Office Christmas parties · Ottawa

Office Christmas Party Catering in Ottawa

From $42 per guest
$600 event minimum
Roughly 12 to 50 guests
Ottawa, within 25 km

Office Christmas party catering in Ottawa, for the team of roughly 12 to 50 guests that wants one good table without a venue contract behind it. This page covers the two formats a workplace party takes — the weekday afternoon in the meeting room and the after-hours evening — along with the budget per head, the invoicing, the dietary labelling a mixed team needs and the booking window for a December date. The wider month, at home and at work, is on our Christmas party catering page.

Plan your table Prices and terms Explore the menu

Launch imagery, shown to set the style. Photography of OH! tables follows our first styled events.

A reception spread on a pale office table: tartlets, topped crostini, crudités with dips, water carafes and an olive tree by the window.

The OH! approach

The workplace holiday table,
built in the room the team already has.

The office holiday table, by format

Format	When it runs	What each guest eats	Where it lands in the range
Afternoon grazing table in the meeting room	Two hours, weekday afternoon	About six to nine pieces per guest	The bottom of $42–$65 per guest
After-hours table that is the meal	Two hours from five or six	ten to fourteen pieces per guest, a second wave held back	Towards the top of $42–$65 per guest
Dessert table after a catered or potluck lunch	One hour, mid-afternoon	Two to three sweet pieces after a full meal	Quoted against the piece count
Event minimum	Any format	$600 before delivery and taxes	The figure for a small team
Delivery and on-site styling	Any format	$45 within 25 km	Quoted for the address past that
What holds the date	Any format	A 30% deposit and a signed quote	Final count 7 days before

Twelve to fifty, in the room you already have

Most Ottawa office parties in this size band happen in the office: the largest meeting room, the kitchen island on the floor, the open area by the windows. The room decides the build. A boardroom credenza takes a short, tall composition; a kitchen island is reached from three sides and wants height in the middle; a cleared run of desks pushed together makes a long surface that reads like a proper table once it is covered. Send the length and depth of whatever you have and the composition is planned to it, with the end nearest the door kept clear so the queue forms away from the coats.

Weekday afternoon or after hours

The afternoon party, usually between two and four on a Thursday or Friday, sits between lunch and dinner. People have eaten, most of them will eat again at home, and the table is grazed across two hours by a group that keeps drifting back to it. Plan on the two-hour afternoon quantity, around six to nine pieces per guest. The after-hours party from five or six replaces dinner for almost everyone in the room, so the table is built as the meal: ten to fourteen pieces per guest over two hours, the substantial savoury category roughly doubled, and a second wave held back for the hour after the speeches.

The office itself, or a rented room

An office party in the office runs on the building’s rules: the loading dock or the front door, the service lift, the security desk, and whether the room is free for a setup window before anyone finishes work. Those four answers go in the first message and the quote carries a realistic arrival time. A rented room — a restaurant’s private space, a community hall, a hotel meeting room — books in a fixed block, which fixes the build window and the pack-down time, and many have their own rules about outside food. Both are confirmed with the venue before the quote goes out, so the day carries no surprises.

Budget per head, worked plainly

Styled tables start at $42 per guest, plus applicable taxes, and the working range runs $42–$65 per guest, with the top of it being tables that replace a meal. Your quote is built from four things: guest count, table format, how long the event runs and the setup the room needs, and it separates food, styling and delivery so each part of the number is visible. The event minimum is $600 before delivery and taxes. Delivery and on-site styling are $45 within 25 km. Past that, the charge is quoted for your address before you book. An afternoon grazing table for a team sits at the bottom of that range; an after-hours table that is the meal sits towards the top of it. A small team can land under the minimum at the per-guest price, and then the minimum is the figure. Every quote separates food, styling, delivery and travel so the finance side can see what each line is before it is approved.

Invoicing, purchase orders and the accounts email

A company can be invoiced rather than charged to a card. Send the billing entity, a PO number where your finance team uses them, and the accounts email with the enquiry, and the quote comes back addressed correctly the first time. The deposit and the balance follow the same terms as any other booking, and both are on the quote in writing, which is usually what the person approving the spend wants to see before the date is held.

Dietary labelling for a mixed team

A workplace guest list is the one a host knows least about: the new hire, the contractor, the partner who came along. Every item on the table carries a written card with its plain name first and its dietary markers second — vegetarian, vegan and gluten-aware items marked, and any common allergen named — using the same markers across the whole surface, so nobody has to ask a colleague what is in something. Share dietary preferences and allergy information when you enquire. We plan suitable choices and label the table clearly. For severe or life-threatening allergies we talk through cross-contact before you book, and we cannot guarantee allergen-free preparation on a shared table. Halal and kosher preparation are things OH! cannot claim today, and we say so before a quote goes out.

The booking window for a December office date

Two to four weeks is a comfortable planning window for a styled table. December dates, long-weekend Saturdays and shower season fill earliest, and short-notice weekday events are always worth asking about. The workplace party has one quiet advantage over the family one: it can move to a weekday, and weekday afternoons and evenings in December stay open long after the Saturdays have gone. A 30% deposit and a signed quote hold your date, and the balance is due 3 days before the event. Move or cancel more than 14 days out and the deposit is refunded; inside that window it covers the sourcing already committed. Final guest count is due 7 days before the event. After that the shopping list is set: numbers can still rise, and the count stops coming down. A team count moves until the last week, so collect the yes-and-no replies early and send the final number when it is due.

What happens on the day

We arrive ahead of the team, build the table in the room in 45 to 90 minutes, and the display is composed before the first person steps away from a desk. A table holding dairy and cured meat comes down after about two hours at room temperature, and after about one hour once the space is warmer than about 32 °C. An office in December runs warm rather than hot, so the two-hour window is the one to plan against, with the second wave kept in the office fridge until it is wanted. At the end the serving pieces leave with us, either the same evening or the next morning by arrangement with your facilities contact, and the leftovers are boxed and left with you. A styled table is built to run itself, so most events need nobody standing behind it. Where yours needs hands on the floor, say so when you enquire and we will tell you straight away whether we can cover your date and what it would take.

The paperwork a building or a rented room asks for

Managed buildings and rented rooms ask suppliers for documentation more often than a private home does, and the question belongs in your first message. OH! works out of a commercial kitchen in Ottawa that we rent by the hour, so the premises permit for it belongs to the facility rather than to OH!. There is no liability policy in OH!'s own name today, so a venue-specific certificate of insurance is something we cannot supply. Venues in Ottawa routinely ask suppliers for one, so raise it with us early and you get a straight answer for your date and venue in writing.

Where this page hands over

The calendar for the whole month, at home and at work, is on our Christmas party catering page. Where the team wants the December version of the grazing format in full — winter produce, evergreen and citrus styling, hold times — our holiday grazing table page carries it. The published figures and the terms behind them are on our pricing page, the sequence from enquiry to empty platters is on our how it works page, and the parts of Ottawa we deliver into are on our locations page.

What comes next

Three pages carry what comes next. The numbers sit on catering prices and terms, the sequence from first message to pack-down is written out on how it works, and when you are ready to plan your table the form asks for a date, a guest count and the room.

Straight facts

What you can check
before you call.

OH! is new in Ottawa, so the numbers below stand where a wall of reviews would. Each one is published here and written into your quote in the same words.

The whole sequence, step by step

The published price: $42 per guestThe working range runs $42–$65 per guest, with the top of it being tables that replace a meal. The event minimum is $600 before delivery and taxes. Every figure is quoted plus applicable taxes.
A reply in writing: one business dayThe reply names a starting format, the two or three questions that move the number, and what it takes to hold your date.
What commits you: 30%A 30% deposit and a signed quote hold the date, and the balance is due 3 days before the event. Move or cancel more than 14 days out and the deposit is refunded.
Dietary needs: Planned and labelledShare dietary preferences and allergy information when you enquire. We plan suitable choices and label the table clearly. For severe or life-threatening allergies we talk through cross-contact before you book, and we cannot guarantee allergen-free preparation on a shared table.
Where the food is made: A kitchen we rent by the hourOH! is a service-area business in Ottawa. Food is prepared in a rented commercial kitchen in Ottawa, then delivered and composed on the table in your space. There is no storefront and no public address.

Questions, answered

Before you
say OH!

What does a styled table cost?

Where do you deliver, and what does delivery cost?

Delivery and on-site styling are $45 within 25 km. Past that, the charge is quoted for your address before you book.

How do you handle allergies and dietary requirements?

Share dietary preferences and allergy information when you enquire. We plan suitable choices and label the table clearly. For severe or life-threatening allergies we talk through cross-contact before you book, and we cannot guarantee allergen-free preparation on a shared table.

Weekday afternoon or after hours: which costs less for an office Christmas party?

$42–$65 per guest is the working range, plus applicable taxes. An afternoon table sits between lunch and dinner and is grazed, so it plans against six to nine pieces per guest and lands at the bottom of the range; an after-hours table replaces dinner, plans against ten to fourteen pieces per guest with the substantial savoury category roughly doubled, and lands towards the top of it.

How late can we book an office party in December?

Two to four weeks is a comfortable planning window for a styled table. December dates, long-weekend Saturdays and shower season fill earliest, and short-notice weekday events are always worth asking about. A workplace party can move to a weekday, and weekday afternoons and evenings stay open long after the December Saturdays have gone. The final guest count is due 7 days before the event, so a team count that moves until the last week is fine.

Can you invoice the company and quote against a PO number?

One written quote, itemised into food, styling, delivery and travel, with the deposit and balance terms on it, is what an approver usually wants to see before the date is held. Send the billing entity, the PO number where your finance team uses them and the accounts email with the enquiry, and the invoice goes to the company.

The full question list

How OH! works

Have a date in mind?

Let’s make the table the easiest part of the party.

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