What should I wear for Christmas and New Year's?

3 Tips for Christmas Dress Code

With the festive season, your calendar fills up with all sorts of celebrations and activities. A Christmas breakfast here, an office dinner there: it's rightfully a busy month. To ensure everything runs smoothly and seamlessly, it helps to know exactly what to expect. A good way to prepare yourself is by observing the Christmas dress code. While there's no universal dress code during the holidays, with a bit of common sense and some research, you can easily find out what's expected of you. That's why GENTS gives you 3 tips:

1. Read the invitation carefully once more.
2. Adapt your clothing to the nature of the occasion.
3. Ask others what they're wearing or simply keep it understated.

Christmas at Work

You can't escape Christmas at work either. As always, there are colleagues who come alive during this period and colleagues who find it downright irritating. Of course, it's not just the decorations that show it's Christmas. A problem we all face: what do you wear to work at Christmas? It can sometimes be difficult to gauge what's appropriate at the office. Nowadays, tacky Christmas jumpers are tolerated at many offices—especially during the Christmas breakfast. From day to day in the run-up to Christmas, it's better to keep things business-like. Of course, you can update your normal outfit with some nice Christmas accessories. They add that extra something to your overall look.

Christmas Drinks

It's also time for the annual work drinks or perhaps you're organizing a nice Christmas gathering yourself. The anticipation often starts with the invitation. You've naturally sent or received this weeks ago. This way, everyone knows to block this date in their calendar. Besides the necessary shopping and arranging a suitable venue, the décor is also very important. Of course, we're not just talking about festive Christmas decorations. The clothing of your guests can also be quite important at a drinks event.

Christmas drinks generally have no strict rules, unlike Christmas dinner etiquette. Nevertheless, a theme is often attached to the festive gathering, complete with dress code. This makes the event that bit more special. So always make sure you have the necessary smart clothing pieces at hand in time. GENTS is here to help you both online and offline. After all, clothes make the man!

Christmas Dinner Etiquette – The Essential Points

Of course, we all do our best at Christmas. If you're responsible for the Christmas dinner this year or attending such a formal dinner for the first time, don't forget the proper etiquette. To help you along, GENTS has compiled the most important points below.

1. Dining at someone's home? Be thoughtful and bring a small gift.
2. Set the table neatly according to the general rules that apply.
3. Before sitting down, turn your phone off or at least on silent.
4. As host or hostess, you give a signal (usually in the form of a toast) when eating may begin. All guests wait politely for this starting signal.
5. Place your napkin discreetly on your lap.
6. Serving and clearing new courses always happens from the right side.
7. Work with your cutlery from outside to inside.
8. Don't rest your elbow on the table while eating.
9. Each new wine gets a fresh glass.
10. Finally, thank your host or hostess for the meal (even if it wasn't delicious) or receive the kind words yourself.

Festive New Year's Eve

Although Christmas hasn't even started, New Year's Eve is already just around the corner. The days between Christmas and New Year's pass in a blur for many people for good reason. So start organizing a festive New Year's celebration in good time. For example, are you throwing an elaborate party with friends? Then it's nice to add a theme. It can be something small like a gold accent. With a gold ribbon, you'd already meet the requirement. Besides, you can of course go all out. Think, for instance, of a dress code as a theme. All dressed up in black tie together is secretly quite special, and what better way to ring in a new successful year?