Holiday party statistics show a workplace tradition that is still widely planned, but increasingly shaped by budgets, employee preferences, food, scheduling, and comfort with alcohol. In 2024, 64% of companies planned an in-person holiday party, while 81% of employees planned to attend their company celebration. The figures below cover U.S. workplace surveys from 2016 through 2024, with each measurement period identified.
Table of contents
- How common are workplace holiday parties?
- How party formats changed from 2021 to 2024
- Holiday party budgets and business conditions
- Food, alcohol, and the guest experience
- Timing, attendance, and workplace expectations
- Gifts, bonuses, and alternative holiday perks
How common are workplace holiday parties?
The most recent figures indicate that in-person celebrations remain the dominant workplace format. Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that 64% of companies planned in-person holiday parties in 2024. The same 2024 Holiday Party Survey Report found that 4.5% planned virtual holiday events, while 6% said they never hold holiday parties. These percentages describe company plans for 2024, rather than employee attendance at every event.
Employee interest was also substantial in the 2024 ezCater Workplace Holiday Party Trends Report. It found that 81% of employees planned to attend their company holiday celebration. Among planners, 69% said employees attended the previous year’s holiday party. That distinction matters: planned attendance for 2024 and reported attendance for the prior year measure different periods.
Earlier OfficeTeam and PR Newswire survey figures provide a longer-term reference point. In 2018, 93% of senior managers said their company would host a year-end activity. In the same survey, 66% of managers said there was an unwritten rule that employees should attend. The wording describes a reported workplace expectation, not a formal attendance requirement.
How party formats changed from 2021 to 2024
The Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports show a clear change in the share of companies planning or holding in-person events across the measured years. In 2021, 13% of companies planned in-person parties, according to the 2022 Holiday Party Survey Report. For 2022, the report included two in-person figures: 56.9% of companies planned an in-person holiday party in the main 2022 result, while an earlier Challenger update reported about 42% planning one. Because they are separate reported results, they should not be combined.
The same 2022 report said 2% of companies planned virtual events. For 2023, 64.4% of companies held in-person holiday parties, nearly 4% held virtual events, and 4% included COVID modifications in their celebrations. The 2023 figures refer to parties held, whereas the 2024 figure refers to parties planned.
| Measurement period | In-person result | Virtual result | Source wording |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 13% planned | — | Challenger, Gray & Christmas 2022 report |
| 2022 | 56.9% planned | 2% planned | Challenger, Gray & Christmas 2022 report |
| 2023 | 64.4% held | nearly 4% held | Challenger, Gray & Christmas 2023 report |
| 2024 | 64% planned | 4.5% planned | Challenger, Gray & Christmas 2024 report |
These results should be read as survey snapshots, not as a single continuous measurement series. The reports differ in whether they describe plans or completed events, and the 2022 report contains both a main result and an earlier update.
Holiday party budgets and business conditions
Budget decisions were mixed in the Challenger, Gray & Christmas 2023 Holiday Party Survey Report. That report found that 66% of companies maintained their holiday party budgets in 2023. Another 8% spent less, while 33% spent more on holiday celebrations. Among companies increasing their budgets, 70% planned to spend under 10% more.
The 2024 ezCater Workplace Holiday Party Trends Report found that 43% of businesses increased their holiday party budgets in 2024. Its reported average holiday-party food and beverage spend was $44 per guest. That dollar figure is specifically for food and beverage spending per guest; it is not a total event budget.
The older OfficeTeam survey, reported through PR Newswire, found that 41% of organizations planned to spend more on holiday parties in 2018, while 7% expected to cut holiday-party costs. These figures offer historical context but should not be treated as a direct comparison with the later surveys because the source and measurement year differ.
The Challenger 2023 report also recorded broader business conditions entering 2024. About 35% of companies said conditions had improved, about 36% said conditions were on par, and 11% said conditions were worse. In the same report, 46% of companies reported increased hiring in 2023, 29% reported layoffs, 21% expected layoffs in 2024, and 20% were cutting costs in other ways. These are business-environment measures, not direct measures of party spending, but they help describe the financial context reported alongside the celebration data.
Food, alcohol, and the guest experience
Food was a leading part of the holiday-party experience in the 2024 ezCater Workplace Holiday Party Trends Report. A total of 78% of employees said food was what they looked forward to most at holiday parties, and 85% said food played a central role in fostering social interaction. The same report placed average holiday-party food and beverage spending at $44 per guest.
Alcohol was less universally comfortable. Nearly 57% of companies served alcohol at their 2023 holiday parties, according to the Challenger, Gray & Christmas 2023 Holiday Party Survey Report. In the 2024 ezCater report, 89% of employees said they tried to avoid drinking too much at workplace holiday parties. Also, 27% of decision-makers did not feel comfortable serving alcohol in a work setting.
Together, these figures describe two different parts of planning. Food was widely associated with anticipation and interaction, while alcohol involved both employee self-management and decision-maker concerns. The numbers do not establish why companies chose particular menus or beverage policies, so they are best used to identify priorities and points of caution rather than to infer a universal event formula.
Timing, attendance, and workplace expectations
The 2024 ezCater Workplace Holiday Party Trends Report found that 55% of employees preferred afternoon office celebrations. It also reported that Gen Z workers were 50% more likely than other generations to look forward to early work dismissals. The generational figure is a relative comparison, not a percentage of all Gen Z workers.
Attendance expectations have appeared in workplace surveys for years. In 2018, 66% of managers told OfficeTeam that employees faced an unwritten rule that they should attend. In 2024, the ezCater report found that 81% of employees planned to attend their company celebration. These results are not directly interchangeable: one measures managers’ perceptions of an expectation in 2018, while the other measures employees’ plans in 2024.
The 2024 ezCater report also found that 69% of employees attended the previous year’s holiday party, according to planners. This is an attendance result from the prior year as reported in a 2024 survey, rather than a forecast of completed attendance at the 2024 event.
Gifts, bonuses, and alternative holiday perks
Holiday parties compete with other forms of recognition and time off. In a 2024 YouGov Employer Holiday Gifts poll, 57% of U.S. adults said a cash bonus was what they most wanted from an employer for the holidays. Only 5% said a holiday party was the employer gift they most wanted, while 15% said an invitation to a holiday party would make them very or somewhat enthusiastic.
The same YouGov poll recorded stronger enthusiasm for several alternatives: 59% were enthusiastic about extra paid time off, 46% were very or somewhat enthusiastic about a gift card, and 32% were very enthusiastic about a physical present. These measures use different wording and enthusiasm thresholds, so they should not be ranked as though every option were measured identically.
Historical surveys show similar interest in alternatives. A 2016 TriNet survey found that 73% of employees preferred a cash bonus over a holiday party, 51% preferred office closure during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and only 20% still preferred the holiday party. In 2018, the Spherion Holidays at Work Survey found that 41% of employees ranked a holiday bonus as the number one holiday perk. In that survey, 46% said their company did not give holiday bonuses or any monetary gifts.
The 2018 Spherion survey also measured which perks employees said their companies offered: 36% reported a holiday party, 28% reported extra time off, 26% reported a holiday bonus, 22% reported office closure between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and 18% reported a company-paid holiday meal. These are reported offerings, not employee preference scores.
Office gift-giving and year-end celebrations
The 2018 OfficeTeam survey adds detail about workplace gift exchanges. It found that 58% of workers handed out year-end presents in the office. Among those gift-giving employees, 35% gave a present to their boss. The survey also found that 84% of workers who gave holiday presents did so because they wanted to, rather than because they felt obligated.
OfficeTeam also reported that 93% of senior managers said their company would host a year-end activity in 2018. Separately, 41% of organizations planned to spend more on holiday parties and 7% expected to cut holiday-party costs. These figures show how a year-end activity could coexist with different budget choices and personal gift-giving practices.
For planning purposes, the statistics point to several measurable themes: in-person events were planned by 64% of companies in 2024; 81% of employees planned to attend; 78% looked forward most to food; 55% preferred afternoon office celebrations; and 43% of businesses increased party budgets. At the same time, 57% of U.S. adults most wanted a cash bonus in the 2024 YouGov poll, making the party one possible part of a broader holiday recognition approach rather than the only form of appreciation.