A third of Russian companies have abandoned New Year's corporate parties in 2025

In 2025, 35% of Russian companies do not plan to hold New Year's corporate events. These are the data from a study conducted by the consulting company get experts in late November and early December. The company's analysts told about this in an interview with Izvestia on December 16.

"For comparison, in 2023, only 5% of employers announced their refusal from corporate events. More than half (57%) of those who opted out of the holiday cited cost optimization as the reason. 55% of employers have plans to organize holiday activities. Among them, 24% of companies allocated a budget of up to 500 thousand rubles for the event, 32% — from 501 thousand to 1 million rubles," the study said.

In 10% of cases, the budget is 2-5 million rubles, and 4% of companies are willing to spend more than 10 million rubles. The majority of employers (60%) who confirmed the celebration chose an on-site format, and 31% organize it in the office. Almost half (48%) plan to involve remote employees in the celebration in one way or another, mainly by connecting them to an offline event online.

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As for New Year's gifts to employees, 50% of employers plan to give them. The most popular options were gift cards and certificates (13%), branded merch (12%) and sweet sets (7%). At the same time, the share of companies giving gifts has decreased 1.5 times in two years: from 76% in 2023 to 52% in 2024. At the same time, 81% of employers retain the tradition of giving gifts to employees' children, among which sweet sets are the leaders (44%). 48% of companies prepare gifts for key clients and contractors.

Opinions are divided among employees: 40% consider corporate events to be an important part of corporate culture, while for the same 40% they are not important, and 35% would prefer to receive a cash bonus instead of a holiday. The most significant loyalty factor for 54% of professionals is the payment of an annual bonus, while corporate events and gifts were noted by 26% and 20%, respectively. At the same time, 75% of employees would like to receive a bonus from their employer instead of any gift. Among the gifts themselves, gift cards were the most desirable (48%), while sweet sets (55%) and tea or coffee sets (51%) were the most undesirable.

"The management of many companies has been facing the need to optimize budgets for years, largely due to the fact that annual financial plans have not been achieved," Anna Spirina, Marketing, Communications Director and Partner at get experts consulting company, comments on the survey results.

However, in her opinion, such activities are important tools for staff motivation and retention. Transparent internal communication plays a key role in this situation, explaining to employees the reasons for the changes. Handing over the initiative to the teams for organizing low-budget holiday formats can help maintain the atmosphere and trust, which is especially important in the candidate's labor market.

December 27, labor law expert, lawyer hh.ru Tatiana Nechaeva told Izvestia when she could be fired for an "alcoholic article." According to her, 31% of employed Russians admitted that at least one New Year's corporate event in their career did not go according to plan. In 24% of cases, this was due to the fact that many employees had had too much alcohol.

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