Yep, we did it. The body of summer is barely cold, and November only just arrived on the calendar, but the C bomb has been officially dropped. And while this might be a controversial opinion, we believe that Christmas Eve is the unsung hero of the festive season, when the excitement levels are high, anticipation is in the air, and the vibe is loose, merry and warm. That said, there can often be a sense of ‘being at a loss’ on the 24th, and of not using the time particularly effectively. But with all the family together and the mood jolly, it can be a truly rewarding day. Here’s how; our 5 IDEAL ways to spend Christmas Eve.

DO TOMORROW’S PREP

To avoid the mad rush of Christmas morning, hands full of stuffing and arms deep in the fowl of your choice, it’s prudent to get some of the Christmas dinner prep done in advance. Plenty can be done a day ahead of time and if it’s a team effort, with all the family involved, it can be a great way to bond. That stuffing we mentioned can be made, spuds peeled and left in cold water overnight, pigs wrapped in their cosy bacon blankets, carrots parboiled and refreshed, turkey trussed ahead of time, table settings laid…the list goes on. If you’d like some more advice on cooking the best Christmas dinner ever, then check out our IDEAL guide here.

CHRISTMAS LIGHT SPOTTING

During the festive season, beautiful, sometimes garish light displays appear in front gardens up and down the land. So, once it’s gotten dark on Christmas Eve, take a little drive around town to see all of your city’s Christmas lights. There’s no better way to bring out the festive cheer and childlike wonder of the occasion. 

SHARE CHRISTMAS EVE BOXES

Christmas Eve boxes are becoming increasingly popular for many families during the festive period; a little extra gift giving to kick off the sense of sharing and caring which is so great about the season. You can put whatever you like in them; a special Christmas card, chocolates, small gifts, and more.

Sharing and opening a Christmas Eve box before the rush and excitement of Christmas day is a wonderful way to spend the evening together and to appreciate the smaller things in life. It’s also a great tactic to calm down excited children before they go to bed! 

CHRISTMAS MOVIE TIME

As fun as the Christmas period is, it is also exhausting when you have to plan presents, Christmas dinner, and even further afield for Boxing Day.

We think, then, that it’s totally cool before the big day to take the evening to yourself and watch a heart-warming Christmas movie; getting in the Christmas spirit never felt more fun. Make yourself a luxurious hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows and enjoy a chilled evening so that you can spend the next day refreshed and filled with energy. 

CONTINENTAL CHRISTMAS EVE

To celebrate another year of being part of the EU, consider channeling the energy and spirit of our continental cousins on Christmas eve. As this day is traditionally a fasting day, and abstinence from meat occurs in preparation for the next day’s roast, seafood takes centre stage in many houses. In Italy, Christmas eve dinners are dominated by seafood (they call it ‘the feast of the seven fishes) and that sounds alright by us! Octopus salad, spaghetti with clams, a whole grilled seabass, cauliflower and anchovy salad…it’s all there and it’s all terribly delicious. Or do it like the Spanish, a little more simply, and serve up lobster and hake for the 24th feast. Wow.

Whether you view it as a hurdle to the main event or essential to getting into the Christmas spirit, there’s no fighting the fact that the festive party season is upon us. And perhaps the main event of the calendar, the office party, is approaching fast. 

A company Christmas party used to be an excuse to get really, really drunk, swear at your boss and sneak off for a proper night out with your favourite colleagues. But recently, increasingly, it’s become the ideal opportunity to make employees feel valued and offer everyone a genuine chance for team bonding. From bar hire with cocktail making classes to private movie nights, there are plenty of ways to create a unique festive atmosphere. These are those; our 5 IDEAL ways to make your company Christmas party one to remember.

BLACK TIE BOOST

Escapism; that’s what we’re here for isn’t it? To shed the civvies and feel a little bit special. Not, we think, simply supping a warm guinness and talking shop in the smoking area with Janet from accounts. So, while it may not be unique or an unheard-of idea, giving the team the chance to dress to the nines and go out somewhere fancy for dinner shows your employees that you value their contribution. A really classy move would be to pay for black tie and dinner dress hire for the team. Oh, and of course, champers is on the boss!

PLAYING AWAY

While you could always host the party at the office, doing so may well dampen the festive spirit as your employees will be spending their free time at their place of work. And there really is no greater buzzkill than sitting at your very own desk, sipping a can and contemplating meeting some deadlines until the party’s over. So, providing an alternative location should be an absolute must. Doing so will encourage people to let their hair down and foster a sense of camaraderie with co-workers.   

KEEP IT CLASSY WITH PRIVATE BAR HIRE

If a formal gathering at a fancy restaurant isn’t possible with the budget you have available, or if it’s simply not appealing to you and your team, a simple and effective way to add class to any occasion is through private bar hire. Doing so provides you with an open bar and the bespoke services of a professional bartender; not only do you get to enjoy delicious drinks but having them prepared for you ensures you can spend as much time socialising as possible. 

Another brilliant idea for bar hire services is to incorporate cocktail making classes into the fun, adding a sense of competition to the occasion, and also giving employees new skills to take away and deploy for the rest of the Christmas holidays. Expect hangovers on their return!

A WEEKEND AWAY

If the company coffers are swelling sufficiently, then a weekend away for your team could hit the mark. This doesn’t mean you have to whisk them off somewhere extravagant and stay in a five-star hotel, but you’ll find that with a reasonably good budget and a bit of research you can find an awesome Airbnb in a town or city that suits your needs. Be aware and sensitive to the fact that forcing employee’s to sacrifice their free time for a work trip may not be everyone’s idea of fun, so take a temperature test of the office mood prior to arranging anything. Otherwise, you may have dissent on your hands rather than delight.

This choice is especially popular for companies with remote employees, as it offers an ideal chance for some face-to-face interaction with their colleagues and build stronger working relationships — which is often difficult to achieve via Skype, email or instant messaging apps.

A NIGHT AT THE MOVIES

Not everyone loves the raucous, rambunctious traditions of a Christmas party. Perhaps something more lowkey could be good, for those wanting to get home to their families. Consider, instead, getting into the Christmas spirit with a festive film, and hire out a screening room at your local cinema. At most cinemas offering this service, you’ll have the choice between a current film or one of your choosing. The latter tends to cost more though, so if there’s a Christmas film currently showing that everyone wants to see, fantastic. Better yet, why not invest in pop up cinema hire for that extra special touch? Your staff will appreciate the effort!

If that exceeds the budget, there is an endless list of Christmas classics that would be well worth revisiting. 

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We’ve all been there. Parched mouth, aching head, heavy limbs, vowing to never, ever drink again. We’ve also all been there, cursing our go-to hangover cures for failing us once again.

To find a better solution, it might be useful to look at the causes. There are typically two schools of thought about what actually brings on a hangover and determines its severity. Some experts believe that overindulging in alcohol causes a disruption in your biological rhythms. Others blame alcohol withdrawals. There’s even some research that suggests it may be the impurities that are produced when the alcohol is distilled that leave you feeling nauseous. 

So, what’s that headache all about? Well, it turns out that alcohol is also a diuretic, which means it’s likely that you’re dehydrated. On top of that, your body is being forced to adjust to the rapidly dropping blood alcohol levels since you’ve stopped drinking. Jeez, that’s a lot to take in. Well, aside from the greatest healer of all, time, there are some failsafe ways to alleviate the symptoms just a little. And with Christmas parties beginning to bear down on us all thick and fast, this might be the most useful article you’ll read today; our 5 IDEAL party season hangover cures.

REPLENISH & REHYDRATE

One of the best ways to reduce the risk of waking up with a severe hangover when you’re partying is to alternate water and alcohol during the night. This will help you avoid dehydration and slow down your alcohol consumption at the same time. And that old ‘down a pint when I get home’ isn’t a bad shout either. 

You need electrolytes as well, so go hard on things like coconut water or sports drinks that have salt and potassium, and if you really want to bounce back fast, IV therapy will rehydrate and replenish important vitamins and trace minerals quickly. IV therapy works faster and more efficiently than simply drinking fluids because it bypasses the digestive system completely, with the fluids and nutrients going directly into your bloodstream where they can do the most good.

A look at the current market introduced us to The ‘All-Nighter’, an NYC vitamin IV drip that contains all the fluids your body needs for recovery. It also has essential B vitamins to provide energy and improve focus. This type of IV hydration therapy is becoming increasingly popular for those needing to feel sharp the morning after the night before, who don’t have to luxury of taking the day off to recover.

GET SOME CALORIES IN YOU

As rough as the prospect may feel to your stomach, a hearty breakfast can cure all. It helps by replenishing the nutrients you lost while you were partying. Getting some calories in you will also help get your energy levels back up to where they need to be. Don’t overdo it though. This isn’t the time for a big, greasy breakfast. In fact, the best hangover foods are far removed from a Full English. Instead, they are easy to digest, like a smoothie, oatmeal, or some toast with marmite.

And perhaps give the coffee a swerve. It’s also a diuretic, and can leave you more dehydrated than before you decided on a save-the-day cup of Joe. Instead, go for a fizzy drink, which helps replenish sugars and to us, is one of the best hangover pick-me-ups around.

SUPPLEMENT SAVIOURS

While there is no true cure for a hangover, certain supplements may ease your hangover symptoms markedly. Here are a few supplements that have research to back up their ability to reduce the symptoms of a hangover:

• Ginger: Ginger is a traditional remedy that has been used to reduce nausea, vomiting, and upset stomach for centuries. Try popping a couple of ginger capsules, nibbling on some crystallized ginger, or sipping on some ginger tea to settle your stomach. Or, go for the jugular, and just take a big bite of the stuff straight off the shelf.
• Red Ginseng: Research shows that red ginseng can reduce the level of alcohol in the blood and reduce the severity of the hangover. The plant is tough to find in the UK, but your high street health food shop will more than likely stock it in supplement form.
• Prickly Pear: Prickly pear also shows some promise for relieving hangovers. One study showed that it can decrease their symptoms and severity by half.
• Eleuthero: Eleuthero, also called Siberian ginseng, has also been shown to relieve hangover symptoms.

CHOOSE YOUR DRINK WISELY

Prevention is better than cure, as many a wise person has declared over the years. So, drink choice is vital in keeping the hungover wolf from the door. Of course, the best way to avoid a hangover is simply not drink any alcohol, or stick to the alcohol stuff, of which the market has seen a marked improvement recently; check out our article on 5 IDEAL non or low alcoholic drinks for the festive season over here.

Alternatively, you could be discerning about which alcoholic drink you enjoy. Try to avoid those with deep, dark shades, as the byproduct of fermentation which causes these colours, called congeners, is thought to worsen hangovers significantly. So, that’s brandy, whiskey and red wine given a swerve, then. Also, drinks with loads of sugar in their mixer can exacerbate your bad head the next day. Mulled wine, which contains both red wine and plenty of sweet stuff, should be strictly avoided, then. 

Instead, lighter spirits like vodka and gin (on moderation of course) combined with lower in glucose mixers like unsweetened tonic water (the flatter the better) are the way forward.

SLEEP IT OFF

Chances are you didn’t get enough sleep if you were out partying half the night, and even if you did, alcohol causes a disrupted, unfulfilling night if ever there was one. Although lack of sleep isn’t a direct cause of your hangover, it can definitely make you feel worse. If there’s any way you can manage it, once you’ve hydrated, eaten something, and taken whatever steps you can to get some relief, go back to bed and sleep it off. It’s the best way to help your body heal itself.

The touch of a button. The revealing of a personal fact. The opening of the wrong page. The most innocuous action can open up your business to a whole assortment of threats online. And without adequate online business protection, the consequences can be significant. Breaches to your system, lost data, stolen identities and more can cost you money, downtime, a loss of consumer trust and in some cases, the downfall of a company.

Yep, it’s more important than ever to ensure that you have a robust network security policy in place and the personnel capable of carrying it out so that your business can continue to be safe from external attacks and financial catastrophe. With that in mind, here are 4 IDEAL tips for protecting your business online.

BEWARE OF MALWARE

Unprotected computer systems are an open door to malicious hackers and cyber crooks looking to crack your digital safe. It’s so vital, then, to be aware of the main threats your company might be exposed to online, in order to fully protect yourself against them. One of the ways they achieve this is by using malware; sneaky software designed to infiltrate a network and either control, steal or destroy data. It’s a pesky problem, but with the right protection you can mitigate the effect of such attacks on your network, or better still, completely keep them out.

USE A FIREWALL AS A FIRST LINE OF DEFENCE BUT ADOPT ZERO TRUST ARCHITECTURE

Firstly, make sure you have a robust firewall in place as a critical first line of defense. Not all firewalls are created equal and whilst there are free solutions with most routers, it’s worth doing your homework and getting a well-reviewed and easy-to-update system in place. This will make sure you stay protected as new malware is released.

Make sure all systems used by your business have this in place, from desktops and laptops to mobile devices, so that threats are stopped at the source regardless of where staff are based and how blase they might be about online security. Risky emails, unauthorized software downloads and disreputable websites can all harbor malware and virus dangers, so invest in a solid content filter. For example, the one developed by the Watchguard Online team is well equipped to keep those risks at bay.

Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) is a cybersecurity model that operates on the principle of ‘trust nothing, verify everything’. Rather than assuming everything behind a corporate firewall is safe, ZTA proposes that everything, from users to devices to systems, should be verified before being granted access to resources. This approach minimises the risk of internal threats and data breaches.

For businesses, putting zero trust architecture into place can significantly enhance their cybersecurity protocols. It provides an additional layer of security, ensuring every access request is validated, reducing the potential for unauthorised access. Furthermore, as ZTA applies security measures at a granular level, it allows businesses to safeguard sensitive data more effectively, resulting in a more robust and dependable cybersecurity infrastructure.

CREATE A ROBUST PASSWORD POLICY

We’re all a little guilty of being loose with our passwords; we have so many to remember, and we’re forever being asked to change or secure them, and as such, it can become restrictive and difficult to commit them all to memory. But as the cyber criminals get more sophisticated and their password cracking software even more advanced, we need to be extra vigilant with our passwords.

It’s worth investing the time and effort in creating strong passwords. Generally, the longer the series of characters and the bigger the variety of characters (upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation etc.) the more effective a password will be. Don’t hold on to those passwords for too long though; make sure they’re all revisited and updated at regular intervals. Ensure staff aren’t writing them down, texting them or emailing them to themselves as this negates their efficacy and puts the business in jeopardy. The best thing you can do is to use password managers to make everybody’s lives a little easier.

STAY UP-TO-DATE

Probably the most important aspect of protecting your business online is making sure you remain current and up-to-date, both to threats and in the level of security you have online. Updating the operating systems of all devices (including mobile devices) as well as ensuring the latest security patches are applied to all software is critical to keeping your data protected. Don’t neglect your wetware (your brain), as you should also endeavor to stay as informed as possible about the latest potential threats; forewarned is forearmed.