Our Favourite Christmas Traditions From Around The World

Great Race loves Christmas and if you pop into our office anytime in November or December, you’re likely to see at least one of us wearing a Santa hat or Reindeer antlers!

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS AROUND THE WORLD

We’re always on the look out for fun new traditions and games to use in our Christmas themed events so we thought we’d share some of the most unique traditions we’ve stumbled across.

Austria

You may have already heard of Krampus from the dark 2015 film featuring Toni Collette but the tradition originates in Austria. Krampus is a beast-like demon and St Nicholas’s evil side kick who kidnaps naughty children and stuffs them in his sack. In the first week of December, Austrian’s dress up as Krampus roam the streets frightening children into good behaviour!

Japan

Do you know that the Japanese celebrate Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken? It’s completely true. Every Christmas season over 3.6million Japanese families pre-order KFC to enjoy on Christmas day. The KFC chains in Japan even offer a special Christmas dinner that requires ordering weeks in advance.

Estonia

Christmas Eve and Christmas Night are considered especially sacred in Estonia where children are sent to collect straw and then play with it. I haven’t played with straw recently but I hear it’s a rager.

It is also a good time for fortune telling as ancestors spirits are said to visit their families homes during this time and predict the next years harvest.

The penultimate Estonian festive tradition is the Christmas eve sauna with your family.  I’m not sure what this achieves but maybe there is less likely to be fights over lunch if you’ve all been a little vulnerable and sweaty with each other the night before.

Greece 

Greek families leave a fire burning over the Christmas season in the hope of scaring away the Killantzaroi who are a race of goblins who emerge from the earth and wreak havoc during the 12 days of Christmas. They are trouble makers who might sour your milk or braid your horses hair. I know my horse hates having his hair braided.

Venezuela

If you happen to be at Caracas this Christmas, you’ll want to bring your rollerblades. The cities residents rollerskate to church the morning of Christmas eve and enjoy the ceremony sitting, standing or skating. The streets of the city are closed to cars on this morning so people can skate to church safely.

CHRISTMAS IS OUR FAVOURITE TIME OF THE YEAR!

If you would like us to jingle your bells- drop us a line. We won’t make you take a sauna with us but we know how to bring the sugar, spice and all things nice to your Christmas Party!

How To Motivate Employees Using The Hierarchy Of Needs

There is a rumor going around that all staff want nowadays is a high pay cheque (well yeah, have you seen the cost of living?), the freedom to work from the beach while Instagramming their tans and a workplace full of bean bags. If this is what your company offers- then go you!

But for the most part, companies aren’t ready or able to make such drastic changes to their workplace culture and budgets. And let’s face it- while some people may want bean bags, employees needs run deeper than a broad selection of sitting furniture.

We have looked at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to help explain what really keeps employees happy and motivated.

THE HIERARCHY OF NEEDS IS AS FOLLOWS:

  1. Physiological Needs (basic issues of survival such as salary and stable employment)
  2. Security Needs (stable physical and emotional environment issues such as benefits, pension, safe work environment, and fair work practices)
  3. Belonging Needs (social acceptance and the feeling of acceptance in the company culture.)
  4. Esteem Needs (respect and recognition in the workplace, nice work spaces, and prestigious job assignments.)
  5. Self-Actualization Needs (workplace autonomy, challenging work and increasing expertise)

Maslow’s theory is a hierarchy for a reason, we seek to have all of these needs met in order of 1st to 5th. Most importantly is their physiological needs which cover wages and stability.

HOW THIS CAN AFFECT YOUR EMPLOYEES

If you want to have high performing employees they will need to be compensated according to their workload and skills. I know it sounds obvious but underpaying workers results in high turnover, lack of loyalty and unreliability which may cost you more in the long run.

Security

Security needs covers a broad spectrum of elements including not only safety but perceived fairness and commitment from employers.

If an employee believes that they could be fired at any time or is one of the 1.1million Australian’s who are underemployed, they are hardly going to give your workplace 100% of their energy and inspiration.

You could benefit from seeing how you can meet security needs in other ways, tailoring benefits and ensuring that there is a fair division of workload for each staff member.

Seeking Fulfilment

After needs 1 & 2 are met, employees will seek fulfilment in the other 3. If employees highest level needs have not been met, they will sacrifice Belonging, Esteem and Self-Actualization for Compensation and Security.

Self Actualisation

Self Actualization is becoming a more popular need in today’s company culture as employees seek autonomy and trust to complete tasks over structure and rigidity.

Belonging

Looking at these needs may help you ascertain that while you may not be able to let your employees work from the beach- perhaps what they are actually looking for is the trust to complete a task in a way that they find most productive. Perhaps you can increase their Belonging by having team bonding activities. You could contribute to their Esteem needs by rewarding achievements.

NUTURE STAFF

Whilst this all may sound like a lot of work and it may seem overwhelming for small businesses- all we can say is that valuing employees adds value to your business. The costs in productivity and retraining after the loss of an employee is often far greater than nurturing the staff you already have.

A Beginners Guide To Planning Your Work Christmas Party

We host hundreds of corporate Christmas Parties every year for everyone from small businesses to multinational corporations so we have learnt a few things along the way.

If you’ve been tasked with organising the event for your colleagues, it can feel daunting, stressful and burdensome. Where do you start? When should you book? How can you please everyone? How are you going to juggle this with all the work you already have?

START WITH THE BUDGET

First of all you want to start with BUDGET. How much money do you have to spend per head or in total? This budget may have to stretch to food, drinks, venue, entertainment and transport.

Whether you are working with a tight budget or feeling flush you will want to know managements priority spends.

Does you executive focus on having a great food and beverage package or prefers activities and entertainment? Knowing this will help you focus on the elements that are most important and delegate your finances and time to the right field.

THE GUEST LIST

Who will be invited? Is this a Christmas party for staff only or are you a family-focused business that invites partners and children? Will sponsors, board members or potential investors be invited? Each different group will need to be catered for differently.

You can organise a Family Fun Day whereby you save on venue and food by having an event in the park and self-catering, but you will need some activities to keep the kids engaged and give their parents a chance to enjoy themselves!

Events that are open to outside stakeholders will need to cater to that relationship and they may expect it to be fully catered and open bar. Here you may want to invest in elements that keep the event more professional so the celebrating doesn’t get out of hand.

Pro tip: have a specific start and end time so that your employees know they can go off and have their own celebration after

ORGANISING THE VENUE

Venue is a very important decision as it will impact the cost and tone of your event. Venue considerations include both the hire cost (or minimum spend) the flexibility of the catering packages and transportation.

It’s no use planning a huge night at a venue far that doesn’t have good transport options as people will be less likely to attend.

You may want to consider accessibility to parking, public transport or the average cost of taxi fares too and from the venue to make this as stress-free for invitees as possible!

THE RIGHT TIME TO BOOK

When should you book? Yesterday! If you are based in a major capital city, chances are venues and entertainment providers are already juggling a number of bookings for your preferred party dates. If you don’t want to end up having to hold your Christmas party on a Monday morning, you will want to get onto sourcing your options quick. Prices are likely to rise the closer you get to your event and your options become more scarce.

WE’RE EXPERTS IN PLANNING YOUR CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES

If you need help with your Christmas party and would like to know what problems we can solve for you, feel free to drop us an email. We always try to fit a booking in and can make things work for your corporate needs.