What a French office Christmas party looks like
In many Paris offices, the Christmas party is not a seated dinner in a restaurant. It happens on site, in December, at the end of the working day: desks are pushed back, a table is cleared for the food, and colleagues eat standing, glass in hand. The French call a short gathering of this kind a pot, and a longer one a cocktail.
What surprises newcomers is the amount of food. When a reception starts at 6 pm and runs past 8 pm, it is expected to replace dinner. The French name for that is the apéritif dînatoire: a standing reception generous enough that nobody needs to eat afterwards. Plan a light pot for a long evening and guests drift off early to find dinner.
The other expectation is a festive note on the table. A December reception without foie gras, smoked salmon or a piece of Christmas log feels like any other after-work drinks. These customs are easy to meet: the festive menus already include them, with each piece carefully chosen and arranged on its platter, and delivered ready to serve.
Foie gras, bûche and crémant: the festive customs on the table
Foie gras is the French Christmas classic. In the festive menus it comes as a small gingerbread toast topped with duck foie gras and onion chutney: sweet and savoury in one bite. Smoked salmon is the other staple, on a blini with dill cream. French cheese has its place even at a standing reception, with a goat's cheese, fig and walnut toast and matured Comté cubes with walnuts.
The bûche de Noël, or Christmas log, is the dessert everyone expects. At a reception it comes as a mini Christmas log for each guest, alongside a macaron, a chocolate truffle and a cinnamon Christmas biscuit or a mini éclair. At the Christmas buffet it is served by the slice, with clementines and chocolates.
For the toast, French offices choose between crémant and champagne. Crémant is a French sparkling wine made outside the Champagne region, and a common choice for a festive toast. Both are options per guest, crémant at €8.90 and a glass of champagne at €9.90, as is white and red wine at €8.90. Water and juice are already included.
Which format for which hour
The hour decides the format more than the budget does. A one-hour gathering at 5 pm, before people head home, needs a light offer; a reception that starts at 7 pm needs a dinner's worth of food. Lunchtime is worth considering too: a Christmas buffet at noon suits colleagues with long commutes or young children, who cannot always stay for an evening.
The table sets out the four festive formats of the range, from the shortest to the most complete. Each comes with water and juice, disposable tableware and delivery across Île-de-France, and every piece is listed on its product page.
| Moment | Format | What guests eat | Price per guest for 50 |
|---|---|---|---|
| One hour after work | End-of-year drinks | 11 pieces: 7 savoury, 4 sweet | €14.30 |
| Two hours, early evening | Christmas cocktail reception | 13 pieces: 9 savoury, 4 sweet | €16 |
| Three to four hours, instead of dinner | End-of-year standing dinner | 18 pieces: 13 savoury, 5 sweet | €20.40 |
| Lunch or evening meal | Christmas buffet | a cold festive buffet with salmon, foie gras toast, turkey, salads, cheese and bûche | €30.60 |
10% off any order paid by 15 November On the end-of-year menus, for orders paid by Sunday 15 November at 11:59 pm (Paris time); options and delivery at the usual rate, not combined with the office subscription.
Order now to secure your date: the menu stays adjustable after you order. Swap items, change the headcount or options: we adapt with you up to 72 hours before delivery.
Order online →Dietary needs in an international team
A Paris team with colleagues from a dozen countries is likely to include vegetarians, people who avoid pork or alcohol, and someone with an allergy. The simplest rule: give the number of vegetarian guests when you order. Their pieces are replaced, so they eat as well as everyone else instead of picking around the platters.
Allergens are listed on each product page. In a Christmas menu, watch in particular for walnuts (in the goat's cheese toast and with the Comté), prawns (in the cocktail reception and the standing dinner) and fish (smoked salmon in most formats, taramasalata in the standing dinner). Share the product page with the team before the day: questions are settled by email rather than at the buffet.
Foie gras deserves a word. Some guests do not eat it, by taste or by conviction; in the reception formats it is one piece among eleven or more, so those who skip it simply take another. Every piece is named on the product page, which lets anyone with a religious or ethical restriction check the list in advance.
Alcohol is never imposed. Water and juice are included with the end-of-year drinks, the cocktail reception, the standing dinner and the Christmas buffet, and soft drinks at €3 per guest give non-drinkers something festive to raise for the toast.
Ordering in English, step by step
You order online in a few minutes, in English: choose the menu and the headcount, the date and the delivery slot, enter the company and on-site contact details, then pay by secure card payment. Payment confirms the order and reserves the date; a quote request on its own reserves nothing.
The notice is 24 hours, 48 hours from 100 guests, counted up to the start of the delivery slot. In December the constraint is the calendar rather than the notice, because delivery slots before the holidays are limited: order as soon as the date is set. The menu stays adjustable after you order, and you can swap pieces, change the headcount or add options up to 72 hours before delivery.
Written questions are answered in English, by email or WhatsApp; the phone line is answered in French. For a large company order, you can pay a deposit by card, sign a purchase order online and settle the balance by bank transfer. And for a request outside the range, a bespoke quote remains possible.
On the day: delivery, set-up and access
Delivery is included across Île-de-France, with a €90 supplement in Seine-et-Marne, within the slot you chose. The minimum order is €300 per delivery. Everything arrives ready to serve, with disposable tableware, so there is nothing to wash or return.
Guests help themselves: we deliver, and there is no service staff on site. If nobody on your side has time to lay out the buffet, on-site set-up is an option, €190 for 50 guests. For drinks in a room without a fridge, the cooling package costs €69 per 50 guests.
Give us the floor, the name of the person receiving and the access rules: badge, security desk, door code, goods lift. In December, reception desks sometimes close early, and a contact who answers the phone is what gets the delivery upstairs on time.