Some quick tips, strategies, and reminders for the planning events for this month and next:
- You will receive additional attention from the media, so be prepared to set up photo shoots and take last minute press calls.
- Tours around the holidays can be especially busy as families look for things to do with guests.
- Consider offering something special that doesn’t demand significant staff time, such as warm cider or tea after tours, local choirs singing during your busiest times, etc.
- If you are closing additional days during the holidays (Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve), be sure to publicize this widely so that visitors are not disappointed (is your Web site up to date?).
- It can be difficult to cover shifts because many staff will want to take vacations during the holidays; ask about vacation plans now and consider parttime staff for extra shifts.
Thinking ahead to January 2009:
January 1: New Year’s Day. A federal holiday.
January 6: Epiphany (twelfth day after Christmas) marks the beginning of the carnival season preceding Lent and the evening preceding it is known as Twelfth Night.
January 19: Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday. The federal holiday is observed on January 19, 2009; his actual birthday is January 15, 1929.
January 20: Inauguration Day.
January 26: Chinese New Year, beginning of the year of the ox.
