Holiday and office party ideas in San Antonio

Activities that get people mingling

1. White elephant gift swap. Set a limit ($20 to $25 works for most offices), number the gifts, and let people steal. It costs the host nothing and fills 30 to 45 minutes. Tip: cap steals at two per gift or it never ends.

2. Ugly sweater awards. Announce it two weeks out so people have time to shop the thrift stores. Give three awards: ugliest, most creative, and best homemade. A $10 trophy from a party store is all you need.

3. A photo booth guests run themselves. This is the one that works for every crowd, including the coworkers who skip the games. People walk up in pairs and groups all night, and everyone leaves with photos on their phone (and prints, if you get a printer). More on cost below.

4. Holiday trivia. Mix Christmas movie questions with office or family inside jokes. Teams of four keep it social. Free, and you can run it from a phone.

5. Cookie or ornament decorating table. A good pick for family parties with kids. Store-bought sugar cookies, a few tubes of icing and sprinkles cost about $30 for 25 people.

6. Minute-to-win-it games. Stack cups, move candy with a straw, unwrap a gift wearing oven mitts. Cheap, loud and easy to run in a small space.

Food that feels like a San Antonio holiday

7. Throw a tamalada. Making tamales together is a San Antonio holiday tradition, and it doubles as the activity. Buy masa preparada and fillings ahead, set up an assembly line, and steam the first batch while people work on the second. For an office, order tamales by the dozen from a local spot and skip the work.

8. Taco or nacho bar. Easier than a sit-down meal and it feeds a crowd for less. Count on about 3 tacos per adult.

9. Hot chocolate and champurrado station. A slow cooker of each, cinnamon sticks, whipped cream and pan dulce on the side. It looks generous and costs little.

Ideas that work best for office parties

10. Go during the workday. A long lunch or a 3 to 5 PM party gets better turnout than an evening event, and nobody has to find a sitter.

11. Put your logo on it. Branded touches make a simple party feel planned. One easy way: a photo booth template with your company logo and the date on every photo, which also gives your team photos to post.

12. Hand out real awards. Five minutes of light, kind awards ("Best Teams background," "Most likely to reply-all") is often the part people talk about the next day.

What a photo booth costs for a holiday party

A staffed photo booth in San Antonio often runs $600 or more for 4 hours. With Mr. Booth, you rent the booth itself for a full 24 hours from $249. You pick it up near 211 & Potranco, set it up in about 15 minutes with our step-by-step video, and guests just tap the screen. Plan on two people for setup, since lifting the booth onto its stand is a two-person job. It needs about a 10×10 foot spot and one outlet, so it fits in a break room, a living room or a hall.

Every package includes a custom template with your names, date or company logo, and an online gallery with every photo from the night. A $100 deposit holds your date and goes toward your total. Fridays and Saturdays in December book up first.