When Planning a Holiday Event, You Need to Consider More than Food and Jingle Bells
Planning the perfect holiday event can take months of preparation.
What food will be served? What about decorations? What kind of musical entertainment should be lined up? Who to invite? These are just some of the most common questions one asks themselves when planning a holiday party.
What many don’t think about – especially when planning a large party with dozens or hundreds of guests – is the gear you may need to ensure your event goes off without a hitch and that your guests are comfortable and safe.
If you plan on holding a large event with a three-digit guest list, you’ll likely need gear you wouldn’t need if you’re hosting an event at your home or office. For large events, you should think about traffic message boards for directions, barricades or traffic cones for parking and pedestrians, as well as ground transportation, whether it’s for security, catering or shuttling guests back and forth.
To shuttle guests to and from your event, passenger vans can accommodate up to 12 people. Unlike a bus, these vehicles are nimble enough to maneuver around parking lots safely and have a narrower turn radius making it easier for drivers to pick up and drop off guests. Plus, the driver of a 12-passenger van driver is only required to have a standard drivers license, no CDL required.
Pick-up trucks and trailers, as well as off-road vehicles, may be another necessity for large holiday events. Pick-ups and trailers can be used for hauling decorations and a wide array of gear such as generators, and portable heaters for outdoor spaces and event tents. Off-road vehicles are also frequently used at large events for security, catering and clean-up crews.
(Pro tip: Consider Ground Protection mats to protect grassy areas from vehicle damage. Ground protection mats can also be used as makeshift walkways to keep guests from tracking dirt or mud into your event.
While renting trucks, trailers or off-road vehicles may be a good idea for the biggest of holiday events, , generators and heaters will likely be a necessity at events of any size. Whether it’s a tree-lighting ceremony, a holiday celebration with family and friends, or a company holiday party, you’ll need generators to power things like musical instruments, sound systems, lighting, and portable heaters, which can be used to warm outdoor tents, chilly interior rooms, and even outdoor spaces where people congregate.
If your holiday event is being held near or after dark, you may also want to consider portable lighting and surveillance equipment to protect people and property in and around parking areas and along obvious walking areas.
Undoubtedly, the equipment you’ll need to pull off a great holiday event extends beyond the obvious outdoor gear. Putting up and taking down decorations sometimes requires ladders or safer options such as scissor lifts or single-person lifts.
Light towers, plug-in style light carts or other portable LED lighting products are other items to consider because they are ideal for illuminating walkways, steps and parking areas.
To learn more about the equipment featured in this blog – and to rent – click HERE.
