Where to Have Your Company Christmas Party in Kansas City

The hotel ballroom is always available. Here is the case for booking somewhere your team actually remembers, and why whoever is planning it should start now.

Someone at your company got handed the Christmas party. Possibly you.

The default options announce themselves immediately. A hotel ballroom with a carpet pattern designed to hide spills. A chain restaurant’s back room with a $70-per-head prix fixe and a server who interrupts the toast. A conference room with catering trays and the overhead lights on.

All three are bookable right now. None of them are why anyone tells a story about the Christmas party in March.

Here is a different shape for it, and the honest version of how it works.

You don’t have to rent anything

Most venue pages give you one option: book it or don’t come. We do it two ways, and the first one costs nothing to reserve.

Semi-private tables in the taproom. For most groups this is the answer. We reserve a block of tables inside for your party on the night you want. No rental fee, no room minimum, no contract. The rest of the taproom stays open around you, which suits a company party better than an empty room does, and it means we are glad to host you on a weeknight and make our money at the bar instead of charging you for the space.

One scheduling note: semi-private bookings run weekdays only, and not Wednesdays, because Wednesday is trivia night and the room is already full. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday are wide open in December.

The Backyard, privately. Our beer garden can be booked as a private space, weather permitting, at $150 an hour on weekdays and $250 on weekends, four-hour minimum. We keep heaters and a fire table out there, so on a mild December evening it is genuinely the best part of the night. More on the weather reality below, because December in Kansas City is December in Kansas City.

Not sure which fits? Tell us your date and headcount and we will tell you honestly which makes more sense. Either way, we hold up to 80 people.

Bar packages, built around your budget

This is the part most people want sorted first, so let’s start here. Every package comes with a dedicated bartender for your group who is your point of contact for the whole night. Pick the structure that fits how you want to handle the tab:

Per guest, per hour. A flat rate per person for each hour of the party. Everything is covered, nobody reaches for a wallet, and you know the full number before anyone arrives.

Pre-paid drink tickets, then cash bar. Hand everyone a set number of drinks on the company, and once the tickets run out the bar goes to cash. Beer tickets run $6. This is the option most companies land on, because it caps the company’s spend without cutting the night short.

Open bar on your card. A running tab billed to the host at the end of the night. Simple, generous, and easy if you would rather not count tickets.

Cash bar. Everyone buys their own, with a $500 minimum bar spend across the group. No commitment beyond that, and no risk of overshooting.

Every option runs the full menu: seven flagship beers, hard ciders, hard seltzers, and cocktails, plus house-made sparkling lemonade and sodas so whoever is driving still gets handed something worth holding. We are adding to the non-alcoholic list, so ask what is on when you book.

One planning note: we ask for about two weeks’ notice to guarantee bartender staffing for your date. Smaller groups, under roughly twenty to thirty people, we can usually do on shorter notice. Call and ask.

Food: bring anyone, or let us connect you

We don’t have a kitchen. That’s the feature.

Because we don’t cook, we can’t lock you into a menu, a per-head minimum, or a caterer taking a cut. And with no room rental on top of it, the math gets even friendlier. Two ways to handle it:

Use our catering partners. We work with people across barbecue, pizza, tacos, and full-service catering, and we’ll put you in touch directly. They know the space, they know the load-in, and they’ve done December here before.

Or bring whoever you want. Kansas City barbecue, which is the correct answer and everyone knows it. A taco truck out front. Pizza delivered to the tables. A full-service caterer for something formal. Or an honest spread from a grocery deli, if the budget is tight and nobody is pretending otherwise.

No cake-cutting fee, no dessert minimum, no corkage games. Bring the cookies somebody’s mother made.

Dietary restrictions become your call rather than a negotiation, which is worth something when you have a vegan, a celiac, and someone who doesn’t eat pork on the same invite list.

The space, honestly

Inside: the taproom. Brick walls, the brewhouse fermenters visible behind the bar, and a room that already looks like somewhere. That matters more than people account for. A ballroom needs decorating before it stops feeling like a ballroom. This doesn’t. Your tables are held for you and the bar is right there.

Outside: The Backyard. Our beer garden is one of the best patios in the Crossroads, and it can be yours privately, weather permitting. We keep heaters and a fire table out there to make it comfortable, and on a mild December evening it’s the best seat in the district.

We’ll be straight with you though: this is Kansas City in December, and some nights it’s just cold. The heaters help, they don’t work miracles. If your date lands mild, the patio is a real event space. If it doesn’t, you have the taproom, warm and ready, either way.

Talk to us about your date and we’ll tell you what’s realistic rather than selling you an outdoor party in a Kansas City winter.

You barely have to decorate

Small thing, but it saves whoever’s organizing a Saturday of their life.

The string lights are already up, year-round. The mural wall is already there. The brick already looks like brick. Most of what a company spends making a rented room feel festive is spent making it feel like anything at all, and that work is done here before you arrive.

Bring a tree if you want one. Bring the banner, the inflatable thing from the office, the terrible sweater. The walls hold tape and lights without complaint. We just ask it all comes down at the end of the night.

Book now, not in December

December dates go early, and the good ones go first.

The first two weekends of December are peak, after Thanksgiving clears and before people scatter. If your team wants the patio on one of those dates, have the conversation now, because they fill first.

Here’s the good news if you’re reading this in a hurry: December weeknights are wide open, and a semi-private table booking costs nothing to reserve. No rental fee at all. A Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday party often runs better anyway. People come straight from work, nobody surrenders a Saturday, and it ends at an hour that doesn’t wreck the next day.

If your team would rather not give up a December weekend evening, a weeknight isn’t the compromise. It’s the better plan.

What it costs

Semi-private tables in the taproom: no rental fee, no room minimum. You pay for drinks through whichever bar package you pick, and for whatever food you bring. That’s it. Reach out with your date and headcount and we’ll hold the tables. Weekdays, up to 80 people.

The Backyard, privately: $150 an hour on weekdays, $250 on weekends, four-hour minimum, weather permitting. Holds up to 80, seated and standing combined.

Set that against a hotel. Packages routinely quote $75 to $100 per person, all in. Book semi-private tables here and the space costs you nothing. What you would have handed the hotel for the room funds a hosted bar instead, with plenty left over.

The awards bit, handled

Every company party has the moment: the year in review, the slideshow, the award for whoever did the thing back in March.

There’s a projector screen for it, plus a sound system and a microphone for toasts. Wi-Fi reaches the whole space if someone’s presenting or dialing in a remote colleague.

Why the Crossroads works for a work party

Nobody has to drive home. Walking distance from most downtown hotels, the Main Street streetcar stops nearby, rideshare drops at the door. For a company party where alcohol is involved, this isn’t a minor point. It’s arguably the whole thing.

The night can continue. When the party ends, the neighborhood doesn’t. Restaurants, bars, and galleries are within a few blocks, so whoever wants to keep going can, and whoever wants to leave can do it without it being A Thing.

Free street parking for anyone who does drive, with paid lots within a block.

The photos won’t look like a Marriott. The mural wall outside is one of the most-photographed backdrops in the district, and it’s twenty feet from the door.

Not just office parties

The same setup handles most of December:

• Client and customer appreciation nights, lower key than a party, higher value than a card
• Friendsgiving and holiday get-togethers for groups too big for anyone’s apartment
• Team dinners for companies wanting something between a meeting and a party
• Non-profit and board year-end gatherings
• Family holiday parties, kids are welcome, and there’s house-made lemonade and sodas for anyone not drinking

How to book

Send four things: your date, a rough headcount, what you’re celebrating, and a start and end time. That’s enough for us to tell you whether semi-private tables will do it or whether you want The Backyard, and what it’ll cost.

We come back within a business day with availability and a quote.

Give us about two weeks so we can guarantee bartender staffing. Smaller groups we can often turn around faster.

Walk the space if the group’s over fifty. Twenty minutes now beats improvising on the night.

Then you show up and somebody else runs the bar. The full mechanics are in our private events guide.

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Get your December date

See the space and send your date →

Call 816-469-5287, you’ll be talking to Eric, not an events coordinator.

Visit the taproom, 512 E 18th Street, Kansas City, MO 64108, at 18th & Locust.

Related reading

• How to Book a Private Event at Border Brewing, the full process, start to finish.
• The Backyard, our beer garden, and what it’s like the rest of the year.
• Our Craft Beers, what’ll be pouring at your party.
• Breweries in Kansas City: A Local’s Guide, where Border fits in the KC beer scene.