The Short Answer
Short answer: office Christmas party decorations cover four places: the entrance, a photo wall, the stage and the tables. In Ottawa the venue’s rules shape how each one is built.
Candles sit in holders or behind glass, confetti and glitter are often banned, nothing gets fixed to the walls, and the decor goes in and comes out inside a booked window.
What we build for an office Christmas party, and how the night runs from load-in to teardown, is on our service page. Use this one as the checklist to hold any decorator to, us included.
Written by Heba Alfarra, Owner & Lead Designer at Sparkle Events · Last updated
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The Setup
What an office Christmas party decor setup includes
What the venue already puts in the room
Start with the venue’s own list, so you do not pay for anything twice. The Rogers Centre Ottawa’s April 2026 operational guide sets out its standard food and beverage setup: banquet tables and chairs, white linens and napkins, a podium, basic staging, a basic dance floor, a DJ table, and one candle per table.
The Infinity Convention Centre’s standard setup is close to it, and our guide to office Christmas party cost lists what that one covers.
What the decor adds
Neither list includes anything decorative. For a work party, the decor is these pieces:
- The entrance: a welcome sign with the company’s name, and a pair of balloon columns or a garland either side of the door, standing clear of the coat line.
- The photo wall: a backdrop on its own frame, such as a sequin shimmer wall, with light of its own, because a room lit for dinner is not lit for photographs.
- The stage: a backdrop behind the lectern, and the year in light-up marquee numbers along the front if the stage is deep enough to hold them.
- The tables: a low centrepiece, a runner, and printed menu and place cards for a seated dinner.
- The extras: a table for the gifts or the awards, a dessert station, and printed signs for the coat check and the bar.
Office Christmas table decorations start with the size of the round
The table sets the centrepiece. The Infinity Convention Centre seats its main salon at 72-inch rounds for 8 to 10 guests, and its mezzanine at 60-inch rounds for 6 to 8, according to its own FAQ. A centrepiece sized for one looks lost on the other, or crowds the plates. Ask the venue which rounds you are getting before anyone designs the centrepieces.
Keep whatever sits in the middle low enough to talk across, or lift it well above eye level on a tall stand, so nobody has to lean around it to hear the person opposite.
The Rules
Why the venue’s rules shape the decorations
The rules come from two places. The Ontario Fire Code sets a floor for every room in the province, and each venue writes its own on top. This guide reads both: five rules from the Fire Code, and the published rules of the Rogers Centre Ottawa, the Infinity Convention Centre and Ottawa City Hall, all read on October 28, 2026.
A design that breaks a venue rule does not survive the night. The Infinity Convention Centre’s FAQ says it plainly: items it has not approved may be removed. Settle these five before anyone draws a centrepiece.
Candles and open flame
The Ontario Fire Code allows decorative and lighting devices with open flames only in noncombustible holders, placed and protected so that nothing combustible can touch or catch from the flame, unless the use has been approved (Division B, Sentence 2.4.4.1.(3)). In a building used for public assembly, open flames also may not be used in a quantity or manner that creates a fire hazard unless approved.
Venues draw their own line on top of that. The Infinity Convention Centre allows no open flames beyond enclosed votive holders or candles with full hurricane covers. Ottawa City Hall allows no open-flame candles at all, citing the Fire Code. The Rogers Centre Ottawa goes the other way and puts one candle on every table in its standard banquet setup.
So design the centrepiece around a glass holder that takes either a real flame or a battery tea light. If the answer on flame is no, nothing else about the table has to change.
Confetti, glitter and table scatter
The Rogers Centre Ottawa does not permit glitter or confetti, and its guide warns that an additional cleaning fee may apply. The Infinity Convention Centre bans confetti and Mylar sparklers, whether thrown near the venue or placed on the tables. Both rules catch the metallic stars and snowflakes sold for scattering on Christmas tables.
Use pieces guests cannot spread around the room instead: larger ornaments, greenery along the runner, or a garland laid flat down the middle of a long table. If you were planning confetti balloons, ask whether the venue counts them as confetti.
Walls, ceilings and the sprinkler pipes
At the Rogers Centre Ottawa, decor must not be taped, nailed, tacked or otherwise fixed to ceilings, painted surfaces, or decorated walls and columns. Its adhesives section allows painter’s tape, masking tape and fun-tak mounting tabs on walls, after a word with the Event Services Manager.
Anything suspended from the ceiling goes through the venue’s exclusive partner, Encore, and so does any banner above 8 feet. Banner requests are due two weeks before the event.
The same guide requires a fall arrest certificate for any work above 10 feet. The Infinity Convention Centre allows nothing fixed to its walls with nails, staples or adhesives. At City Hall, printed material may not be fixed to walls, pillars or windows, and signs stand on easels or display units with prior approval.
In your own office, the Fire Code adds a rule to know before anyone climbs a ladder. A sprinkler system must not be used to support anything that would interfere with it, and nothing may be placed so that it gets in the way of the water (Sentence 6.5.1.5.). Garland draped over a sprinkler pipe breaks it, and so does a balloon tied to a sprinkler head.
Everything we build as a backdrop stands on its own frame, so no wall, column or ceiling is asked to hold it.
Balloons and helium
The Fire Code bans flammable gases for inflating balloons (Sentence 2.4.5.2.), which is why a party balloon that floats is filled with helium. Even so, the Rogers Centre Ottawa lists helium balloons among the materials that need its prior authorization, and any helium tank brought in has to be chained to a three-wheel dolly before it moves through the building.
Ask before you plan a ceiling of helium balloons. Where the answer is slow or no, choose pieces that stand on the floor, such as giant mirror orb balloons beside the stage.
Exits and exit signs
The Fire Code requires every means of egress to be kept free of obstructions, and every exit sign to stay clearly visible (Sentences 2.7.1.7.(1) and 2.7.3.1.). For decor, that means an entrance arch never stands across a second exit door, a photo wall never sits in front of one, and no garland hangs over an exit sign.
The Rogers Centre Ottawa asks for a floor plan drawn to scale no later than 30 days before the event, showing aisle widths and the distances between the stage, other structures, the walls and the seating. A photo wall and a balloon arch belong on that plan.
In and Out
How load-in and teardown work at an Ottawa venue
The access window is on the contract
The decor goes in during a window you book, and the venue keeps the clock. The Infinity Convention Centre gives access for the start and end times on your booking contract. Earlier access for decor setup can be added, subject to availability, and a rental charge may apply.
It takes two or three boxes up to 24 hours ahead, larger shipments only at the contracted start, and everything has to be out by the contracted end.
The Rogers Centre Ottawa runs its loading dock on a schedule and accepts nothing before the contracted move-in time; unexpected deliveries are turned away. Materials come in through the Nicholas Street loading dock, never through a public entrance, a passenger elevator or an escalator, and vehicles leave as soon as they are unloaded.
Venues vet the suppliers, too
The Infinity Convention Centre asks every outside contractor, decorators, DJs and florists alike, for a certificate of insurance showing $2,000,000 in liability coverage with the centre named as additionally insured, a credit card a week before the event, a reference from a comparable facility, and a business licence. Give the event coordinator your suppliers’ names early, so none of that is left for the week of the party.
Working back from a December date
Put together, the published deadlines at these three venues run like this:
- 30 days before: the floor plan, with the decor drawn on it, at the Rogers Centre Ottawa.
- Two weeks before: banner hanging requests at the Rogers Centre, and the final event details at City Hall.
- One week before: the suppliers’ credit card on file at the Infinity Convention Centre.
- The day: the build inside the access window, and the teardown before the contracted end. City Hall disposes of anything left behind within 24 hours.
The date itself comes first. December 2026 leaves four realistic nights, and our guide on when to book an office Christmas party explains why.
Teardown the same night
Rentals come back with us: tables, columns, numbers and backdrops are delivered, set up and collected. Balloon work is built for your event and does not return to our stock, so put its removal on the quote as a line of its own if you want the room cleared of it. Plan on the same night, because a December room is often booked again the next day.
When the party is in your own office
An office has no event services manager, so you hold the window yourself. Find out when the building lets suppliers in after hours, whether the freight elevator has to be booked, who signs them in at security, and when the room has to be back in working order. Then send us those four answers with the floor plan.
Themes
Christmas themes that fit the rules
Black and gold, winter white and your company’s own colours all work inside every rule above, because none of them depends on a live flame, a scatter or a nail. Red, green and gold works too, as long as the shine comes from metallic balloons, mirror finishes and ornaments rather than glitter.
Ten themes, each with what it needs the room to allow, are in our office Christmas party ideas guide. If you are still choosing the room, our guide to Christmas party venues in Ottawa shows which ones arrive dressed for December, and our comparison of banquet halls in Ottawa sets out when a decorator can get into each hall.
For a mixed team, winter white or the company palette marks the season without centring one holiday. We work in English and Arabic, and printed signs can carry both.
Questions
Office Christmas party decorations, answered
How do you decorate a Christmas event?
Read the venue’s decor rules first, then dress four places: the entrance, a photo wall, the stage and the tables. The rules come before the design because each one changes it. A ban on open flame changes the centrepiece, a ban on wall fixings means every backdrop stands on its own frame, and the access window decides how much can be built at all.
What are some good Christmas themes to decorate an office?
Black and gold, winter white, your company’s own colours, or traditional red, green and gold. All four work inside the rules Ottawa venues publish, as long as the sparkle comes from metallic balloons, mirror finishes and ornaments rather than glitter or confetti, which the Rogers Centre Ottawa does not permit at all.
Can we use real candles at an office Christmas party in Ottawa?
It depends on the room. The Ontario Fire Code allows decorative open flames only in noncombustible holders, placed and protected so nothing combustible can catch, unless the use is approved.
Venues add their own rules: the Infinity Convention Centre allows only enclosed votives or candles with full hurricane covers, Ottawa City Hall allows no open-flame candles, and the Rogers Centre Ottawa puts one candle on each table in its standard banquet setup.
Is confetti allowed at Ottawa event venues?
Often not. The Rogers Centre Ottawa does not permit glitter or confetti and says an extra cleaning fee may apply. The Infinity Convention Centre bans confetti and Mylar sparklers, whether thrown near the venue or placed on the tables. Ask your venue before you buy table scatter, and ask whether a confetti-filled balloon counts.
Can we hang decorations from the ceiling in our office?
Not from the sprinkler system. The Ontario Fire Code says a sprinkler system must not be used to support anything that would interfere with it, and nothing may be placed so it blocks the water. Check with your building before anything goes on the ceiling grid, and keep garland off exit signs, which the Fire Code requires to stay clearly visible.
How early can a decorator get into the venue?
At the time on your contract, unless you book more. The Infinity Convention Centre gives access for the start and end times on the booking contract and can add earlier access for decor setup, subject to availability and with a possible rental charge. The Rogers Centre Ottawa accepts nothing at its loading dock before the contracted move-in time and turns unexpected deliveries away.
How do you make an office party look expensive on a budget?
Spend on the places people photograph and leave the rest of the room alone. A lit photo wall and a dressed stage do more than a little decor on every surface. Fewer, larger pieces read as designed, and a single rental piece, such as light-up marquee numbers with the year, can be booked on its own, delivered, set up and collected.
What are the different types of event decorations?
For a work party, six kinds: structural pieces such as backdrops, arches and columns; balloon work; florals and greenery; table decor, meaning centrepieces, runners and linens; lighting; and printed pieces such as welcome signs, menus and place cards. Venues treat them differently. Helium balloons need prior authorization at the Rogers Centre Ottawa, for example, while a printed sign on an easel needs only approval at City Hall.
Where This Came From
Every rule, from its own source
Each rule was read on October 28, 2026 in its publisher’s own text. The Fire Code references are to Division B of Ontario Regulation 213/07. Venues revise their guides, so ask yours for the current version before you plan around any of these.
- Government of Ontario: Fire Code, O. Reg. 213/07, consolidation from January 1, 2026
- Rogers Centre Ottawa: Operational Guide, April 2026 (PDF)
- Infinity Convention Centre: FAQs
- City of Ottawa: City Hall terms and conditions for use of public space