POV – You’re the EA tasked with sorting out this year’s Christmas Party. Planning another event is probably the last thing you need on your plate as the year wraps up, but Aurora is here to make it easier. To all the fabulous EA’s, event planners, event stylists, venue partners (or if you were the employee that drew the short straw and are now taking on the mammoth task of organising this year’s Christmas Party) – this guide’s for you! The beginning period of an event can sometimes feel a bit flat. The room isn’t really packed yet, people are entering in dribs and drabs, some colleagues and teams don’t really know each other, and everyone’s dead sober. How do you combat this? Book a roving act that is designed to be a conversation starter or book a roving act that is designed to serve your guests with a little extra ‘wow’ spectacle. We recommend any act that combines engaging performers with a champagne or canape service. Our Aurora favorites include: An Avant-Garde act that stops guests in their tracks and gets them talking is the key here. The performer engages the guest, and that guest talks about what they just experienced with another guest, which acts as a ripple effect throughout the event. All of a sudden everyone is connecting over what they just experienced. Aurora designs our avant-garde collection to create this exact reaction. From a literal walking lampshade and a showgirl who becomes a giant Hibiscus flower, to human sized roaming roses – our collections of bespoke avant-garde guest welcomes are curated to ensure that highly instagrammable and ‘Omg what even is that’ moment as your guests arrive. Roving acts are an excellent choice for corporate events, but there is a difference between a roving act designed for photo opportunities and elevating the atmosphere, and an act that actually engages your guests and encourages audience participation. Our absolute go-too recommendations for dance floor starters is booking an act that not only wows through costuming and performer presence, but the act is designed with a built in formula for getting your guests moving. This is not your generic ‘everyone learn the single ladies together’ (like a standard Hens Party package). Our Corporate Dance Party packages involve our highest energy performers taking your guests through some simple (but fun) trending dance moves across a popular dance style, whilst actively building the crowd energy and eventually turning the space into a full on dance floor. Our favorite styles for this include our Classic Dance Party package involving one of our performers accompanied by 2 of our DiscoBall Divas taking your guests through a dance workshop to well known songs (think your favorite TikTok moves), our Western Boot Scootin’ package involving our Line Dance performers showing your guest how to ‘Hoe Down’ (excuse our French), or our Samba Queens who will light a fire under your team as they bring the Brazilian sass whilst creating the ultimate dance floor party. Want to know more about these corporate specific packages? Get in touch here. Book the above acts without the dance class participation, but with the dance floor starter element. Our DiscoBall Divas and Samba Queens are known to elevate a dance floor and they don’t need to get your guests learning their moves to do it. Christmas Parties are evolving, and your entertainment should too! There will always be the timeless crowd favorite Christmas themed acts, but at Aurora we have specifically designed entertainment options to give you that Christmas Spirit – but elevated. Our favorites include our custom Toy Soldiers, a spin on the classic showgirls (but make it Christmas), and the roving red and gold roses, our architecturally designed costumes that give a bespoke yet summery Christmas avant-garde feel. Pair one of these avant-garde guest welcome experiences with one of our floor shows, and you have the ultimate Christmas Party Package. There’s only one way to do the ultimate surprise moment, and it’s with an Aurora Flashmob. Not necessarily a new concept, but there’s nothing quite like your waiters randomly breaking out into a dance routine. Our ‘Surprise Waiter’ flashmob packages also include a 20 minute dance floor starter immediately following, so if your after that major surprise effect, followed by a pumping dance floor – this ones for you. Organising the corporate Christmas Party can mean a lot more on your plate than just booking the vendors and coordinating the day (which is already a pretty huge job in itself!). Event planning in this case can also mean having to think about what suits your workplace, how to keep everyone entertained without making anyone feel uncomfortable, keeping with strict budgets, vague requests for a ‘wow’ moment and plenty more! We’ve heard just about all of it at this stage, so here are some of the most common entertainment problems we help event planners solve. Just about all our acts have a conservative costuming option! We have a carefully curated catalogue of conservative options for most acts to ensure our performers are represented exactly how you would like them to be at the event. The only acts that typically can’t be tailored are acts where safety requires a certain amount of skin showing, such as an aerial silks act or a fire act. Best value for money bookings at Aurora would be our packages that combine two acts at (almost) the price of one. Aurora has specifically created corporate entertainment packages where you can book a flashmob, and add on a guest welcome experience for a fraction of the cost. Another great value for money booking is having your performers stay longer, but with a costume change – you only pay for an extra hour of the performers time (which is significantly cheaper than the initial call you fee), but with a totally new feel when they emerge in a different costume later on in the evening. You know what – fair enough. And this is why we have our dance floor starter only packages, because we know some corporate events have a team who are more likely to freak out at the idea of forced fun than join in. The dance floor starter packages ensure no one feels forced to participate, but they also make it very difficult for guests not to join a dance party led by a dancing discoball or samba queen. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve gotten a brief that was so unbelievably vague, but with a very clear outcome – I want WOW. Tell us your event set up, your venue, and your guest demographic, and we’ll ensure you have a number of WOW options to deliver to your boss at the next ‘so what are we doing at the Christmas party?’ meeting. Say it with me – a surprise flashmob into a dance floor starter. This act is designed not only to surprise and excite (and get your guests up and moving once the flashmob routine finishes), but it’s a big wake up ‘wait what’s happening here’ to every guest in the room who was previously twiddling thumbs, planning their exit strategy or wondering when they can get to the bar again. For more helpful tips & tricks on booking entertainment for your next corporate event, check out our guide to budgeting for corporate events: The Corporate Event Planner’s Guide to Budgeting for Entertainment in Melbourne and our Christmas party ideas: Corporate Christmas Party Ideas: Entertainment Trends for 2026
You have an extended cocktail hour/guest arrival:
Top Tip #1 Book an act that blends performers and hospitality
Top Tip #2 Book an act that behaves like an ‘ice breaker’
You want entertainment that will create a dance floor and actually engages your guests:
Top Tip #1 Book a Corporate ‘Dance Workshop’ Package
Top Tip #2 (if the dance workshop isn’t really your thing)
You want a Christmas Theme… but without the obvious cliches
You want to create a major surprise moment
Entertainment Problem Solving
‘We have a conservative crowd, but still want amazing costumes/an amazing act’
‘What’s the best value for money bookings to really get the most out of our entertainment budget?’
‘We want guests involved – but our team will run a mile from forced fun’
‘Our boss wants a ‘wow’ moment – but no one knows what that actually means’
‘We’re worried the energy will drop after dinner and speeches’
Tash Mitchell is the founder and creative director of Aurora Entertainment. With end-to-end expertise across creative direction and operational delivery, she works with clients to develop and produce roving acts, flashmobs, avant-garde guest welcomes, floor shows, and specialty act features that shape how an event feels in real time.
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