget on Your ezEvent Page!

Earlier this week, we provided you with information about the five things you don't want to forget when planning events. Now, we're giving you tips about things you don't when to forget when creating your ezEvent page.

First Impressions Matter

If a user looks at your event page and thinks it's too plain or doesn't look professional, they may question the quality of your event. Don't let that happen! Be sure to add in images, videos, and a theme so that potential buyers get an accurate impression of what your event is. If you have a website, you can match your event page to it so customers feel that it's legitimate. The better the page looks, the more attendees you'll get!

Event Details

Potential event attendees want to know what an event is about before they commit to buying a ticket. Use the event details section to provide guests with the event's schedule, entertainment, activities, menu, or any other information you think is important for them to know. Additional information such as the dress code or parking instructions may help you avoid no-shows or late comers. If your tickets have any special requirements (age limit) or extras (items in a VIP package), be sure to provide a detailed explanation that so buyers know exactly what they're getting.

Host Contact Information

If attendees have questions you want to make it simple for them to get the answers they need when they need them. This is why entering in complete and accurate host contact information is so important! ezEvent prefills the Contact Email with the email address entered in by the event organizer on the Sign Up screen. If someone else is the host you'll want to add a new contact by entering in their name, phone number and email address. If the event organizer is the host, it's important to add in all of the additional information so attendees know who they're contacting.

Publicize Your Event

What's the point of hosting an event if no one attends? If you want people to find your event page and buy tickets, you need to promote your event! Use ezEvent's tools to send out emails to all of your contacts, share your event on social media pages, and even create a Facebook event page that has a Get Tickets button linking to your ezEvent page. You can also use our widgets to add buy tickets buttons to your site, and include a calendar or list view of all of your events. Don't forget to include the event link on any signage or flyers you create!

Payment Information

If you have a paid event, you'll want to receive your money after the event. We can only do that if you provide us with your payment information! After you sign up, visit the Account page.Click the Payment tab and fill out the screen that looks like a check. You can also provide your payment information on the Customize screen under the Buyer Payment Options section.

If you complete all of these steps, your event is sure to sell out! If you need some inspiration on how to make your page great, check out our example events page!

5 Things You Don't Want to Forget When Planning Events

Some details of event planning are commonly forgotten, and unfortunately the stress levels of an event planner's job can make forgetting something even more likely. Once your event starts there's no turning back, so be sure these details are on your checklist:

RSVP information

You've spent tireless hours planning an event and no one shows up. Was it because you never included information about how to RSVP? Sometimes planners spend too much time worry about the look of the invitation, and forget to include information on how the guest should respond to it. Always include an address (mailing or email), phone number, and name of who guests should reply to.

The Little Things

Do guests need to fill something out at your event? If so, they'll need pens. Are they eating?  They should have silverware, plates and napkins, as well as somewhere to dispose of trash. If someone gets a small cut, is there a first aid kit or Band-aids available? Little things like these may seem minor, but if you forget them they can cause major problems. Keep a checklist, and make sure you've considered every detail of every item on it. Putting yourself in a guest's shoes and imagining what they'll do with each item or how they'll interact with it can help with that.

Finalizing Vendor Bookings

Have you put down a deposit on your venue or entertainment vendors? Most vendors will not save a date for you unless they have a deposit, so if you haven't given them one you probably don't have them secured. When working with vendors, following up is key. Keep in touch regularly and check in the week before and day of the event to ensure that you're up to date with everything and that things are set as planned. It's also important for you to set up an emergency contact person with each vendor so that if something goes wrong during the event you know exactly who to get in touch with.

Dress Code

Imagine walking into an event wearing jeans when everyone else is dressed in ball gowns and tuxedos, or being the only person who shows up wearing a Halloween costume. The last thing you want to do is embarrass your guests, especially if that's their first impression of the event. If your event has special attire (or even if it doesn't and you want to make that clear), let guests know to prevent any awkward situations.

Closing Down

Some towns or neighborhoods have a noise ordinance in place that would legally require your event to end at a certain time. Not knowing that could cause for an abrupt ending that makes you look unprepared. Be sure that you also designate someone to clean up the event. There's nothing worse than assuming everything will be taken care of and getting complaints of a mess the next day. If the venue is taking care of cleanup, ask them if they have storage space for items you might not be able to take back with you immediately after the event. If they don't have room, you'll need to make special accommodations.

The most important thing to remember is to stay calm! If you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, stop for a moment to take a breath. Stressing out won't help anything, so if you follow all of the provided tips and handle things with a level head your event is sure to be a success!