Holiday Party Game Ideas to make your event a Success!

Scrambling for ideas to make your Holiday party a hit? As the Holiday Season is now upon us, Top Notch finds that the majority of events that require a DJ are Holiday parties and often corporate functions. After many years of participating, attending and servicing these type of events, the conclusion has been formed that Holiday parties serve 2 great purposes, they are 

1. Nice gatherings for associates to mingle, socialize, etc.
2. A lot of fun that actually brings employees and colleagues closer together

If you're planning a holiday party this year, don't allow a basic catered dinner to be the only event taking place for the party. Top Notch provides plenty of activities and games for all of our holiday functions, and thought it may be helpful to share a few of our most popular games below! The following activities are great for any party, not necessarily corporate functions, but family, clubs, or neighborhood holiday socials as well.

Please keep me in mind, these are just some of the many activities Top Notch provide for events. For more ideas or questions feel free to email directly at topnotchdjservice@gmail.com.

1. Oh Christmas Tree- This game does require ornaments, tinsel, garland, and various other Christmas tree decorations to be provided at the event and prepared prior to the guests arrival. 2-3 volunteers are chosen, meanwhile all other guests are divided in teams of 2-3. The teams have a specific time limit (usually 2-3 minutes) to decorate the volunteers as a Christmas Tree. Whichever team does the best job in decorating their assigned volunteer is the winner.

2. Holiday music or movie trivia- guests can answer individually or divided into teams can keep score. For a list of great Holiday questions, email topnotchdjservice@gmail.com

3. Name that Tune/Fill in the Blank- a clip of a popular verse from a movie or holiday song is played. The first guests or team that can either name that tune and finish the lyric receives a point. Play until guests have accrued enough points to win

4. Guess What's in the Stocking- A stocking is either hung or placed on the DJ Table. Guests must do their best to guess what's in the stocking. Hints and clues are provided throughout the event to help party attendees guess. The first person to guess appropriately takes the stocking as a prize

5.  Raise the Reindeer - Similar to the Shoe game Top Notch plays at weddings. 2 volunteers can play at a time, and are each provided with 2 different stuffed reindeers on poles. 1 reindeer is labeled True, meanwhile the other is labeled False. NOTE: Various other holiday characters can be used instead of reindeer for this game. Top Notch simply uses reindeer for our games (1 reindeer with a red nose known as Truedolph, the other with a black nose). The 2 volunteers must sit back to back and are asked true/false in regards to either the corporation or organization, holiday knowledge, etc. Volunteers answer by either raising the reindeer (or character) labeled as Truth, or the reindeer labeled False. Their differing answers make this game very humorous at parties. Great for CEO's, Managers, etc to serve as volunteers for this game.

Getting in the Holiday Spirit!!

It's December 1st guys, that means the Holidays are here and Christmas is only 24 days away!! Often times during this time of year, I get asked "Do you have fun Christmas music"? Not that there is anything wrong with good ole Bing Crosby, Brenda Lee and the other Holiday classics, but sometimes to liven up a Christmas party/event, customers are often looking for something more current, fun and upbeat. So, Top Notch has made the decision, to post 1song on the facebook page (www.facebook.com/topnotchdjservice)  each day for the next 20 days to help spread some more "fun, current holiday songs into your holiday music collection! And as always, all songs will be available at Top Notch holiday events this year! Swing on over to the facebook page and feel free to check out the "Holiday Collection" of music selections shared and feel free to let me know if there is a hit you would recommend or that I may have missed! Happy December 1st guys!! 

www.facebook.com/topnotchdjservice

End of Radio

Is it wrong to blog about another blog? I don't see why not. I could not agree more with Seth's Godin's blog in regards to radio. The blog, posted Wednesday November 12 is appropriately titled "And End of Radio". I have posted it below. Newspaper and hard copies of magazines have obviously taken a hit due to the digital age. Why need to subscribe to a newspaper when you access it only for free, or at the touch of your fingertips at your own convenience? Taken that same concept into the radio world, why listen to FM and public radio and deal with local commercials when one can easily turn on pandora, spotify, rdio, grooveshark, itunes, or countless other countless digital applications to listen to your music. Furthermore, one can select literally every song they desire to listen to. There's no need to turn the local station when a tune which one may dislike come's on the air. With digital music applications, the above situation is completely avoided. Will FM radio experience a "hit" similar to magazines and newspapers? I definitely think so!!! Seth's blog is below, you can read it at the following link.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/11/an-end-of-radio.html

An end of radio

Eight years ago, I described how city-wide wifi would destroy the business of local radio. Once you have access to a million radio stations online, why would you listen to endless commercials and the top 40?
I realized last week that this has just happened. Not via wifi, but via Bluetooth and the smart phone.
The car-sharing driver (Bluetooth equipped car, with a smart phone, of course) who picked me up the other day was listening to a local radio station. It was almost as if he was smoking a pipe or driving a buggy. With so many podcasts, free downloads and Spotify stations to listen to, why? With traffic, weather and talking maps in your pocket, why wait for the announcer to get around to telling you what you need to know?
The first people to leave the radio audience will be the ones that the advertisers want most. And it will spiral down from there.
Just as newspapers fell off a cliff, radio is about to follow. It's going to happen faster than anyone expects. And of course, it will be replaced by a new thing, a long tail of audio that's similar (but completely different) from what we were looking for from radio all along. And that audience is just waiting for you to create something worth listening to.