Corporate · December
A hall for the staff Christmas party
A 200-guest hall for a staff Christmas party, ten minutes from Steinbach and forty-five from Winnipeg. A December Friday is $1,000 for the whole building, seven in the morning to midnight. The bar is $80 a day, the stage is $80, and $200 holds the room to one.
There are four Fridays in December and every business between Steinbach and Winnipeg wants one of them. That single fact decides most of what follows.
What you get is one open room for two hundred, tables and chairs and dishes already in the building, a kitchen your caterer can actually use, and parking for the whole staff list at no charge. We do not set the room and we do not decorate it — that part is yours, and the room is plain enough to take whatever you bring. We do not sell food or alcohol either, so there is no minimum to hit, no corkage and nothing marked up.
- 4
- December Fridays in the year, and they go first
- $1,000
- Friday, 7 AM to midnight. A weeknight is $500
- 200
- guests in the room; 180 seated for a plated supper
- $80
- a day for the bar, and the same for the stage
What a December date turns on
Three things, and only one of them is money
The Fridays go first
September is not early for a December Friday. By the middle of October the good ones are gone and you are choosing between a Saturday, a weeknight and January. A Saturday holds a little longer. A weeknight usually holds into November.
A weeknight saves $500
$500 Monday to Thursday against $1,000 on a Friday, for the same room and the same 7 AM to midnight. Attendance is what you are trading, and for a party that runs to midnight a Thursday costs you less of it than people expect.
Somebody has to clean it
Ask this of any venue you are looking at, and ask it in those words. Ours is $250 and we do it the morning after — floors, kitchen, washrooms and bins. Skip it and the hall is left as you found it, which at midnight on the 23rd means a staff member with a mop and a family at home.
Two other things worth settling early. Nobody here dresses the room, so the linens, the backdrop and the centrepieces are the committee’s job; Let’s Celebrate Rentals hires out what we do not have. And if there is a bar, getting people home is the other job: parking is free and a car can be left overnight at no charge, which wants to be on the invitation rather than decided in the car park. The longer version of all of it — the booking calendar, the per-head budget and the argument for January — is in the staff Christmas party planning guide.
What it costs
The rates, and what a staff party puts on top
Every rental below is the whole building from 7 AM to midnight — there are no half-days and no hourly blocks. A weeknight is $500, a Friday or Sunday $1,000 and a Saturday $1,250. Everything under them is optional.
Weekday, Monday to Thursday
The whole building, 7 AM to midnight, for five hundred dollars. Seminars, fowl suppers, showers, funeral lunches, reunions and AGMs all book this one.
$500
Friday or Sunday
The same hall and the same hours as a Saturday, two hundred and fifty dollars less. Sunday afternoons get the west light off the field.
$1,000
Saturday
7 AM to midnight on the busiest day of the week. Room for 200, with 180 sitting down comfortably for a plated supper.
$1,250
Bar
The rolling bar, wheeled out to wherever you want it and backed onto the kitchen pass-through so whoever is pouring is not cut off from the room. You bring the drinks and the permit.
$80/ day
Stage
A raised platform for the band, the DJ, the head table or the speeches — worth it the moment you have 180 people sitting down and somebody at the back who needs to see.
$80/ day
Late-Night Extension to 1 AM
The rental runs to midnight; this holds the building to 1 AM. It costs nothing on the Saturday of a whole-weekend booking — that one is already included.
$200
After-Event Cleaning
Floors, kitchen, washrooms and bins the morning after. Without it the hall has to be left as you found it — which on a wedding night means somebody's uncle mopping at two in the morning.
$250
Late-Night Coffee & Squares
A fresh coffee run and a tray of squares put out around ten for the crowd who stay to the end. There is no point holding the building to 1 AM with an empty urn.
$4.50/ guest
One rate buys the whole building from 7 AM to midnight. Anything below it is something you add on top. Every rate we charge is on the pricing page, and there is nothing else.
Added up
Eighty people on a December Friday
The way most of them are actually booked: the bar out, a stage for the speeches, the building held to one, and nobody from the office mopping on Christmas Eve.
| Friday hall rental, 7 AM to midnight | $1,000 |
|---|---|
| Bar | $80 |
| Stage | $80 |
| Late-night extension to 1 AM | $200 |
| Late-night coffee & squares, 80 × $4.50 | $360 |
| After-event cleaning | $250 |
| Subtotal | $1,970 |
| GST 5% | $98.50 |
| Total | $2,068.50 |
That is about $26 a head for the venue, on 80 guests.
On a weeknight the same party is $500 less before GST. Food and drink are yours to arrange and are not in this number — at a catered supper they usually come to two or three times it. Decorating is yours as well; we do not do it and we do not rent it.
Before you book
Questions
When do we have to book a December date?
For a Friday, September. There are four December Fridays and they are the first dates in the year to go. For a Saturday, early October. A weeknight is usually still there in November, and mid-January is available at about four weeks' notice on nearly any date.
What is the cheapest night to hold it?
A weeknight at $500, against $1,000 for a Friday or Sunday and $1,250 for a Saturday. It is the same room and the same 7 AM to midnight — the only thing you lose is the Friday.
Who cleans the hall afterwards?
You do, or we do for $250. After-Event Cleaning covers floors, kitchen, washrooms and bins the morning after. Without it the hall is left as you found it, which on the 23rd of December means an employee who did not volunteer.
Do you set up the room and decorate it?
No. We do not set rooms, we do not decorate and we have no decor to rent. You get the building from 7 in the morning, the tables and chairs, and the kitchen, and you dress it however the committee wants it. For linens, backdrops, centrepieces and lighting we send people to Let's Celebrate Rentals, who do it for a living. The bar is $80 a day and the stage is $80; those we do have.
Can we have a bar?
Yes. The rolling bar is $80 a day and backs onto the kitchen pass-through, so whoever is pouring is not cut off from the room. You hold the permit rather than us — we do not sell alcohol. A corporation is capped at two Social Occasion Liquor Permits a year and the permit year runs 1 April to 31 March, so a summer golf day and the Christmas party come out of the same two. A corporation selling drinks pays $100; other sale permits are $250. Apply at mylgca.ca at least four weeks ahead.
Do you do the food?
No, and that is the point. There is no in-house catering, no approved list and no food and beverage minimum, so the catering budget is yours to spend where you like. Anna's All Occasions knows this kitchen, which shortens the conversation about it.
How late can it run, and how do people get home?
The rental runs to midnight, and $200 holds the building to 1 AM. Parking is free and it stays free if a car is left overnight, which on a night with a bar is the line worth putting on the invitation.
Tell us the December date and we will price it now.
Two minutes of questions and an itemised quote with the GST already on it — including what the same party costs on a weeknight instead.