My Last Christmas Party

Nice Tom. lol

I don't actively pursue Christmas party gigs because my day job as a mailman has me beat by 5pm.

I did have one holiday party last Thursday for teachers that went REALLY well. I only played 2 Christmas songs all night. I played Mariah Carey and then the Christmas Canon during dinner. That's it.

I've got another holiday party for a local restaurant on Monday. They want Christmas music and karaoke so we'll see how it goes.

djfatman said:

BTW, do you think it was in bad taste to play "Grandma Got Run Over By A Raindeer" at a Christmas party in an assisted living facility? Just wonderin'?

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Nope, as long as you gave equal time and followed it up with "Grandpa Got Run Over By A Beer Truck".

I did a party for Microsoft last night. They weren't interested in party games. They weren't interested in karaoke (only one person sang). They werent even really interested in dancing that much ... the techie slacker crowd kept asking for "alternative music".

To top it off the power kept cutting out due to some torrential rain and intense winds outside. The party was supposed to go until 11; the power went out for good about 10:05. Thankfully, it was after the door prizes. The crowd was out of there like a shot. I had to pack up in the dark.

Haven't really had a jammin' holiday party at all this season. At two of them, everyone left right after gifts were given out about 2 hours before the party ended. However, at each, a table of about 10 stayed and danced and danced! Kinda made the night better for me, even though I was playing to 10 people for 2 hours.

Next week my last holiday party of the year ... my "day" job hired me to do a full blown sound, light and video show at the Westin. It'll also be a techie crowd, but I think our corporate culture is laid back enough to actually have some fun.

djfatman said:

BTW, do you think it was in bad taste to play "Grandma Got Run Over By A Raindeer" at a Christmas party in an assisted living facility? Just wonderin'?

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Nah. It's a classic. And it's funny. Ha ha. See?

Playing Christmas songs by Diana Krall and stealing even more precious moments from those who have few would be more inappropriate.

I had 3 Holiday parties for the same company where I was the youngest person there (they were more of a client appreciation party than an employee party in different locations around the bay). While it was really nice to play big band and Sinatra for awhile, as soon as the door prizes were over the place emptied out.

Last nights party had everyone outside the room at the bar all night except when they wanted to hear a song. They would come in & request the song, dance to half of it, then go back to the bar. I never could get a groove going on the dance floor, but I saw people toe tapping and moving to the beat all night. Some groups are just not dancing crowds.

My last Holiday party is tonite. 8 parties in 11 days. I'm whooped and ready for a week off before starting on the Outback Bowl.

Tom, you are too funny!

Actually last night I worked a construction company party. This is going to sound bad, but after I started playing all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth I realized what I had done.

So I am thinking Grandma, two front teeth, somethings we will just never know.

I thought it was just me. I had two Christmas parties that rocked. Dancing all night. Then I had 2 where I was just backround music. It's funny at the one I felt I did not rock the crowd, I ended up with a $90.00 tip. It boils down to what type of day the workers had and what day it falls on. It's hard to get a crowd jumping on a Thursday unless the next day is a day off. One more party to go tonight and then I am done for the rest of the year.. Can't wait to get some time in with my kids..

Good riddance to the X-mas parties. I did my last one last night as well.

Most of them (company Christmas parties) were awkward and challenging. It's hard to get people to dance, and there always seems to be a bit of a feeling in the air that no one really wants to be there. For me, it was typical to have the majority of the crowd being mellow and boring, and a handful (2-10) party animals who wanted to get drunk and dance to music that would be inappropriate to the rest of the crowd. Eventually I'd work up to to the music that the partiers wanted and most of the crowd would be gone. I'd spend 1/2 hour to an hour dancing the hell out of about 15 people...and feel like the whole party was mostly crap. Then the planners would tell me I did fantastic and it was tons of fun, and that a lot less people left early than last year!

Wonderful! Merry Christmas to me. I'm ready to go back to doing weddings now.

Today is my last Christmas party, although I will not be working this one. This season seemed different for me as well. They all wanted atleast two hours of Christmas music. One of the parties was around 200 people. The gifts were phenomenal, but seemed to go unappreciated.

We also had karaoke at one of them. Most were so wasted by the end they could barely stand up. One was singing and fell into the television and hit her head. Another broke my lamp. Long party seven hours. They booked for next year already, but man it was a rough night. I did get $100.00 tip and compliments.

Very Happy!!

It's OVER!! Friday night was 460 people, very danceable, full sound, 2 lighting effects, party props, huge conga line, etc..

Last night, well....45 people, no extras, and was charged $2 for a diet coke! I've never been charged for a diet coke before!!

Wedding Dec. 30. (pretty easy

New Years eve for a local bar..

Well last night was my last party for the Christmas season. This one was the best by far. I had a great crowd. It was close to home (10 minutes away)and the crowd responded to everything. We even went over time..
Merry Christmas!

I have three more to go the last one is on the 23rd. This past week has been 4 most have been pretty good but last Sunday was a lame group, I was happy it stopped early, they were only there for the boss to give out the presents and door prizes mass exodus within seconds of the last prize being given away.

I have several post Holiday parties booked in January then the calendar falls off until March except for the bar shows (4 a week).

I have two more to go (may even be working on Christmas day for 3x hours yet) but that is going to bloody well cost them $$$$

i'll let you know

two to do one Friday and one Saturday at this stage