The games are the easy part of a Christmas party to book and the hard part to plan, because the same game behaves completely differently in a hotel function room than it does under a marquee. This post is about that fit. Pick the games that fit the room first, then build the head-to-head formats and the prizes around them: which of our Christmas games work indoors with a low ceiling and no grass, which ones want the open air, and what to do about prizes. The eight games get their full write-ups on their product pages; this is the planning layer.
Games that suit a function room
Indoors, floor space and ceiling height decide everything. The rodeo reindeer needs a 16ft x 16ft clear area and 3ft 3in of access width, which fits most hotel function rooms and office spaces with the furniture pushed back, and it runs off two standard 13-amp sockets. The Reindeer Racing table is 10ft x 6ft and 7ft high, indoor only, and it comes with a trained operator for up to three hours, so nobody from the office gets handed a clipboard. The Batak Snowball Smash is the queue-friendliest of the lot: 30-second rounds on a 12-target reaction wall, so twelve players cycle through every six minutes and the twin LED displays keep the running score without anyone keeping score on paper.
A marquee changes the maths. The Rodeo Christmas Pudding runs on the same bucking base as the rodeo bull with a giant pudding in place of the animal, and it prefers the open air - the padded surround and safety matting take up a fair bit of room, and a bucking ride next to a low marquee pole is a conversation you want to avoid. The Bounce a Ball Reindeer Racing cabinet can go outdoors under cover, so it suits a marquee with a gazebo over it, and it works indoors too. Both rodeo rides need grass or a hard surface outside; check the surface rules on each product page before you promise the venue anything.
Head-to-head formats
For a head-to-head format, the games that run best at an office party are the ones with an obvious A versus B structure. The reindeer racing table is four players per heat - blue, yellow, red and green poles - so a party of forty runs ten heats in well under an hour, and the winners of each heat can race off in a final. The rodeo reindeer turns the same trick with its digital timer: every ride is timed, so the longest stay of the night is a result everyone can see and argue about. With the Batak wall, two players go back to back on 30-second rounds and the displays settle it.
One format we see a lot: split the room into teams before the party starts, run the racing heats as team points and finish on the rodeo for individual glory. It gives the quiet departments something to win, which a single headline ride does not.
Prizes and prize flows
Prizes work best when they cost the organiser nothing to administer. For the timed and scored games, a bottle behind the bar for the top score is the whole prize structure; we can supply the leaderboard boards for the reaction games if you want the totals up on the wall. For a fundraiser format, the Batak wall or the racing table can run pay-per-go with a pound a turn and a prize to the night's best score. The Santa and child photo cut-out board is its own prize flow, as it goes - guests take the photo home, the pictures end up on the company social channels, and the board costs £75 for the day. For the under-10s, the Deluxe Santa's Grotto inflates in under five minutes and takes a 13ft x 14ft floor area, and every child leaves with the visit, which beats any trophy.
The quieter corners of the room matter too. The Christmas Snow Globe is an 11.5ft walk-in photo pod, so it gives guests something to do in the gaps between heats, with no competition to enter, and it needs no operator beyond whoever holds the phone. The hot chocolate machine comes with a uniformed server and pours with whipped cream and marshmallows as standard, which is worth positioning away from the games - a queue for cocoa next to a queue for the reindeer is the one traffic jam a function room cannot absorb. Between those two and the cut-out boards, the people who sit out the rodeo still have somewhere to be, which is half the job of planning an office party.
School fairs and family parties run a different prize flow. Certificates printed at home cover the under-10s, the grotto becomes the headline attraction, and the games with adjustable difficulty - the racing tables in particular - can be set so the youngest racers still land a win. Ask us at the quoting stage how many players you expect and we will suggest the mix.
Room to know about
One limit worth checking before you book anything: the rodeo rides and the racing table all need a mains socket nearby, and the rodeo surround needs the full clearance - a room that "feels big enough" often is not once the matting and the queue barrier go down. Measure the room, then tell us the dimensions and the headcount and we will tell you which games fit.
The format tends to be the part people thank us for afterwards. After a staff Christmas party with the rodeo reindeer, Rachel Jolliffe's review said: "Everyone enjoyed having a go on the Rodeo Reindeer at our staff Xmas party. It all went smoothly, which is what you need when you're planning a party." The number for a quote is 0114 345 0135, and the full range sits on the Christmas category page, with delivery across Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley and nationwide for larger bookings.
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