The Christmas and New Year holidays are exciting times for us all. It’s a happy time when we all come together for parties, corporate events, markets, pantos, concerts, light switch ons and community events. But with so many events happening at the same time, it’s essential that yours will stand out in some way.
Luckily you don’t need to have a huge budget to inject extra life into any event and make every Christmas fayre, festival or party shine. Professional special effects devices can generate atmospheric effects that will create the kind of thrills that will inspire and delight your guests. Special effects aren’t just for big sporting events or concerts and you can hire and buy smaller and handheld special effects equipment that’ll create visual excitement even if your Christmas event is running on a modest budget.
Here are our favourite effects that’ll help make your Christmas and New Year celebrations shine whatever your budget.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
The one weather condition we most associate with the Christmas holiday season is the one weather condition we never actually get! But don’t worry, even if the weather refuses to play ball, you can create it yourself with a Snow Machine. All the thrill of realistic snow but without the cold – a perfect compromise! Father Christmas will love it and so will the children who are waiting to visit his grotto. The downside may be that these devices use fluids so you need to be prepared for slippy floors or find another way of creating snow effects.
Paper snow
Not quite as realistic as the snow from a snow machine, but it’s less slippery, snow confetti will enthrall your visitors too. Flung high into the air from a confetti blaster, it’ll float over the crowd. Alternatively, you can make it more localised and directional with handheld confetti cannons. Confetti makes everyone smile… and it looks great on the photos your guests are bound to share on social media!
Bursts of confetti snow would be a great way of highlighting visits from Santa and getting the kids even more excited. The MagicFX Powershot can be programmed or manually operated, with confetti shooting high into the air at the flick of a switch. Alternatively, with handheld confetti cannons Santa’s little helpers could follow him spreading snow in his path.
Celebrating New Year
Whether you’re tuning in to Big Ben’s bongs or organising your own countdown, the second the New Year begins is always a special moment. There are a number of ways you can bring in the New Year with a bang, such as firing streamers and confetti across the room from confetti machines or streamer canons.
As New Year parties are generally glittering occasions, you can match your confetti to the occasion, either with light-catching metallic confetti or with shiny silver or gold paper confetti (which is biodegradable).
Another fun way to celebrate the moment is with a balloon drop, using the Magic FX Power Drop to release a net full of balloons onto the crowd below.
Filling your dance floor with fog is always a crowd pleaser as it produces such a fantastic atmospheric effect. Fog machines will fill the air with fog where the smoke will play with the lights and lasers, making everything feel much more exciting. Whether you opt for low fog that hugs the floor or jets of smoke that cross the room resulting in dancers being surrounded by haze, there’s bound to be a smoke machine that’s suitable for your venue and your budget.
Making the sparks fly
Bling is a big part of the holidays, and Sparkular machines can add extra sparkle to even the most glittery occasion. Sparkular machines throw out jets of sparks that look like they should be hot, but are actually cold sparks which makes them a lot safer. With lower risks, they’re suitable to be used indoors. With the smaller machines, such as the Mini Sparkular and the handheld Sparkular Blaster, people can get as close as one metre to the sparks, creating a visually exciting look – very show business!
They’re great to use when introducing special guests to your event, they provide a great backdrop for your panto (“it’s behind you!”), New Year’s Eve party or music event, and if you’re hosting special guests, use sparks as a way of adding even more excitement as they walk on to the stage, or walk in to your event.
Bubble tubes
If you’re looking for a fun effect that will provide a spectacle for as long as you need it, placing bubble tubes on display around your event space will attract attention and look fun in people’s photos. Bubble tubes are free standing columns of water with a constant stream of bubbles rising from the bottom to the top. They’re illuminated by coloured LEDs which means you can have whatever colour you want, enabling you to match the special effects to the theme of the event, or have them in your company’s colours.
Hire or buy your special effects
If you want to dry hire the equipment, or prefer the support of our professional team to install and operate the equipment, we can help you create the perfect holiday event.
Our wide range of special effects are suitable for all types of Christmas and New Year parties and events from confetti blasters, smoke machines, Sparkulars, bubble tubes, and much more, so there’s bound to be something that’ll suit you. Visit our shop to buy streamers, confetti, confetti cannons, and accessories, or contact us for a chat about your plans to explore ways in which we can help enhance your event with atmospheric effects.
