Cinco de Mayo Office Style

That's not a valid work email account. Please enter your work email (e.g. you@yourcompany.com)
Please enter your work email
(e.g. you@yourcompany.com)

party table celebration with corn chips and salsa dip mexican flags Ah Cinco de Mayo—the fifth of May. Today’s holiday is to commemorate the May 1862 battle when Mexico defeated the French at the Battle of Puebla.

And many in the U.S. and around the world will celebrate this day with margaritas, Mexican-inspired dishes…and of course, parties.

Shouldn’t your office partake in the festivities?

To help make this holiday fun and lively, I scoured the web to round up a list of office party ideas just for the occasion. Below are a few “must-haves” for create an exciting Cinco de Mayo office celebration that everyone will enjoy:

Invitations

If you want guests to attend your party, you have to invite them. This is especially important if your business doesn’t regularly hold office parties because workers may automatically assume no events are taking place.

Be sure to save paper and e-vite workers to the office festivities. Microsoft Word has a range of Cinco de Mayo inspired templates you can use or creating an invitation on sites like Evite is quick and simple.

And don’t forget to make the invites creative. Party411 says:

A personalized fiesta invitation could be just the thing needed to get your party off to a great start. You can even roll it up and tie it with a fiesta bandana. Let your guests know that the bandanna must be worn in order to gain admittance into the party.

Decorations

No office party, especially for Cinco de Mayo, is complete without a few decorations. Party 4ll suggests a few creative decorations to set the tone for your gathering. Some include:

  • A chili pepper wreath
  • Life-sized cutout of a male or female Flamenco dancer (to really have some fun, you can put your manager’s face on the cutout’s body!)
  • Strings of margarita lights
  • Mariachi band, fiesta desert flowers and a Southwestern scene and/or sky posters

The site also suggests a few creative ideas for table decorations:

  •  Using the brim of a sombrero as a chip bowl
  • Displaying mini cacti place cards (can double as a party favor)
  • Accenting a Mexican Serape on top of table tablecloth
  • And never forget the piñatas!

Menu

We all know what type of dishes come with this holiday: enchiladas, fajitas, burritos and more. But, with an office celebration, it’s good to consider that you’re still at work. And once the party is over, many people may still have tasks to complete.

Don’t send them back stuffed and wanting a half hour nap. Make sure your menu is filled with healthy Mexican dishes. SheKnows.com suggests serving food, such as tofu burritos, chicken tortilla soup and tostada bowl salad, as healthier options. Delish.com says you can pair the main dishes with healthy snacks, such as an avocado and orange salad, crab nachos, Tomato Salsa with Cucumber “Chips”, and chunky guacamole (be sure to serve baked tortilla chips with this and you can even put them in cite-sized cups).

Games

What’s a party without games? Punchbowl.com offers a few ideas to keep your guests entertained :

  • Chili Pepper Guessing Game: Fill a jar with a variety of different chili peppers (keep track of what kind and the heat level) and have each of the guests try to guess how many are in the jar. The guest with the closest estimate wins a prize (like a basket with fresh chips and homemade salsa).
  • “How Hot?”: After the chili pepper guessing game, pick some peppers out of the jar (or prepare a selection of hot chili sauces and salsas), make a note of what kind they are and the heat level and then get volunteers to try each. Have the rest of the guests guess how hot they are before the risk-takers bite. (The site advises to have plenty of ice water on hand for this activity.)
  • Mexican Dance: Hire a dance instructor to teach your guests a traditional Mexican or Latin-inspired dance like the samba, salsa, meringue, rumba, bachata or folklorico.

And the final, and probably most important, must-have for your office celebration is to have fun! The point of preparing for an office party is to enjoy the festivity. Take a break from work, mingle with coworkers and let your hair down a bit. This Monday affords you the opportunity to actually have fun in the office; don’t let it pass you by.

By Shala Marks