For the 7th year in a row the Westin Bayshore is holding it’s Christmas Tree Decorating Contest! Watch the trees get decorated live during the Dec 6th taping of Breakfast Television on Citytv. Come by the Westin between Dec 6th-28th & vote for your favourite tree, best of all proceeds will go to the Canadian Red Cross.

Amuse was asked to help out with the launch of this years contest by creating 3 unique & easy centrepieces that could grace any festive holiday table. Here is what we’ve come up with including where we found all items. Please let us know Which is your favourite table centrepiece.

Here’s a snapshot of the segment that aired on Breakfast TV earlier on Dec 6th. Centrepiece pictures with full itemization listed below.

1. Dr. Seuss meets the Nutcracker – this table pays homage to two iconic Christmas tales “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” & “The Nutcracker”. Total cost $129.91

• Grinch Christmas Tree – Divine Vines$39.99 to $89.99 each
• Holiday Train Set 24” – Canadian Tire$34.93 each
• Nutcracker wooden statues – Michaels$7.99 to $8.99 each
• Fairy ornaments – Michaels$7.99 each
• Snowflakes – Michaels $5.99 each

2. Holiday Dinner for Two – A perfect setting for smaller dining tables just for the two of you. Total cost $30.97

• Metal & Glitter gift boxes – Wonderbucks$2.50 to $9.00 each
• Miniature Poinsettias – Garden Nursery  $3.99 each
• LED votive candles – Wonderbucks$2.00
• Holiday Sleigh felt place mat – Michaels $3.49

3. Viva Glam – All that glitters isn’t just for Christmas, what about New Years. A black and silver holiday. Glamorous & festive. Total cost $148.27

• Black sequin trees – Canadian Tire$9.99 each
• Silver Tree branches w/ LED lights – Chintz & Company$34.99 each
• Silver glitter branches – Michaels$3.39 each
• Silver twig w/ crystal balls – Chintz & Company$9.99
• Silver star votive holders – Chintz & Company$12.99 each
• Snowflake napkin ring holder – Liberty$6.95
• Silver charger plate – Michaels $2.61

I hope these inspire you to get creative. We’d love to hear what you think so please drop us a note Happy Holidays.

Image via Wikipedia

I was asked to be a guest blogger for Eryn-Faye, Canada’s Passion Coach recently. When Eryn-Faye called she asked for my help in helping her reading plan their perfect Valentines Day date. Here’s what I had to say.

As an event planner at Amuse Consulting with over 10 years experience I’m the first person friends and colleagues call when they need to plan the perfect experience for that special someone. When Eryn-Faye called and asked for some advice on planning the perfect Valentines date I knew exactly what to say, it’s all in the planning!

Here are 10 of my quick tips for ensuring a successful date that is sure to wow your loved one.

The restaurant date:

1. Pick a restaurant you both have enjoyed and you know provides great food and service. Don’t try a new restaurant for the first time, you may or may not get the service you hope for.
2. Choose your table ahead of time. When making your reservation actually go into the restaurant and request the specific table you want. Perhaps you want a bit of privacy, maybe you want to ensure you are away from the entrance and the kitchen. The trick is to ensure the table you request makes the night about the two of you and not what’s happening in the rest of the restaurant.
3. Choose the menu ahead of time. Pick everything from the wine, the appetizers, main course desert etc… if you are not a “foodie” ask the restaurant to help you. The goal is to make your date feel pampered and also let’s them know that you’ve paid attention and really know their likes and dislikes.
4. Order your date’s favourite flowers and have them delivered with your Valentines Day card to the restaurant. Make sure you put the name the reservation is under on the card so they know what table to put them on for when you arrive.
5. Build anticipation… you’ve picked the restaurant, your table and the food now you start to tease your date with just enough info to make them wonder what you’ve planned. Let them know you have a date but give them nothing else, not the time, the place, anything.
6. Valentines Day morning start off with a cute and funny Valentines Day card. Include some of the details for your upcoming date. Let them know what type of outfit to wear and what time they should expect to be ready for.
7. Valentines Day after work it’s all about being stress free. Make sure that everything has been prepped in advance for the return home, candles are strategically placed, favourite mood music playlist has been created and is all set to go. When you arrive home it will only take two minutes for the mood to be continued.
8. Dress for success. The adage usually applies to work and career but it applies just the same here. Make sure you look your best, smell good, and have your hair cut the day or two before.
9. The perfect Valentines Day Gift isn’t about how much you’ve spent, its about how much thought went into it. With all the planning you’ve done on the dinner the gift should also be thoughtful and meaningful. One of my favourites costs nothing, relationship gift certificates! Create a few gift certificates that your date can redeem at a later time. Things should include experiences that your date often asks for but are not always possible due to busy lives. For example “a candle lit scented bath”, “a romantic massage”, “a home made dinner for two” are just a few of the possibilities. Be creative and make them specific to your loved one.
10. Most importantly be authentic, real and be present! The greatest gift we can give someone is to be in the moment with them and to give them our full attention.

Hopefully these will give you some inspiration in creating your perfect date.  If you choose to cook a meal at home see how the tips would be relevant and adjust accordingly.  The principles are the same.

Christmas Cookies

Everyone during the holidays has friends over, serves up drinks, and eats too much. It’s an age old formula and it works. What if you want to be different? How about a Christmas Cookie Party? Invite your BFF’s over, bake some yummy treats, drink some festive cocktails and give them a goodie bag when they leave.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Invite your favourite friends over. Keep in mind how many ppl your kitchen/entertaining space can comfortably hold. Ideally pick a week day that doesn’t conflict with other parties and leaves plenty of time to enjoy the cookies.
2. Pick one or two simple yet tasty cookies recipes. These can be cherished family recipes or from a tried and true resource like the Joy of Baking.
3. Guestimate about 2 doz cookies per guest, make your shopping list and get all your ingredients ahead of time.
4. Go to your fav store and pick up some cool containers. Places like Paboom and Wonderbucks offer a wide variety at great prices.
5. Create a cool and festive holiday cocktail. Nathan Fong of www.foodconnect.com has a few ideas for you.
6. The night of the party make a batch of your festive cocktails, lay out a spread of easy to prepare ahead snacks, organize and display all the cookie recipe ingredients on your kitchen counter, put on your favourite holiday play-list and put a stick of cinnamon in a small saucepan of water on your stove (festive smell without toxic candle fumes).

Yummy Cookies

Cookies, memorable moments and tradition sharing all great gifts for the holiday season. Happy baking.

Presents

Here’s a unique, fun, easy to implement and inexpensive event for your office this season. Whether your office is 5 or 5o people.

Mission: Relive holiday stress and inject a fun atmosphere in the office during the jam packed holiday season.

Idea: Host a holiday present wrapping party in your office with proceeds going to your favourite charity.

Execution:

1. set aside a 2 hour extended lunch for all staff on a work day during the month of December before Xmas.
2. encourage all to participate by making it a pot luck, and inviting them to bring their favourite holiday music to share. Christmas, Hanukkah all welcome.
3. set up a gift wrapping station with gift wraps, tape, bows, ribbons and name tags all courtesy of you their employer.
4. invite your staff to bring their presents in for wrapping and encourage them to make a donation of food, or a loonie per present with proceeds going to the Vancovuer Food Bank.
5. to add an extra twist managers can be the ones responsible for all the wrapping while the rest of your staff get to enjoy themselves and share holiday experiences with each other. This is a great team building tip

Result: A festive office environment that helps give back to those less fortunate + helps your staff to reduce their holiday stress .

What do you think? Wouldn’t you like all your present wrapping done in an afternoon?

Canuck Place

One of the staff team building events I was tasked with was a holiday party where I was charged with energizing the team, connect them to the community at large and ramp up the holiday spirit. I’m happy to say we did it and here’s how.

1. We set aside $20 per staff from the budget for a charitable donation.
2. Reviewing the company’s brand and staff demographics we selected Canuck Place as the featured charity.
3. Contacted Canuck Place fund-raising office and researched areas of need within the organization.
4. Canuck Place created a wish list of toys and items that would enhance the stay of families receiving support at the hospice.
5. Taking the wish list provided we researched prices online and created teams that would cover the cost of each item. For example a toy costing $50 would have 3 staff assigned to it. Team size varied from 1 person up to 5 and included all 48 employees and management.
6. With teams numbers and gifts made into raffle strips 1`manager + 1 employee put all raffle slips into a “hat” and one week prior to the party walked around the office and had every person pull a ticket.
7. Staff then had one week to find their team members, pool their $ resources, source the gift and purchase it.
8. At the start of the party (drinks and appies in the office) we set up a gift wrapping station and invited all teams to wrap their presents.
9. All staff was transported to Canuck Place where they presented their gifts and were invited to treat on homemade cookies and hot chocolate. Canuck Place has amazing holidays light displays so staff were welcome to tour the outside grounds + got to hear a small story about the work and families supported by CP.
10. Inspired by the amazing team at Canuck Place we loaded the staff back into the bus and continued on to the restaurant where they partied on in true holiday style.

So in short a great experience for the employees to work together and give back to a well deserving charity. Employees understood that management cared about them and created an experience that thanked them for the past years work. All in all a huge hit!

Amuse Consulting has created a unique gift that benefits a charity or non-profit long after the gift is given. The gift of Strategic Event Visioning consultation (value $150.00, free) will help charities plan and produce events that raise awareness, funds and engagement.

Events can take up huge staffing resources as well as pull from the same sponsor and donor base. With your gift Amuse Consulting can help your favourite charity to decrease stress and increase its event success all thanks to your generosity.

The Strategic Event Visioning consultation is a hands on two-hour session where we work with the organization to help revitalize, energize and most importantly create efficiencies to help maximize the benefits for all involved.

Here’s how to give this gift:
1. Think of your favourite charity that holds events and could use a 2-hour Strategic Event Visioning consultation from Amuse.
2. Contact their decision maker, and inform them of your gift. Let them know Amuse will be in touch to schedule an appointment that is convenient for them.
3. Email the contact information of the charity to Amuse for scheduling & consultation.
4. Send Amuse Consulting payment for the $150 – no wait! As our way of giving back all Strategic Event Visioning consultations booked in the month of Dec 2009 will have the $150.00 consultation fee waived. Your gift to your favorite charity or non-profit is absolutely free.

So take 5 minutes and give a gift to your favourite charity or not-for-profit that will be measured beyond the dollars and cents.