Christmas spirit is a gift for service industry
Christmas is traditionally a family holiday in Poland, and the office party so beloved in the West is only now starting to become popular among Poles.
But with the arrival of foreign companies, Christmas parties have become a lucrative and competitive trade for hotels and restaurants.
"A few years ago, this (the Christmas party) was a rarity," said Katarzyna Gontarczyk, public relations manager at the Sheraton Warsaw Hotel & Towers, which rents space and organizes catering for parties.
And the number of companies throwing Christmas parties is growing. "Demand for Christmas parties is very high, from modest to festive ones," said Agata Osiak, sales manager at Warsaw's Marriott Hotel.
The Blue Cactus is a favorite for Christmas parties.
As more firms jump on the party bandwagon, they're finding it increasingly difficult to find locations for their annual hoedowns. Blue Cactus has been booked since the start of November, said the restaurant's manager, Monika Slodownik. She said business this year has never been so good for Christmas parties. "The number of companies holding parties increases every year," she said.
Companies that selected the Blue Cactus for their Christmas parties include Arthur Andersen, Polsat, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Clifford Chance Punder.
Another restaurant, the Boathouse, also has most of its Christmas dates filled with clients such as Citibank, Bank Austria Creditanstalt and Masterfood. The restaurant organizes parties for companies of anywhere from 10 to more than 200 employees, a restaurant source said.
The Marriott is all dressed up for the season.
The Marriott's Christmas clients usually include banks, financial institutions and tobacco and pharmaceutical firms. "We have regular customers that book banquet rooms even a year in advance," Osiak said.
Meanwhile, the Sheraton "is perfect for smaller firms. It's reasonably priced, but elegant," Gontarczyk said.
Christmas parties are also more lucrative than normal business. "Revenue from the Christmas party is usually higher than an evening's turnover," said Slodownik of Blue Cactus.
Companies willing to have a party typically have to pay between zl. 50 and zl. 300 per employee. Companies using the Boathouse, for instance, pay zl. 70 a head; with large events this can rake in as much as zl. 14,000 for one night's business.
In the Marriott, prices are $50-$65 per head including food, drinks, decorations and entertainment. At the Sheraton, a table for 10 costs around zl. 3,000.
Such office parties are a long way from traditional celebrations, which tend to be low-key and centered on religion and the family. "We do have Christmas decorations, but the music and dancing is not part of the traditional Christmas spirit," said the Marriott's Osiak.
Slodownik of Blue Cactus said Christmas parties for multinationals usually bring together different nations and religions, so there's not much space for the traditional Polish Christmas.
Similarly, the cuisine offered at office parties rarely includes typical Polish Christmas dishes. With a few exceptions, restaurants try to stick to their usual menus, which means Tex-Mex for the Blue Cactus, and Mediterranean fare for the Boathouse.
Christmas parties generally follow the same itinerary. During the evening a chief executive addresses the staff, wishing everyone a merry Christmas. Most companies give little presents to their employees, such as bags of candies, souvenirs or supermarket vouchers. This is followed by a great deal of eating and drinking. "People enjoy these parties very much, in particular when they have unlimited alcohol on tap and the event ends at dawn," Slodownik said.
For large corporations, Christmas parties are often deemed a necessary part of raising morale among employees and promoting a feel-good factor in the company. "Our parties are always great," said Paulina Gorska, marketing manager at Jones Lang LaSalle, the U.S.-U.K. real estate consulting company. Jones Lang LaSalle has organized parties in locations such as the U Wierzynka restaurant in Krakow as well as the Barbados, Vivaldi and Adler restaurants in Warsaw. This year, the company will have its Christmas dinner at the Quchnia Artystyczna restaurant.
Slodownik of Blue Cactus said Polish companies do not generally organize big office parties but this could be starting to change. "The structure of corporate clients has been significantly transformed over the past two to three years," said the Sheraton's Gontarczyk, with more Polish firms wanting to throw their own Christmas parties. One example is Kons Invest, a local trading company, which had its holiday party at the Sheraton last year and will do so again this year, according to the company's vice president, Ewa Jeronim. "The place is nice and the Christmas spirit is there," she said.
