5 Christmas Products You Can Use Outside Christmas

There are certain Christmas products you might be surprised to discover can offer double-duty well beyond the silly season.

Check out these popular items and their possible applications for your event.

Christmas nutcrackers
The life-size pair of fibreglass nutcrackers that are stationed to greet you at the department store entrance at Christmastime are a festive tradition.

But they create a fantastic fantasyland effect to attract children's attention to a toy shop and since they're available in a range of colours, they might serve well to "formally" greet your VIPs at certain product launches. They certainly do create a sense of occasion!

A pastel pink pair of nutcrackers might create a delicious permanent entrance to a patisserie or even a lingerie store, for example.

Add a sheet of faux spiderweb netting, large plastic spiders, perhaps a mask and other props as well as a plastic skull at their feet and they can work for Halloween as well.

Christmas trees
The range of Christmas trees that become available every festive season continues to grow.

But did you know there are some trees which make marvellous centrepieces throughout the year, especially for venues with ultra-tall ceilings?

The best ones which offer you real year-round flexibility for a range of event themes are the rustic "Scandi-style" birch trees. They can be unadorned or pre-lit with LED lights.

They are the least "Christmassy" of all Christmas trees and can be transformed very quickly by adding theme-specific decor.

Consider suspending them with shells and starfish for a pared-back beach-themed party, nestle the trees in faux moss dotted with stuffed toy rabbits and yellow chicks and have them dripping in satin-finish eggs for Easter, or add spiderwebs, spiders and creepy decorations for Halloween.

Christmas wreaths
Typically added to the front door, a Christmas wreath is a decorating standby.

However, if chosen carefully your wreath can do also double-duty at other events as decorative table centrepieces.

Look for wreaths which feature less (or none) of the typical festive elements such as baubles and tinsel, and which might be made instead from natural elements such as peacock feathers, shells, twigs or even succulent plants. 

They will be less identifiably designed purely for Christmastime, and can be incorporated into your tablescapes, perhaps surrounding a swathe of LED pillar candles or a cylindrical or fishbowl vase.

Christmas LED candles
10cm high Christmas LED candles are designed to clip onto lush garlands and Christmas trees. 

You can program them to illuminate in a classic warm white or one of 12 colours. 

Since the green clip section is removable, you could also use them well beyond Christmastime to add an amazing lighting effect to your tables instead of wax candles if your venue insists on flameless candles.

Imagine having the "flame" glowing pink, for example for a flamboyant Indian theme, orange for Halloween, red for Asian New Year or Valentines Day, blue for a winter wonderland theme or green for a forest fantasy.

Christmas client gifts
It's usually around Christmastime that corporates try to arrange client gifting. But it's far less stressful if you arrange it so you can plan your calendar and budget for gifting throughout the year - and even have some of the gifts on-hand so there's no delay in giving them to clients.

There are some gifting occasions which require more budget such as thanking a VIP client and others which can be inexpensive, such as prize giveaway items at an expo stand or in a goodie bag.

The former might need to be personalised with their name and shipped locally, while the latter can be ordered ahead of time with your logo printed on them.

Consider a mix of gift items such as those presents which would please an adult (or their child) to make a relatively inexpensive surprise item, presents which can be kept indefinitely as "standbys", edible goodies which suit a range of tastes and gift occasions, and allocate part of your budget to sourcing personalised or customised presents for the real wow factor.

 Enjoyed this? Discover 5 Reasons Winter Events Beat Summer Parties