Hi ancy,

I love planning our office party every year. It's so much fun! That's great you'll have a caterer--less work there. Definitely music to keep everyone upbeat and in the Christmas spirit. I lean towards the standards like Sinatra or even Michael Buble--anything jazzy or upbeat. We do buffet-style for sure and this helps keep people moving and mingling. Last year, we put traditional English crackers around the place, and plenty on each table (those rolled papers with toys and hats inside). Enough for each person. This was great at the end of dinner since it provided some different "entertainment", plus, it got people to talking even more since you open the rolls by pulling each end like a wishbone. Anyway, I'm rambling....
So music, buffet, open seating, giveaways/small games (like holiday themed word searches on tables), you could do a door prize or raffle(s), how about a designated photo area decorated with holiday stuff (you know--like at your high school prom)? It's kind of funny, but people always go for it. Now I'm all geared up for our party.........! :)

Artsydiva has some wonderful ideas. Open seating is best altho you may want a head table for the boss, etc. Otherwise you have people sitting together who while agreeable at work, would like to duel it out with butter knives after they have been drinking.
Gifts are nice, party favors too. They don't have to be expensive. If you have table decorations or flowers those can be prizes as well. Put a number on the bottom of the decoration and everyone at the table picks a number. Winner gets the decoration.
we were just at a party in Beijing and each group got up and sang a song. the Americans sang "Home on the Range", There were little decorations in some of the cakes and if you got one, you won a prize.

Here is a crazy thing we did last year at ours. Rock/Paper/Sissor tournament. We had brackets so it was a double elimination and we started off with people from different departments and then went down to the winners. The first couple of rounds we did a few at once and then when it started getting down there we made them stand in front of everyone.

We also played "I never" each person had 5 coins and we read from a printed list things I have never done (not me in particular) and if you had done them you relinquished a coin. The last one with a coin wins. Some of the examples were
I have never snow skiied
I have never washed dishes for money
I have never camped in a tent
I have never sent a text message

We tried not to get too gender specific.

I don't know your budget, but 2 or 3 very nice door prizes ( in the neighborhood of $100 or more) really livens things up and gets people talking.
Are you planning on a welcoming address or any "words" by the boss?
Linda C

If you do the door prizes, please don't put the names of the boss(es) and their spouses into the drawing pool. At our company party, inevitably the higher ups and or/spouses take home a good percentage of the door prizes (worth about $50 each) which to me is not appropriate. This should be a party for the employees, make sure they win the prizes.